Semi OT: Can Openers

[Fasttrack]

H-mmm. Is it the only carbon steel utensil you have the rusting problem with?
If your water is salty, maybe it makes sense to flash he opener with distilled water prior to drying. Then can also wipe it with vegetable oil for extra protection.

Pretty much everything corrodes. Aluminum baking sheets get some funky oxidation when run through the dishwasher, the chrome plated utensils stay shiny for a few months and then rust "pustules" start to poke through the chrome finish. Anything that is not chromed, rusts immediately. The pivots on can openers seem to be carbon steel and that is what rusts up and then the can opener is hard to use. After that, the gears start rusting. The blades on the better ones (Kitchenaid, Oxo) are stainless and don't seem to rust.

[RichR]

Based on that I'm going to suggest that maybe you don't have a can opener problem but possibly a water chemistry problem.

[MichaelP]

Yes, it sure sounds like it. But if the water is really salty, I don't know how to remedy this economically.

Reverse osmosis (and, especially, distillation) would take care of salt, but it's a lot of water to process. Besides, pure RO water (as well as the distilled water I recommended above) is quite corrosive itself due to its low pH. Not as corrosive as salty water, and most likely, you won't notice the effect if you use it for final flushing, but if used continuously, it's better to be buffered a bit. In any case, this approach is not particularly economic anyway.

I wonder where your water is coming from. Any option to switch the source?

[TriHonu]

You could try a commercial opener.

http://www.webstaurantstore.com

[Jim2]

Maybe it's the dishwasher?

We had a rather generic looking can opener like was pictured earlier in the thread--though I'm too lazy to seek it out now. It developed those same rusty nodules through the chrome that you're describing, and eventually it was destroyed. What we've done is that we simply don't put those types of utensils into the dishwasher. If it isn't solid stainless or nylon or plastic (in other words chrome-plated stuff), it gets washed separately and never sees the inside of the dishwasher. Sure a pain, but have had the same can opener, turner, spatula for many years now with no signs of deterioration.

Jim