Ferrari bottlers

[BernardSmith]

I recently bought a Ferrari bottler and love it except for one problem. This week I bottled some elderflower wine and some mead and with each batch wine would bubble and spritz out through the top. Only a few drops but enough to bother me. Is there a reason why this happens. Is it because there is too good a seal between the bottler and the bottle and the wine entering the bottle displaces the air that was in the bottle up through the bottler expelling some wine as it goes? Or is there a poor seal in the bottler itself that I need to fix?
I guess my concern is that there is enough wine escaping upwards and onto the surface of the bottler to make its way down the outside and perhaps into the next bottle. While I am confident the inside of the bottler is sanitized I don't consider the outside in the same way - not least because I am holding it and constantly starting and stopping the flow by opening a valve by pressing on the side. Anyone else had a similar experience with this device?

 

[winointraining]

I have one too, and it spits wine out the top. I think its made for the air from the bottle to escape through the top. I only use mine on used wine bottles that have a deep punt. I use a spring loaded filler for myregular store bought bottles.

 

[olusteebus]

I also had one of those and had to return it for a refund. I had better success with a spring loaded cane bottler.

I then moved to this and have not looked back. Love it

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f83/bottling-day-hoffart-auto-bottle-filler-16351/

I have better luck with the input line being longer than the overflow line by a small amount.

 

[Rocky]

Is this the filler you guys are referencing? Seems to work well in the video and I know that is not always as it seems. Are you using it as the video demonstrates?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zSbu8RSOWY[/ame]

 

[olusteebus]

Is this the filler you guys are referencing? Seems to work well in the video and I know that is not always as it seems. Are you using it as the video demonstrates?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zSbu8RSOWY

No Rocky, when I bottle, I like to stand on my head blindfolded.

Heck yes that is how I did it. is there another way?

 

[Rocky]

The reason I asked was that I had never seen this filler. I have a number of fillers (one for my pump, a Buon Vino and a cane type) and I always end up using the old hose with a pinch cock method. I was looking for something easier. I get too much of a mess from all those I have and this one seemed very neat in the video. I think I misunderstood what Bernard was saying and his problem may be too much gas still in the wine. In this video there do not seem to be any bubbles when filling. Of course, that may be colored water and not even wine in the video.

 

[olusteebus]

The reason I asked was that I had never seen this filler. I have a number of fillers (one for my pump, a Buon Vino and a cane type) and I always end up using the old hose with a pinch cock method. I was looking for something easier. I get too much of a mess from all those I have and this one seemed very neat in the video. I think I misunderstood what Bernard was saying and his problem may be too much gas still in the wine. In this video there do not seem to be any bubbles when filling. Of course, that may be colored water and not even wine in the video.

just pulling your string Rocky. When mine leaked, I sent it back, they sent me another, it leaked. I called them and asked for some tips, nothing I did kept it from leaking. I got a refund.

 

[winointraining]

The way its made is the problem, the stopper on the stem is tight and the air in the bottle has noplace to go except through the stem to the vent on top. I think the slower your gravity feed the better off you are too.

 

[BernardSmith]

Rocky, I don't think it has anything to do with CO2 but I suspect, and winointraining seems to agree, that the problem is that the air being displaced by the wine has nowhere to go except up through the filling tube and out through the top. My sense is that this is indeed the problem because if I prevent the filling tube from being pressed too firmly in place and so allow the air in the bottle to escape between the cork like cap and the bottle no wine is expelled at the top but the effect of allowing some additional space between the top of the bottle and the cap means that I have less control over the height of the fill. I think the problem is a design fault and the solution may be to drill a small hole through the cap to allow the air to escape outside the stem.