Racking Cane

I used a racking cain on the end of my siphon hose today. I really don't like it because due to the diameter of the cain the bottle will not fill up all the way. As you pull up it will shut off, so you can't fill it to within one inch from the top. What else is out there?

I may be wrong, but I think what you are calling a racking cain is actually a bottle filler (used to fill bottles, has a little push valve to start the flow?). If that is the case, then it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. You fill the bottle up all the way (with the filler still in), then when you pull it out of the bottle it has the perfect amount of space left in the bottle. You do NOT want the bottles to be full all the way.

Your right a bottle filler. It was leaving at least 2 inches of space at the top. I had read that want only around one inch. To me it looked like too much of a space. What are the guide lines for space?

You fill the bottle all the way up until it just starts to overflow, then back off the wand...the displacement of the wand when you remove it automatically gives you the right amount of headspace in the bottles....

We share up some of our favorite bottling and sanitization tips here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=72587 I even show what my rig looks like.