Moonraker wrote
Rod Speed wrote
The Natural Philosopher wrote
Adrian C wrote
robgraham wrote

I know it's not strictly DIY, but I'm tasked with getting them apart !

Two bowls on the same diameter and are well wedged together
slightly at an angle. I wonder if they been taken out of the
dishwasher hot by one of the members of the family and have
effectively 'shrunk' together, but they certainly won't come apart.

Any ideas - I've tried hot water and then the deep freeze without success - maybe significant oven heat ?

Fill water in the gap, then place in the deep freeze?

AAA+. TNP's award for the most creative and practical idea to date.

Nope, the most practical is to try another cycle thru the dishwasher first.

It remains to be seen if the gap can actually be filled with water.

As an aside my wife bottles loads of fruit - and can never open the lids!

I have discovered that a blunt knife inserted op top of the rubber seal, from the side, can be used to compress it
enough to break the seal..

I have a different problem. I reuse commercial marmalade jars for my
own marmalade, basically because they stopped making the lemon and
lime marmalade that I prefer. I put the marmalade in the jars when its very hot indeed, after its been boiling to
make it set. The lids are metal, but have a plastic liner where the inside the lid meets the rim of the glass jar.
Can be a real bugger to get those off.

The only thing that works very well is those strap wrench things
that are designed for getting lids off but even those can be a real
gut busting exercise.

The other lid 'wrenches' that are metal that go across the lid diameter rather than around the circumference do work
but ruin the lid, it cant be reused.

Guess I could change over to the sort of jars you use, but I get the box of limes from the packing shed thats the
only one in the area that does limes, for peanuts and need 100 600g jars. I do have 150 of those and
your type of jar is much too big for marmalade with the jars that you
can get at times in garage/yard sales, so I would have to buy some
of the smaller ones you dont see in garage/yard sales at all, so that
approach isnt very practical in my case.

I also use commercial marmalade jars, I find if I cut a piece of
Greaseproof paper to slightly larger than the lid then fix the lid on
top the vacuum cause by the hot marmalade cooling seals the jars fine.

I dont have a problem with the seal, thats the problem, they seal
so well that they are very difficult to get off. The very ocassional
one that hasnt sealed for some reason comes off easily.

Maybe you mean that the paper allows the lid to slide over
the glass rim easier. I'll try that the relish that I'll have to make
soon that goes in the same jars and has the same problem.

On further thought, that isnt a problem with the original commercial
marmalade, those arent too hard for non arthritics to open.

Presumably they just apply the lid when its cooled down a bit,
but when its still warm enough to still give a good vacuum seal.

The relish that I also used to buy before they stopped making the
best I could find did have that problem with getting the lids off, so
presumably its just the temperature at the time the lid is applied.

Should try a post in one of the food groups or fora etc I spose.

I have kept my marmalade for well over a year this way, and it is fine when I come to use it.

I need mine to last 3 years, because I start with a box of limes
and get them dirt cheap beause I do. The price of those in the
supermarket and vary by 10:1 here, mostly seasonally.

Of course if you are feeling flush you can buy jam jars and lids from Lakeland, not cheap though.

Yeah, thats what I meant with my previous comment.

I kept saving the commercial marmalade jars, and when
I was getting up around 200, did wonder if there was any
point in keeping so many. Then they stopped making the
marmalade I liked best and I couldnt find any that I like
much and was very happy that I had saved so many.

Both the marmalade and relish are much better than
any of the commercial stuff, I'm sorry I didnt do it earlier.