Necessity is the Grandmother of Invention - Jiffy Twist®

My grandmother was from a family of farmers and every fall she would make the best pickles, jams, and sauces. (All canned in Mason jars) Our favorite was the sweet cinnamon spiced apple sauce with big apple chunks, so good! However, Grandma would almost never try to open one of her Mason jars herself, instead she would ask for help. When she did need to open a Mason jar herself, she would use a very old metal lid gripping tool with a handle that had been worn smooth after many years of use. In order to use her jar opening tool Grandma had to hold the jar with one hand to stop it from turning (or spilling), while squeezing the handle of the jar opener, and pushing in the opposite direction at the same time with her other hand. We thought that there had to be something easier, and our search began for a better jar opener. We found a whole host of different kinds of lid gripping tools. Almost of these products accomplished basically the same thing, simply helping the lid not to slip in your hand. Both hands still needed to work in opposite directions (against each other) with a significant amount of strength still being required to open the jar, while trying to be sure not to spill anything in the process. We found kitchen appliances dedicated for opening jars, but they are large, expensive, and do not work well for smaller bottles, jars, prescription bottles, etc. A few other products we found had poor designs which either simply did not work and/or were dangerous with large sharp gripping teeth (accompanied by caution and warning labels) that could easily injure the user. The large gripping teeth often seriously damaged lids or created very dangerous burs on the lids of containers. We didn’t feel that any of these products were good options. Because we already had experience designing and producing innovative, high quality, environmentally friendly, and 100% American Made products for home use, we decided to tackle the problem on our own.

We applied our engineering and design experience to develop a truly novel and unique product which completely solved the problem of opening bottles and jars with twist type lids. By applying mechanical engineering principals, we developed a product which provides tremendous mechanical advantage and generates optimal reaction force consistently for lids of all diameters. The user only needs to twist (no pushing required) while holding the body of the jar or bottle and allowing you to open twist top bottles and jars with extreme ease! We filed and were granted two full utility patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. (2017) Our daughter aptly named our product “Jiffy Twist®” and our trademark was fully registered and granted by the USPTO as well. She has loved using Jiffy Twist® to open water bottles since the age of 5 or 6 years old, along with most of her very young friends. It was always fun to see how proud they were for being able to open their own water bottles and pop bottles so easily and quickly using Jiffy Twist®. The response to Jiffy Twist® has been tremendous and a few years ago we started to receive extremely positive feedback from users of our product who are suffering with arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. A portion of the proceeds from sales of Jiffy Twist® will be provided to the American Arthritis foundation as an ongoing donation to support research for both adult and juvenile arthritis. We also have had a tremendous response from retirees and people with hand problems or recovering from surgery. Jiffy Twist® is designed and manufactured to be a “Commercial Grade” product, well above the normal standard of quality and durability found in most home use items. Our objective is to provide a product that will last a lifetime and would truly be the only bottle and jar opener you will ever need! Jiffy Twist® is 100% Made in the USA, using only the highest quality sustainable materials, with recyclable packaging, with both socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing practices, while giving back to our community.