Bench Capper?

Anyone out there had experience with the Ferrari Colt Heavy Duty Bench Bottle Capper?

I’m saving bottles for my brew from the copious amount of beer that my wife and I drink. I’m currently using a butterfly capper and have found that many of the saved bottles just won’t seal well. The problem is that some of the bottles (Dos Equis, for example) have the secondary bulge in the neck considerably closer to the sealing bulge. Since the butterfly capper depends on the secondary bulge to push/pull the bottle up to the cap, if that secondary bulge is too close to the sealing bulge, you don’t get the pressure on the cap that is necessary for a good crimp. I tried unscrewing the crimping cup a little and that helps some, but it doesn’t help enough to be certain that the bottle is truly sealed.

So, I’m thinking of moving to a bench capper that won’t have this limitation. The Ferrari capper mentioned above looks like a heavy duty capper.

The Ferrari Colt was a lower quality Ferrari Super Agata. Colt heavy duty? Just a name change or redesigned? Check out the reviews. The local price here is $35 for a Super Agata. Well worth it. I haven’t had any problems in the 8 to 10 years I’ve had it.

The Colt capper I’m referring to is probably the same as the original Ferrari Colt except that it has a steel 26mm machined capping head rather than the press-formed head. I also read that the Colt has a steel pin that holds the movable head in position. The Super Agata, from what I’ve seen on Amazon, has a plastic pin to hold the movable head and has caused wear problems for those who apply too much capping pressure.

This “heavy duty” Colt may have been taken off the market because the capping head was slightly undersized, making it difficult to remove the capped bottle.

I’m not familiar with the specific capper you’re referring to, but I highly recommend the move to the bench capper. Years ago I used the butterfly capper that came with my kit but there were just too many bottles with necks that wouldn’t work. A friend and I used to make what was then an hour drive to Canada for beer runs and at the time they used the stubby bottles. I wanted to use those for homebrew so invested in a bench capper. The bench capper has worked simply and easily with every bottle I’ve tried over the last 20 years. I purchased a second cup that fits European large size caps and like to bottle some of my Belgians in these bottles. Works great.

Jerry

I’m not sure about the one the OP is asking about but I can vouch for the Super Agata

. It works very well on all bottles and adjusts very easily for different height bottles.

[quote=“MullerBrau”]I’m not sure about the one the OP is asking about but I can vouch for the Super Agata

. It works very well on all bottles and adjusts very easily for different height bottles.[/quote]

I’ve only found the heavy duty Colt at one place. Comparing the pics between it and the normal Colt version, they look to be identical except that the heavy duty version has a machined capping cup. It was less than half price but it had the caveat you might have to machine out the capping cup to keep bottles from sticking (have to wonder if they tried oiling it?). With the caveat, even at less than half price, I’d be afraid of it.

, I tossed the butterfly in the trash after one use, Super for 2 years, then I built a pneumatic capper. now its 50/50 with sanke kegging, .

Do yourself a favor and invest some time in shopping the second-hand stores and garage sales in the summer and find an old/antique bench capper. They used to be made out of cast iron or very heavy, formed sheet metal. The quality is superior to anything you can buy today and typically can be had for less than $20. I have two that are cast, one that is formed sheet metal, they will last forever.

I have the Super Agata and while most people love it I find it kind of annoying. It works perfectly for sierra nevada bottles but when i used it with standard height bottles the notch i have to use is just a little bit too high and the one below that is too low to slide a bottle under. Not sure if this is a manufacturing defect or just a result of it not being infinitely adjustable.

What i end up having to do is cap it at the higher setting, then before releasing the handle im able to push it down to the lower setting and finish. it works but makes bottling more annoying than it already is.

I figured out a way around the problem with capping those bottles with the secondary bulge on the neck that’s too close to the closure bulge at the top. For those bottles that my butterfly capper won’t fully cap, I took the capping cup off the butterfly capper, chucked it in my drill press, and used that to finish off the operation. Now those bottles look to be sealed just as well as the “standard bottles”. Eventually I’ll decide on a bench capper because having to lug the problem bottles up to my shop to finish capping them will get old fast.

[quote=“mattnaik”]I have the Super Agata and while most people love it I find it kind of annoying. It works perfectly for sierra nevada bottles but when i used it with standard height bottles the notch i have to use is just a little bit too high and the one below that is too low to slide a bottle under. Not sure if this is a manufacturing defect or just a result of it not being infinitely adjustable.

What i end up having to do is cap it at the higher setting, then before releasing the handle im able to push it down to the lower setting and finish. it works but makes bottling more annoying than it already is.[/quote]I had the same problem too but why not put a few beer coasters under it then?