A good can opener doesn’t need to be complicated or decked out with fancy features, but it should easily and reliably open cans of all sizes. “Above all, I want a can opener that works every time—I don’t want it to slip as I open the can, and I want it to cut through the lid cleanly,” Emma Christensen, former recipe editor at The Kitchn, told us. Matthew Amster-Burton, the co-host of Spilled Milk, agreed: “Fundamentally, the qualities you want in a can opener are reliability (not falling off the can or leaving an uncut segment), comfort, and ‘leverage,’ i.e., a powerful mechanical advantage.” Most of the pros we spoke to recommended getting a traditional can opener that cuts through the top of the can (that is, not a safety model), because traditional openers last for decades.
