Cracking Bottles

I bottled my batch of American Pilsner with standard 12oz. brown bottles i got from my lhbs. I am using a double lever capper. I have had 3 out of 20 that I've opened break off at the neck. The first was a surprise then i started looking for cracks and the last two i had break on me were cracked at the top.

When i cap my bottles i put the bottle on a hard table and press down rather hard with my capper. Is this the wrong way to use it? Should i cap them on the carpet? I noticed that when i was capping my brown ale the bottle sounded like they were cracking occasionally...

My real question is should i be applying downward force on the bottle or just be getting the levers down? or a combination of the two?

Thanks for the help

Check the metal plates that clamp the bottle necks.

Do they have 2 arcs cut into them? If so, pull the plates out and turn them 180 degrees.

Right now the plates are set on smaller circumference necks. You're breaking them because of that setting.




And yes, just push the levers down. If you apply too much downward pressure you can break off one of the handles.
The metal plates steady the bottle while the downward pressure of the bell crimps the caps.

BINGO! I never saw the different "clamp" sizes just tested on an empty and work great! Thank you for the quick reply!

I'm glad we solved that mystery...you are welcome.

Some of the "Red Baron" cappers and all of the "Black Beauty" ones don't have that second arc cut into them so I don't recommend them.

You were just lucky enough to get the one with 2 sizes.