How to Choose an Electric Can Opener
If your family isn’t large, and all sorts of preserves, marinades and canned drinks don’t appear on your table often, having a couple of classic manual can openers in the kitchen is enough – one for tins, another for bottles. But, if you often have to deal with opening this and that canned products, electric opener is your functional and ergonomic «magic wand».
Working with an electric opener, user doesn’t have to put absolutely any effort. As a rule, caps and corks are cut off with one press of a button.
Classic electrical can opener mechanism makes the device cling to the can’s side and cut off the cap under its rim. Bottles are opened by clinging to the cork and then uplifting it.
Functions
Electrical openers can be specialized (which makes them similar to the majority of manual openers), be able to perform only a particular task (for example, open bottles or cans), and be poly-functional. If manual multi-functional opener is usually not very handy and mostly used when going camping, high-quality poly-functional electric openers have ergonomic aspect and perfectly open both cans and bottles.
Knives in poly-functional openers are usually able to change their working angle (as products that need to be opened can be of different forms), and what’s more important, electrical openers are adapted for caps and corks of different sizes. High-quality openers’ manuals always include ranges of these sizes.
Set
The majority of modern electrical openers have magnet cap holders. It is very convenient for openers that are designed for cans. This holder doesn’t allow the «omnipresent» cap accidentally (or under the force of the opener itself) fall to the can’s bottom. Of course, it is not so important for small cans, but if we’re speaking about canning in large jars, the importance of such holder increases thoroughly.
Many openers have built-in knife-sharpener that works on electric drive, which is also very handy, as such opener is purchased for long-time use. But be sure to check if the guide head of the knife-sharpener is removable, otherwise it will be very hard to clean it.
Some electrical openers have a special neck ring (so called «wine collar»).
In this case, electrical opener turns into an ideal corkscrew.
Power
Modern electrical can openers usually have 30-50 W power. As written here, it’s quite enough for home use.
More powerful electrical openers are reasonable to purchase only for professional use (bars, restaurants), where there is a constant flow of cans and bottles, and products should be opened very quickly.
Body and Working Element Material
Modern electrical openers can have both metallic and plastic body. The first variant is the most preferential one. Even though it’s a metallic element-opener that works with caps or cans and not a body, only thus you can be sure that the opener is really durable.
It’s also preferable for the metal to be stainless steel. Where there are bottles, there is liquid. So having protection from corrosion is really important.
The most important thing is that the working element (knife) should be made of stainless steel.
Safety
High-quality electrical opener usually has hidden blades (knives), automatic turn-off system, and it turns on only when the handle-knife holder is pressed.
Supply
The majority of electrical openers work from AA type batteries. On one hand, it is handy, but when taking such an electrical opener for a camping trip, it’s important to take additional batteries. Otherwise you can literally be left without breakfast.
