There are several kitchen tools out there designed to help open problematic vacuum-sealed jar lids. For most of them, it’s all about gripping the lid securely and boosting your leverage, so you can open it with less effort. Then, there’s the simpler JarKey, which uses a bottle opener-style wedge to simply break the vacuum seal. The Hard Crafts Unlipop works much like the latter, albeit with a pliers form factor to provide an even more ergonomic grip.
With the JarKey, you have to hold the jar tight with your other hand while you pry the lid, which is simple enough. However, this tool’s pliers style design simplifies things further by securing the lid with its jaws before prying the side of the lid to break the vacuum seal, so you don’t have to hold down the jar with your other hand to use it.
The Hard Crafts Unlipop is a single-purpose kitchen tool designed to break the vacuum seal in jars, releasing the pressure to make the lid easier to twist off. To use, you simply pick up the tool, insert the bottom of the jaw under the lid, and squeeze on the handles. That’s it. Performing that action, should put enough pressure to adequately pry the lid and break the vacuum seal. You’ll still have to turn the lid to complete opening the jar, but without the seal, it should open with very minimal effort.
The pliers form factor makes it compatible with any size of jar, allowing you to easily unseal big and small containers alike. That means, it should work just as well with that small jar of chili oil as it does with the large jar of dill pickles you like to take home from the local grocery. According to the outfit, it won’t damage lids, either. As such, they remain resealable and leakproof, so you can lock all the contents back in and maintain the food’s freshness the whole time.
The Hard Crafts Unlipop isn’t just useful with sealed jars, it also incorporates a few other functions. For instance, you can use the same prying jaw to pop off bottle caps for your beer and soda, while an extra tab below the jaw lets you open pull-tab lids without any effort. The handle, which comes covered in grippy silicone, can also be used to wrap on twist-off bottle caps (e.g. medicine bottles, some sodas) for added grip when opening.
Construction is food-grade aluminum with a silicone grip, so this should hold up for many years of use in the kitchen. It’s dishwasher-safe, too, so you can just throw it in with the rest of the dirty dishes if it needs cleaning. Each one, by the way, comes with an optional wall mount, giving you an easy way to store it. Truth be told, though, it doesn’t look all that secure balancing on a hook, so you might want to just throw it in a drawer, along with the rest of your kitchen tools.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Hard Crafts Unlipop. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at just $19.
