cork insertion tool advice

Bill,

You're asking for an opinion, so here's mine: go with the floor corker!

I started with a mallet-driven corker many years ago, upgraded a couple of times in between, and finally went for the Ferrari floor model. I only wish I had done so in the beginning. While you _can_ drive corks with the cheaper designs, the ease of the floor models puts them immeasurably ahead of the others.

HTH, Mike MTM

With a corker, more than almost any other winemaking tool, you will not regret buying quality. If you are seriously getting into this hobby, even for just a few batches a year, get the standup corker. Probably $70-90 and well worth it.

Ray

I absolutely hated the hand corkers. Check ebay for floor corkers, got mine after bottling my first batch almost 4 years ago for $30. It's my best purchase so far. (except for the BV SuperJet I got for $27)

Jeff

Hate to differ from the other posters but I got a winged hand corker with the kit that my wife bought me. I've been using it through 6 or 8 kits and it's worked fine. Even #9s usually insert all the way.

The caveat here is that I store my corks in a SO2 humidor. I think that helps their insertion. The time that I tried to insert dry corks I had alot of problems with #9 corks but not the #8s. Also, Trevor posted here that he has had some bottles break at the neck with these.

If you can upgrade the kit's corker to a floor unit then go for it. I'll upgade eventually but for now the winged corker is doing it's job.

Don

Thanks to everyone. I think I am convinced on the floor model or the winged corker.

Bill

BTW, I'm 6'+ and 240 pds, my wife thinks that's why I have an easy time with the winged corker. I think it's because I store my corks in the humidour but you may want to try one first and then think about doing 30+ bottles with it.

Don

An after word. I used a "winged corker for years and I still have it stored in honourable retirement. I was fortunate in buying a Portuguese floor corker, brand new at the annual UK HB&WM Show about 3 years ago -- at half retail price! Certainly when using the winged version the idea of using a "humidor" is excellent and I did it too. The main reason was that it maintained a moistness that also created an element of lubrication . The real problem with the winged corker is the inherent instability during the time when the cork is being forced into the bottle.Sadly we only have two hands. It also means that ones body is very close to the bottle in the event of a bottle rupturing in some way. Over too many years it happened 2ce with me. The floor corker provides several advantages It is much safer. It is much quicker. It is much cleaner -- less likely to spill. It is also quite therapeutic -- I actually enjoy the bottling session now -- you can almost do it in dance time!

Trevor, I agree with you accessment of the floor units and I will probably get one some day. For now though I will continue with the winged corker. I thought about what would happen if the neck of the bottle broke and I just didn't see myself getting cut by it. Hopefully I won't have to eat those words.

The humidor is not just for moistening, it's loaded with a small lidded container drilled full of holes and filled with water and potassium meta to keep the corks sanitized. The corks I buy from my local supplier are broken down into

30 or 100 cork bags and the the supplier is not filling the new bags with any potassium meta as apparently the corks are originally shipped with. The byproduct of this was the easy cork insertion that I noticed the next time I bottled.

Don