breaking bottles with my capper / broken ?

[laserghost]

no idea what my issue is. i've been kegging for some time, but need to bottle a few off the keg sometimes, and lately it seems like 1/4 bottles is getting it's neck snapped off by the capper.

my first capper was the red baron that i got with my original equipment off craigslist, so no telling how old it was, but it worked just fine for a while, and then it got out of shape and didn't seat properly during the capping motion. got to the point where i could easily squeeze too hard and it would snap the neck off the bottle. threw that guy away and got this: http://morebeer.com/products/bottle-capper-metal.html

works pretty good, but i'm still snapping the necks off and i'm consciously trying to be careful and not squeeze too hard or any more than what it takes to pop the cap on.

i've never bought new bottles, always recycled whatever commercial brown bottle
by soaking in oxyclean and then rinsing, so no stress of any kind.

bottled last night for nhc final round, and prepped 8 bottles, and broke 2. wtf. should i send this capper back to morebeer after the next break with the jammed cap still in place (i have to pry it out with needle nosed pliers)?

no idea what the issue is, dude.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

You're not trying to cap twist-off bottles... are you?

If not... maybe try laying off the juice a bit?

 

[troy2000]

Go on ebay and buy a used bench capper. For twenty-something bucks I picked up an old antique one that just needed a little TLC to look pretty again, and haven't broken a bottle since I got it. Bottling goes so much faster and smoother now.

Meanwhile, for your specific issue... the fact that it's happening with two cappers makes me suspect it may not be equipment failure.

Are you trying to cap bottles that you can twist the caps off? They're a lot flimsier because of the threads, and easy to break.

Are you making sure the bottle stays straight, and isn't being subjected to a sideways strain? Try picking it up in the air as you're closing the capper, to make you aren't pushing against the table or countertop...

 

[laserghost]

never capped a twist off in my life.

as i said in the OP, i'm even trying to be tender with it.

the first capper definitely went south and wasn't seating properly – an alignment issue.

maybe I have an alignment issue. It looks like the bottle is straight, but maybe it's 10 degrees off and that's the issue.

I'm gonna look into the bench capper. Something about the third try ...

 

[beaksnbeer]

Set the caps in Hot water take them out and cap while there still hot

 

[Relampago]

Can't speak for you but I just had the same problem and it was the capper. I have been kegging for three years and tried to use it for the first time since a few months ago. I snapped probably 7 bottles, it wasn't a smooth motion felt like it was getting stuck. Went to my LHBS and he looked at me like I was crazy. We grabbed a few bottles and caps and tried a new capper and it was much more fluid. Bought it and capped another dozen with the same batch of bottles and caps with no problems.

 

[Quimby]

I use this bench top capper: http://www.highgravitybrew.com/productcart/pc/Bottle-Capper-Agata-Bench-128p2536.htm#.U35trvldWKI

I have never used a 2 handed capper for beer bottles. With the bench top I have for beer, I have never broken a bottle with it.

 

[troy2000]

I use this bench top capper: http://www.highgravitybrew.com/productcart/pc/Bottle-Capper-Agata-Bench-128p2536.htm#.U35trvldWKI

I have never used a 2 handed capper for beer bottles. With the bench top I have for beer, I have never broken a bottle with it.

That looks like a practical bench capper, and the price isn't bad. But it doesn't have the 'cool' factor mine has.

Or.. wait a minute. Is retro still cool, or have hipsters driven it into the ground until it's uncool?

Before and after pic's:

 

[laserghost]

That's pretty cool.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[jpsmithny]

That looks like a practical bench capper, and the price isn't bad. But it doesn't have the 'cool' factor mine has.

Or.. wait a minute. Is retro still cool, or have hipsters driven it into the ground until it's uncool?

Before and after pic's:

I have a similar one that I found in the first house I bought. I never cleaned it up though. It still has the original "patina".

It's made the move with me many times even after I thought I was done brewing. Glad I kept it though as now I'm brewing better and more often than ever.

Sometimes the older simpler things are just better because they are simpler.

 

[troy2000]

I have a similar one that I found in the first house I bought. I never cleaned it up though. It still has the original "patina".

It's made the move with me many times even after I thought I was done brewing. Glad I kept it though as now I'm brewing better and more often than ever.

Sometimes the older simpler things are just better because they are simpler.

I would imagine there are antique junkies out there who would berate me for refinishing my capper and replacing its missing wood handle, instead of 'preserving a piece of history.'

But they should cut me some slack. I went to a great deal of trouble to preserve the round piece of period linoleum that came glued onto the base...

 

[BigFloyd]

+1 on upgrading to a bench capper. My old wing capper didn't do well with certain types of bottles (the kind with the smaller capping "collar") and would even crack a few, but my Agata Super bench capper mounted on a piece of scrap 3/4" board handles everything I feed it.

 

[JimEb]

I have one of those wing cappers and I was averaging about one broken bottle per batch. Until I figured out why.

These things are a compound mechanism. First the "pinchers" come together and only then will the cup move down. The pinchers should just lightly cradle the underside of the bottle neck crimp feature. If you open the capper wide open and press it down on the bottle, the pinchers could grip too low on a wider section of the neck. Sometimes it'll slide up the neck under pressure, find its position and make a successful crimp. Other times it may grip tight and any additional pressure just squeezes these pinchers harder on the neck until the bottle snaps. This is whats happening when some crimp on smooth and others go on hard.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

no idea what my issue is. i've been kegging for some time, but need to bottle a few off the keg sometimes, and lately it seems like 1/4 bottles is getting it's neck snapped off by the capper.

my first capper was the red baron that i got with my original equipment off craigslist, so no telling how old it was, but it worked just fine for a while, and then it got out of shape and didn't seat properly during the capping motion. got to the point where i could easily squeeze too hard and it would snap the neck off the bottle. threw that guy away and got this: http://morebeer.com/products/bottle-capper-metal.html

works pretty good, but i'm still snapping the necks off and i'm consciously trying to be careful and not squeeze too hard or any more than what it takes to pop the cap on.

i've never bought new bottles, always recycled whatever commercial brown bottle
by soaking in oxyclean and then rinsing, so no stress of any kind.

bottled last night for nhc final round, and prepped 8 bottles, and broke 2. wtf. should i send this capper back to morebeer after the next break with the jammed cap still in place (i have to pry it out with needle nosed pliers)?

no idea what the issue is, dude.

I use a wing capper with constant success, but when I cap stout bottles, I expect to lose about 1 of every 8 bottles. The necks snap off :/

 

[Jonas217]

I broke 3 bottles in a row once when I was bottling a batch. It was the only time i ever broke bottles, I realized they were from the same brewery Unibroue in Quebec Canada. They were unusually thin glass.

 

[troy2000]

I have one of those wing cappers and I was averaging about one broken bottle per batch. Until I figured out why.

These things are a compound mechanism. First the "pinchers" come together and only then will the cup move down. The pinchers should just lightly cradle the underside of the bottle neck crimp feature. If you open the capper wide open and press it down on the bottle, the pinchers could grip too low on a wider section of the neck. Sometimes it'll slide up the neck under pressure, find its position and make a successful crimp. Other times it may grip tight and any additional pressure just squeezes these pinchers harder on the neck until the bottle snaps. This is whats happening when some crimp on smooth and others go on hard.

As mentioned earlier, I abandoned wing cappers right off the bat and picked up a bench capper. But what you're saying seems to make sense. People may be trying too hard, instead of just casually slapping on the capper and letting it slide up and hook under the lip.

It reminds me of using a glass cutter. People who've had a bit of bad luck cutting glass start going for overkill: they lean on the cutter hard, and run it back and forth several times to make sure the score in the glass is deep enough. Unfortunately, they're almost guaranteeing the glass won't snap cleanly - because they're making the scored line more ragged, with the excessive pressure and multiple passes. The proper way to do it is to relax, make a single pass using reasonable pressure, then snap the glass and be done with it.

 

[laserghost]

Thanks guys, I'm going to pay more attention to the seating of the pinchers and make sure it's under the lip just enough.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

And this style is IMPOSSIBLE to cap with a wing capper! And youre likely to break the neck off if you try