Cost of beans: 50p. Cost of can opener: £25 (Culinare One Touch Automatic Can Opener)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	Culinare One Touch Automatic Can Opener
Date:	27/01/09 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Opens tins if you're an idiot like me or have hand problems

Disadvantages: Very expensive, not as quick as I thought, more dangerous than I thought

The Culinare One Touch Can Opener is one of those kitchen gadgets that you don't really need as such, but look kind of cool.

I'm left handed and also not very good at practical things, so opening cans can be a bit of a nightmare for me. Ring pull cans are fast increasing on supermarket shelves, but is it just me or do ring pull cans seem to cost more? I have been known to struggle for 20 minutes trying to open a can of tuna, like a rather frustrated cat. This resulted in a very mangled tin, a cut finger and tuna juice leaking everywhere. Not pleasant!

So I was intrigued by this automatic can opener lark and just had to try it. It's not the cheapest can opener ever - expect to pay between £20-30 for it (!) - I think this would appeal more to those with an actual physical disability in that respect, rather than idiots like me who just can't open cans.

The can opener itself is quite big and chunky - I'd say about twice the length of your average can lid, and a good hand full width wise! It's not particularly heavy, but you can tell it's good quality.

To use it you just press the button on it (after charging), place over your can lid and ease it round the top slowly as it cuts the tin open. It's very loud, and sounds like a quiet lawnmower or a large swarm of bees in an acute state of distress. It did take longer than I expected, probably a good 15-30 seconds (but shorter than 20 minutes eh?!). It removes the lid completely and holds it via a strong magnet.

After using it we had a bit of a problem trying to turn it off - the tin lid kept spinning around still attached to the magnet! But once we'd successfully turned it off, it also took a bit more effort to figure out how to get the lid safely detached from the magnet.

Overall I would say that if you're a normal tin opener, this isn't going to be a whole lot of use to you as all in all it probably isn't much quicker. I would also not recommend children use this as the tin and lid are still sharp and it would make a very good weapon - accidentally or otherwise! If you're into recycling as I am, you're going to end up with more sharp edges than if you carefully fold the semi-detached lid into the can as I do, unless of course you just throw the lid away.

Summary: There's got to be something better!