Be Open Bottle Opener

To most, a bottle opener is a bottle opener. They serve one purpose -- to usually open your favorite beverage -- but there is a whole assortment of bottle openers on the market from the traditional handheld bottle opener to wall mounted bottle openers to many different novelty openers. In fact, at Phoronix Media we have even made some of the world's most expensive bottle openers out of computer hardware. Most commonly though is just the traditional handheld bottle opener, which is nice, but can at times be difficult to use with some tightly sealed imports and the openers can easily get lost within a crowded kitchen drawer. One of the alternatives to opening your favorite beer or soda is the Be Open Bottle Opener, which is a truly unique product.

The Be Open Bottle Opener is a spring-loaded bottle opener that will twist and pull the top off most any bottle. All that is required of you is to simply push down on the top of the bottle opener, which then quickly and easily removes the cap. Anzen Markets LLC, which also makes a USB-powered cup warmer, a USB body massager, a golf tool, and other unique and distinguishable products make this easy bottle opener.

Anzen sells the Be Open in white, blue, red, black, and stainless steel models. Additionally, they also offer custom printing options for the Be Open so that you can print your company's logo on the bottle opener for use as a corporate gift or promotional items. Anzen uses screen-printing for the plastic Be Opens, but they even do metal engraving for the stainless steel version. What I had my hands on to review was the white model, which has the Be Open logo printed on the side. This bottle opener arrived in a small vinyl bag with pull-strings at the top. Attached to one of the strings was a piece of paper that showed the definition of open and then the instructions. The instructions for this bottle opener is to grasp the bottle opener in one hand, place the Be Open over the bottle cap and push down, and then to lift the opener straight up from the bottle to release the cap. It is as easy as that. Should you spill any beer on this bottle opener, it can easily be washed in warm water.

The Be Open paper says this product is "for use on soda, beer, and all metal-capped bottles." Unfortunately, from my testing, this was found to quickly not be the case. I started with trying out the Be Open on a bottle of Hoegaarden Witbier from Belgium. The bottle is mostly like any other glass bottle of beer, except its neck is slightly wider in the middle than most. When attempting to use the Be Open, it would fit on the top, but when pushing down on the top, it would not go down all the way and therefore was unable to remove the cap. There was no way around this problem besides using another bottle opener on the Hoegaarden. However, when trying out the Be Open Bottle Opener on bottles of Spaten and Carlsberg, both bottles had opened fine with this Anzen Markets product.

While there was a problem opening one of the bottles, the Be Open is certainly a fascinating product. It makes opening a bottle -- whether it be beer or soda -- extremely easy. While it is not something to take with you, thanks to its larger size it does make it easier to find if you are storing it within a kitchen drawer or elsewhere. The dimensions for this bottle opener are approximately 3.5 inches by 2 inches. Additionally, with the custom printing options offered by Anzen Markets, the Be Open Bottle Opener can make a great gift or promotional item. At only $10 USD this is not a bad deal assuming your favorite beers do not come in bottles with uncommonly shaped necks.