How to open a can of Fix-a-Flat
March 12th, 2025 at 9:59 pm (Technology)
So you have a flat tire and want to try out Fix-a-Flat, a spray can that claims to seal and re-inflate your tire for temporary use until it can be repaired. Your first and biggest challenge is… how to get the cap off.
You squeeze and fiddle and twist and squeeze some more, with no success. You then go to the Internet and discover that this is such a common problem that the Fix-a-Flat website (but NOT the can) comes with instructions on how to get the cap off. They recommend wedging the can under a non-flat tire for leverage so you can wiggle the cap off.
“Sometimes our Fix-a-Flat caps suffer from separation anxiety and don’t want to come off.”
It turns out, this works. It would have been nicer if they’d designed a cap that could be removed with human hands, which seems like a well solved problem. But I guess if you ever encounter another kind of problematic cap, you could try this technique there!