High capacity bottling (900 bottles)

[Mac60]

Anyone bottling 800-900 bottles what are you using, we bottled 750 last year using the AIO Wine pump it worked great however it was a 12 hour day. Looking for a bit more production with the same hands (3 people)

I was looking at the 5 spout filler from MoreWine with the Pump (see attached pictures) is anyone using this? I'm not looking to spend $3,000 maybe $700-$800
Can it be done. This 5 spout claims 650 bottles per hour that would be a big time saver for us.

Would appreciate any advice.
Mike

 

[CDrew]

Not at your level of production but I just did 20 cases in an afternoon and by myself with an enolmatic. I’ll give it a 4/5 rating. But alone, you can cork the last bottle while the next is filling.

 

[dralarms]

I did 48 bottles with my allinone in under 35 min Saturday

 

[Mac60]

I do love the AIO Wine Pump however it takes me 12 hours to do 870 bottles, AIO is great tool been using for 2 seasons now. Next season we want to get all the bottling done in one day and would like to actually do it in 1/2 a day vs 12+ hour day. So we are looking for alternatives. Maybe Steve has a suggestion!
Mike

 

[Donz]

I have the enolmatic and it works great for me

https://www.tenco.it/en/enolmatic-vacuum-filler

 

[stickman]

I would say a single corker working at a continuous fast but comfortable pace could do 360 bottles an hour, so you need to at least be able to fill bottles at that pace to maximize your production. As long as everything is prepared as much as possible, wine ready to go, bottles rinsed etc., maybe even a 3 or 4 head gravity filler would be enough to get the job done in a half day.

 

[NorCal]

750 bottle in 12 hours is 62 bottles per hour. I can consistently fill and cork 100 bottles per hour by myself, with an AIO, but need the supports staff managing the bottles in and out. If I were just filling with the AIO and not corking, I can do 150 bottles per hour.

I've used that filler and it was faster than all the other operations, so I think it is capable of 650 bottles per hour, but your bottleneck would move from the filling station to another station. A dedicated single hand corker could run around 250 per hour, but may need to be rotated out.

The only issue we had with that filler was that it would lose it's prime and wasn't 100% on the fill height. That could have been the person that owned it not having it set up right.

 

[user 36973]

Anyone bottling 800-900 bottles what are you using, we bottled 750 last year using the AIO Wine pump it worked great however it was a 12 hour day. Looking for a bit more production with the same hands (3 people)

I have a 6-spout filler, an electric corking machine, an automatic labeler, small filling pump and commercial capsule shrinker. Ran about $10k total.

With 3 people we can do 500 bottles an hour all day. Burst speed is upward of 720 bottles per hour. Can't really go any faster since the bottle filler is the slowest step. Corker is next slowest step. Ultimately it is the packaging and stacking I'd the cases that limits the rate.

I'm guessing the filler is probably the slowest step for your set up currently, so the 5 spout rig should dramatically speed up your operation. As @NorCal said, the hand corker can handle a decent rate and the AIO pump should be more than capable to keep up with you.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I just came up with an idea on possibility to double the allinonewinepump ability to bottle - let me work on it and hopefully take a video this weekend.

I like NorCal who mentioned he can bottle 150 per hour by himself using the allinone - not including corking.

@Mac60
make sure that the push button vacuum release is not leaking, as that will increase bottling time

 

[NorCal]

I like NorCal who mentioned he can bottle 150 per hour by himself using the allinone - not including corking.

150 per hour is 24 seconds per bottle. If I go full tilt, I could fill a bottle in 15-16 seconds, but I tend to have too much foam to deal with. I vent a little of the vacuum off to slow the input speed, decreasing the foam, which ends up right around 20 second fill time. A few seconds to move my filler (custom stainless steel hand held filler head) to the next bottle. The nice thing is that it is very consistent. I can do a barrel (300 bottles) and never have to adjust the fill of a single bottle.

When I'm bottling by myself, I'll slow the fill to 30-32 seconds, which allows me to cork one, while I'm filling the other. I'm an industrial engineer by education and use to design production lines for electronic manufacturing companies, so I've always enjoyed the task of figuring out flows and through-put.

 

[Mac60]

I have a 6-spout filler,

Are you using the gravity 6 spout filler with a pump? did you keep the float or did you rig it with a electric float switch?
Thank you all for the great information, I'm evaluating our bottling process to determine where we could save the most time. Right now it does not appear that the corking is slowing things down, its between the filling and washing/sanitizing. I do like the fact with the AIO Pump/Bottle Filler its under Vacuum, where as with the 5 or 6 spout filler its exposed to air pumped from the barrel to the holding tank in the bottle filler. It might make more sense to get a 2nd AIO Wine pump and have 2 people filling bottles. I will see what AIO Steve comes up with.

 

[Mac60]

150 per hour is 24 seconds per bottle. If I go full tilt, I could fill a bottle in 15-16 seconds,

I'm about the same I have the vacuum adjuster valve to slow it down a bit also to prevent too much foam also. 20 seconds seems about right. 3 bottles per minute. But as the day goes on I start getting slower especially after 3 hours. I have not timed each station at this point but thinking about what took us so long, I have to go back to the washing/Sanitizing and next filling.
Mike

 

[user 36973]

Are you using the gravity 6 spout filler with a pump? did you keep the float or did you rig it with a electric float switch?

Technically it used to be a gravity filler but I removed the manual float. I just use a small 2gal/min pump to fill the 15gal hopper. I control the fill by manually watching the hopper fill sight level and turning on/off the pump. At peak operating I can just keep up with the pump.

I'm looking into an electronic control but need to be sure it can be removed for sanitizing the filler.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

@Mac60 -
I tried several different methods tonight - resulting in only a gain of 1 bottle after filling 6 total compared to doing it the standard method. The only one that proved the best was 1 way valve that could bleed down slower on the supply tube. Unfortunately they are expensive and hard to clean and sanitize. This way the entire tube does not have to fill up everytime after bottling.

I have made an additional bottle reservoir for several small wineries - so it has to fill up prior to filling up the bottle on the machine. The vacuum release valve is hooked up to the 2nd bottle in line

 

[Mac60]

Technically it used to be a gravity filler but I removed the manual float. I just use a small 2gal/min pump to fill the 15gal hopper. I control the fill by manually watching the hopper fill sight level and turning on/off the pump. At peak operating I can just keep up with the pump.
I'm looking into an electronic control but need to be sure it can be removed for sanitizing the filler.

This is what I'm looking into Morewine recommends using this pump float switch and removing the float valve.

 

[jburtner]

I second the AIO filler and pump. I need to order some new tubes, valves, and a repair kit for the vacuum pump but it bangs out the bottles.

Cheers!
-johann

 

[dralarms]

I second the AIO filler and pump. I need to order some new tubes, valves, and a repair kit for the vacuum pump but it bangs out the bottles.

Cheers!
-johann

Why not just call Steve and get him to go through it?

 

[Chuck E]

I wonder if this would work for you? It's pretty expensive though.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/m...227651341&mc_cid=177ddf37be&mc_eid=3ea028884e

 

[stickman]

That unit is primarily for beer.

 

[Mac60]

Completed our Bottling for 2019 2 vintage Zin and Super Tuscan we ended up bottling 68 cases 26 cases of Super Tuscan and 42 Cases on Zin. With 3 people took us 3 hours to sanitize, bottle and case the complete vintage and 1 hour four cleanup. With the new setup we saved 8 hours, we had enough time to to have Barbecue vintage celabration and drink wine. This year was a pleasure with the new equipment. The complete setup cost us $595 bottler filler Pump and speed controler. Best investment in our production so far.