What type of capper to buy ?

[fisherman]

Hello,
I bottle in 40 bottle batches twice every week, What type of capper would you reccomend for this task.I like the look of the hand steel capper at the homebrew shop and also the automatic bench capper. I can make a bottle holder to use with the steel capper so it will not slip when pressure is used.
When I have seen the bench capper used it looks very unstable and tilts forward unless you hold the capper with the left hand.My wife does not like the idea of screwing it to the kitchen worktop. Can you advise your opinion please?. I have a plastic capper but it gives a little to much and does not feel secure.
Thanks for any replies

[chivelegs]

You could always clamp the bench capper with a G-Clamp. Bear in mind the bench capper can also be converted to use the larger 29mm caps which are good for 750ml champagne bottles. Makes bottling a batch even quicker.

[gregorach]

I've never found any need to secure my bench capper at all. The biggest advantage with the bench capper is that it can cap bottles that a hand capper can't.

[timb]

I place a damp cloth under my bench capper to stop any movement

[jaroporter]

just to develop this slightly 'cause i haven't seen much on it elsewhere, are people with bench cappers using the automatic or manual ones? does the automatic one hold it's level well enough after long term use? presumably they both come with the 29mm adapters?

[gregorach]

just to develop this slightly 'cause i haven't seen much on it elsewhere, are people with bench cappers using the automatic or manual ones?

I've never been entirely clear as to which is which or what the difference is... I have this one.

[jaroporter]

to quote chivelegs from an older thread..

the 'Manual' adjusts height with a lever at the back whereas the 'Automatic' adjusts with a one-handed trigger thing at the front

i've also seen it said that the adjustment on the automatic one might be more liable to slip with use, so i was wondering if there was something in the design that was better with the manual one. i've never actually seen either first hand.

[gregorach]

Well, if mine's the automatic one, it seems entirely bomb-proof. Maybe wouldn't be up to commercial-scale use...

[Maltmaniac]

Go for the bench capper, easy to use and quick compared to other designs. I've capped many hundreds of bottles with my one and never had a problem or a broken bottle. You don't need to fix it, just hold onto the bottle once placed in the capper to hold steady. One of my top three brewing aids along with a bottle of Starsan and a bottle tree. I can easily cap 10 bottles in a minute with one of these cappers.

[jmc]

just to develop this slightly 'cause i haven't seen much on it elsewhere, are people with bench cappers using the automatic or manual ones?

I've never been entirely clear as to which is which or what the difference is... I have this one.

I have this one too. Screwed into bench in my garage.

[Beer O'Clock]

Bench. I've never needed to secure it to anything.

[oldbloke]

could always screw it to a piece of board, just to widen the base a bit but still keep it portable
but I've never had stability worries with mine - on laminate flooring, usually, but with a few layers of newspaper underneath to catch drips

[darkonnis]

Get a bench capper. I bought a hand capper and what a pain in the ass. Some bottles it slips on, otehrs take several tried because they aren't quite the perfect shape, some just dont go at all.
If i see myself bottling more than 10 at a time any time soon I'll just buy one and have done with it. It's fine for small batches but if you're brewing like the clappers I just wouldnt bother with one.

[bryan_r]

Definitely the bench capper - it's one of those things I wish I'd paid a couple more quid for when I started, rather than going for the hand-held type.

I do try to bottle ones of the same size in a row, to reduce the number of times I need to adjust it, but it's still far better than the hand-held.

[crafty john]

I use a bench capper just like gregorach's, never had to screw it to anything, works a treat.