Bench capper. Suspect leaking bottle caps?

[flars]

Just a tip for using a bench capper. Bottles are slightly different heights. Pressure is no longer exerted on the bell plunger if this gap on the capper body closes during capping process. All of the force exerted on the lever is transferred to the capper body. This may result in an insufficient crimp on the cap and loss of CO2 in the bottle over time. The pressure transferred to the capper body may also cause stress fractures.

My capper is the old style Agata with locking points on the column. I cut vinyl discs to raise some style of bottles up for positive capping pressure. New Belgium Celebration bottles are the worst for being in between the locking points.

I suspect this would apply to other brands of bench cappers also.

[Steve]

Helpful tip - thank you. I was just looking at moving up to a bench capper. This explains some of the negative review comments.

[tominboston]

Yes great info. My "Super Agata " bench capper just arrived and I don’t think I have gotten a single cap on straight doing some practice runs. Not sure I am going to have enough confidence in this unit to bet a 5 gallon batch on. I looked at a few of my actual beers in the fridge done with the butterfly capper and they look perfect. Maybe my height is just a bit off. I am capping 12 oz bottles.

[flars]

The height should be adjusted so the bottle just fits under the bell easily but without touching. Spin the bottle a little to make sure it is standing up straight and centered under the bell. (I do this because of a habit developed reloading cartridges.)

If the bell is too high the gap under the lever will close before the cap is actually crimped. The pressure exerted on the lever will not be on the bell but on the capper body instead. This coul;d be the problem.

[tominboston]

Thank you flars I will give that a try tonight ! I don’t have anything ready to bottle for another month or two but I want to be sure I am set up correctly .

Thanks again!

[flars]

Forgot to mention. Wet the bottle caps and mouth of bottles for practice runs. I’m hoping this works. My Super Agata has been good since 2007.

edit: I just looked at your post. Didn’t notice it was made in my original post that I couldn’t find. Hence new picture. I’ve got to start paying more attention.

[hd4mark]

@flars

New Belgium Celebration bottles are the worst

New Belgium has a Celebration? Did you mean Sierra Nevada? Their bottles are kind of squat.

[tominboston]

I cut a small square of 1/4" plywood I had , this seemed to give me just enough clearance to slide the bottle under with the cap loaded. Still seemed to be crooked a bit, then I noticed the cap " fixture " did not seem to be screwed fully in. I did that and I have a hard time telling the difference between the bench capper and the butterfly. Still may be the butterfly crimps more fully but maybe not enough to make any real difference.

But looks much better now, thank you again, as always flars !

Tom

[flars]

I’m getting forgetful. It was years ago so maybe not ready for the urgent care center. I did have a problem once with the bottles sticking in the bell. The bell had unscrewed about two turns thus flopping sideways on the crimp.