Ever Had Trouble With Childproof Caps?

Now, I’ve never had trouble with those childproof "push down and turn" caps you find on things like medicine bottles, household products etc.

Until today.

I buy a bottle of Dr Magic Double Action Foam Unblocker for my kitchen sink (which didn’t do much by the way, try the Mr. Muscle one instead). No matter how much I try to "push down and turn", the damn thing won’t open!

Either these childproof caps are getting tougher to open or my ability to open things is declining with age. 'Coz trust me, they’re not just childproof any more, they’re friggin' army proof!

I swear it was a defective cap or something, because I was able to open the various other bottles around the house which had EXACTLY the same safety caps.

Frustrated, I reached out to the online community which offered the following solutions:

1) SQUEEZE the cap, whilst pushing down and turning. Quite how people accomplish that, I don’t know. I did try, to no avail.

2) Use a pair of pliers to squeeze the cap while you turn it.

Whilst I was searching for a solution, a lot of people were asking how to remove tricky jar lids as well. Some were proposing the use of pliers for them too, but this I can actually help you out with: just place the jar over a hob flame for like 10 seconds and voila! You loosen the jar lid. Thank you, thermal expansion.

But back to the tricky plastic crap cap…well I didn’t have a pair of pliers handy. So instead I punctured the damn bottle with a pair of scissors (I DO NOT recommend this, as the product was actually labelled "corrosive") and squeezed the product out that way. Luckily, I was supposed to use the entire contents of the bottle in one sitting anyway.

From now on, any bottle or cleaning product that comes with a safety cap, I’m gonna test out if I can actually open it whilst I'm still in the damn shop aisle!

Update: How bizarre for me to come across this particular gadget whilst out browsing the shops recently… it definitely could have come in handy in this situation!