PVC closures

[Rocky]

I hope someone can help me here. I have not used closures in the past but I want to begin doing so. I see that George has a line of PVC closures and I have some questions:


1. Are these heat shrink or press fit? If heatshrink, how do you heat them? Will a hair dryer suffice?
2. The catalog list "large" and I suppose "regular" varieties. What is needed for a 750 ml wine bottle?
3. Why do two bags of 250 closures cost less than a bag of 500? (Sorry, I am an old Purchasing guy.)
4. Other than aesthetics, do the closures add anything to the bottle, e.g. keepingaway dirt, mold, etc?
5. Are they worth the extra work and expense? I notice that most people on the site use them.
6. Are there alternatives?


As always, I appreciate your help.

 

[Rocky]

Sorry, one other question. George has a Shrink Tool/Bag De-capper Combo listed in the catalog. I can see that one end is to pry off the caps from the juice bags but it is not intuitively obvious how the "shrink tool" part of it works. Does anyone have one of these tools? If so, how does it aid in "shrinking?" Thanks.

 

[vcasey]

I use or rather my husband uses a painting heat gun to seal the caps on the bottles and a wooden pie pan press to hold them in place. Others just use boiling water and dip the bottle (with the seal) in using that tool thing.
They give your bottle a nice finished look and really seem to impress folks. We generally don't put them on unless we are giving them away, not so much for the expense, cause they're cheap, but because we are lazy.
As an alternative you can not bother, use them for special occasions (like gifts and such), or use wax.

 

[Runningwolf]

Any cheap heat gun will work fine. A hair dryer will not. I put them on all of my bottles. I think they are a lot more attractive and help identify my bottles in the wine Celle. With each wine a different color I can quickly see how much of that particular wineI have left.

The large capsules I believe are bottles with wide tops on them I use the regulars capsules on 750's and 375's. The alternative is wax.

 

[Flem]

Like vcasey said above, you can hold them temporarily with the tool while dipping them in hot water. This will help prevent you from burning your fingers with the hot water.

 

[Wade E]

A hair dryer will work but nowhere near as fast as boiling water, a heat gun or steam, or the $220 electric tool called the Thermo Encapsular which makes this so freaking easy, I have one as does a few others and love it. They will help hold a cork in if you have a refermentation in the bottle. There are different qualities of these in my opinion and I like the LD Carlson my self. I think the Matte finish work way better at shrinking equally around the bottle top and not melting in spots fast. The different price could also be that one has maybe grapes on the sides of it and the other is plain. I typically buy the 30 count bags in as many colors as I like them and also try to design a label to match these and the type of wine. The Large capsules are for mainly Chardonnay type bottles that have a much thicker glass, the inside diameter is the same just the thickness is much bigger preventing a normal capsule from fitting on. Like Dan said they help identify different bottles in my collection.

 

[rrussell]

I use the shrink wrap tool and boiling water and it works fast and great. Just dip it slowly and you won't get any wrinkles in them.

 

[Rocky]

Thanks for all the great information. Now that you point it out, I can see how the tool works. I had no idea that boiling water was involved. I like the idea of color coding wines. Great for a visual inventory. Glad I asked!