The BEST can opener IMO is the one from Pampered Chef. The first one I had lasted for about 20 years! It recently crapped out. I bought one from Walmart (name brand) that did not work well at all. So I ordered another one from Pampered Chef.
Thanks. I’ll keep that name in mind in case my currently good one suffers an untimely death.
You seem pretty attached to that thing. I’d buy a spare or two if I were you.
I bought one of those ones that pulls the whole top off rather than the old style that cuts out the inside of the top and leaves a sharp edge. It takes like five tries to work though and I hate it. I only have to open like three cans a year though.
I have one of those and I hater that MFer.
mmm
I recommend the OXO version of the one you guys have; it works great.
OXO anything is going to be great! Quality products all.
I agree about OXO generally but I do have the OXO version of the can opener. Maybe it’s user error.
Two cooking related ones:
Last Christmas, my FIL gave us a toaster oven / air fryer / rotisserie. I was skeptical at first (and partially correct). It is used daily as a toaster (and a regular toaster works better). It is used almost daily as an air-fryer. It is used every other week or so as a rotisserie. Trust me - the only way to have a beef roast.
Then, for Father’s Day, my family gave me a propane griddle. Not a grill, a flat-top. Again, a bit skeptical on how much it would be used. Yeah, the obvious is you can do bacon and pancakes at the same time. I’ve actually found it’s GREAT for zucchini / squash; I can do breaded eggplant quicker and less oil than in a pan. There’s still something about grilled steaks/hamburgers/etc., but I’ve done some good chicken breasts on the flattop.
On that note… a mulching mower was far more useful than I ever imagined. Growing up, our mower had a side chute where clippings shot out, and we could attach a bag to it if we wanted to. But being in Houston, where it was both hot and relatively rainy, bagging was a major chore, and I usually just let the clippings shoot out and then just sort of went back and raked them out of being windrows that would kill the grass.
I was sure a mulching mower would just bog down in grass like that. But I was pleasantly surprised at how useful they are- no need to actually bag grass, rake leaves, etc… just mow over it all, and it ends up being mulch/fertilizer/compost for the grass and trees.
Another one is the bottle-washing nozzles on our dishwasher top rack. I was sure they were going to be a rather useless feature, but it turns out they’re stellar for getting up into pitchers, water bottles, deep pans, etc…
How do the bottle-washing nozzles work? Or can you tell me the model number of your dishwasher? I want to look at the product sheet or manual. (Just curious how this would work.)
It’s a KitchenAid KDPE334GPS0.
Here’s an example of the bottle-washing feature:
and a bigger version of the image (you can see how they rotate up and spray the inside of the bottle):
Wrap-Tastic plastic wrap dispenser. It really works as advertised.
To the inevitable naysayers- yes, I looked for a brand with the slide cutter on the box. I have found none locally, and I don’t have a Costco membership. The 200+ mile round trip to the nearest Costco negates any advantages it may have.
I feel a lot less crazy now! I had the same thing, and I even bought good ones, not just cheapie dollar store versions. This was pre-covid too, so no (apparent) excuses for crap materials.
I too found one that works like it ought to, and am babying the thing 
I agree about the mulching mower. I’ve used mine for over 20 years and wouldn’t go back to a regular one. Mine has a flip-over handle too, which are almost impossible to find now. I don’t look forward to when I have to replace this one.
I make plastic models and a tool that I’ve seen a lot of in modelling mags are punch and die tools, used for punching shapes out of plastic card. I was skeptical about the need for this sort of thing, but finally decided to buy a couple (one for round discs, one for hex shapes) and they are da bomb! I used the hex tool to make bolt heads for the visible ends of the track retention bolts missing from the track links on a model Kettenkrad - 88 identical hex bolt heads in about an hour, and the assembled track looks fantastic! (Yes I have AMS - Advanced Modeller Sysndrome.)
Mine is this guy, Farberware.
Oh this is the type I’m talking about. (I didn’t know I couldn’t copy a picture here but anyway that’s a link to the oxo website.)
That’s the exact one that I have and I am simply incapable of making it work well.
I discovered the problem with that kind of opener the first time I opened a can of tuna with it. I use the top of the can to squeeze out the excess water, and you can’t do that with a can opened that way. Since tuna is a significant portion of the cans I open, that opener got pushed to the back of the drawer, and I think I gave it away last time we moved.
I also have the OXO smooth edge opener and I love it.
My old opener finally died so I looked around and found that the OXO was rated the best, so I bought it. My wife could never get it to work so hates me, and I have to try three times to get the thing to properly grasp the can ledge. Once you catch it, the can opener works but I hate the thing.