# Italian Floor Corker



## smokegrub (Sep 4, 2007)

I bottled my strawberry wine yesterday with my new corker--what a joy! Corking was actually fun. No steaming corks, no partially inserted corks, no strained wrists or forearms. What a tool!

My advice--skip the hand corkers and invest in a quality floor corker. You won't be sorry you did.


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## smurfe (Sep 4, 2007)

I started with, and still usethe same one you have. I can say I have never used a hand corker. I always recommend that one obtains either of the floor corker models. It is a worthwhile investment.


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## scotty (Sep 4, 2007)

My italian floor corker wont cork the 375ml bottles so i saved my hand corker


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## grapeman (Sep 4, 2007)

Scotty, it will cork the 375's, just needs a booster seat for the bottle. Some people use a hockey puck on the plate, raising the bottle enough for it to work. I use a 3/4" piece of hardwood. Just center the bottle and they work just great. I've done hundreds of 375's this way. *Edited by: appleman *


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## scotty (Sep 4, 2007)

appleman said:


> Scotty, it will cork the 375's, just needs a booster seat for the bottle. Some people use a hockey puck on the plate, raising the bottle enough for it to work. I use a 3/4" piece of hardwood. Just center the bottle and they work just great. I've done hundreds of 375's this way.




thanks


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## Wade E (Sep 4, 2007)

All the 375 I get are the tall ones and I dont have to puck it!


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## scotty (Sep 4, 2007)

wade said:


> All the 375 I get are the tall ones and I dont have to puck it!




i never saw those.


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## Dean (Sep 5, 2007)

we have 3 types of 375s up here: Short bordeaux type ones and tall stretched belissima type, and if you special order you can get the tall icewine style as well, but those are about $4 per bottle empty



*Edited by: Dean *


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## scotty (Sep 5, 2007)

Dean said:


> we have 3 types of 375s up here: Short bordeaux type ones and tall stretched belissima type, and if you special order you can get the tall icewine style as well, but those are about $4 per bottle empty




I dont like any one enough to spend too much for sample bottles.


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## Jack on Rainy (Sep 6, 2007)

scotty said:


> Dean said:
> 
> 
> > we have 3 types of 375s up here: Short
> ...



I'm with you scotty. Besides there are no shortage of hockey pucks around here. We got lots of them!


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## Trubador (Sep 7, 2007)

I am sure the floor corker is worlds better; however I have now bottled
two batches of wine (60 bottles) with a double lever hand corker and
the corks have gone into the bottles perfectly with very little
effort. I have used FVW #9 1.75-inch corks.



The only thing is they leave a little dimple, but I really don't care
about that, bottom line for 20 bucks or so, the corker works
perfectly. I don't see the need for the floor corker, unless
maybe you are bottling hundreds at a clip. For 30 bottles, it
doesn't slow me down one bit and drives the cork in perfectly every
time.


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## dfwwino (Sep 7, 2007)

Another benefit of the floor corker is you can put one of your kids to work in the bottling process operating the corker and rest assured the kid won't screw up the corking.


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## smokegrub (Sep 7, 2007)

I am certain some hand corkers are superior to others--mine is a definite pain. It is all but impossible to insert a dry #9 cork with my corker. I had to steam and even then considerable force was necessary. When I did steam, some corks wouls start to work their way out of the bottle and had to be forcibly pressed back into place until the cork had dried enough to hold itself in place. My floor corker places a dry #9 with practically no effort at all. The corks seat tightly and I have had zero leakers.

My hand corker is headed to the trash unless someone on here would like to have it for the cost of shipping. Frankly, I would recommend against paying for shipping.


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## Wade E (Sep 7, 2007)

I will keep my Portuguese dble lever hand corker in case of emergency but must say that once you use a floor corker you would not go back. Its kind of like having DSL and going back to dial up internet!


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