My bottle capper was made in Italy. It works Ok, but not great. It takes several times to get the cap on, and set correctly.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a quality bottle capper?
I’ve had a Super Agata for many years and never had a bit of trouble with it.
I’ve been using a Ferrari Duemila for about eight years - caps well, and no problems. I rub some parafin on the inside of the capper bell before each case.
Thanks for the input. I might have found one at the local shop here.
I have only used one bottle capper, so I can’t comment on others.
About two years ago searched online for reviews, this one seemed to be the best.
Over 1,000, 22oz bottles have been used, works fine.
Everyone sealed, no broken bottles.
Must be mounted to a piece of wood to work more effectively.
I have used this capper for about 10 years brewing roughly 8-12 batches per year with no issues at all.
I have used a few bench cappers but the winged capper are by far the fastest and easiest for me.
I wonder it there is something misaligned or loose on your capper.
I have the same one that Bob mentioned (super agata) which I’ve used for many years. I also have two of the others that have been mentioned and find them less stable to use than the bench capper. The two handed wing style cappers take a little more coordination.
The hand held cappers also do not work well on all bottles. Some necks are different, with a different style.
I’ve also had some wing cappers that weren’t quite aligned right, and some caps wouldn’t make a tight seal the full 360 degrees around.
If the bottle neck has a short distance to the lower flange, it works fine. But most bottles have about 3/8" to the flange from the lip making getting the caps on more challenging.
Yep. That’s true. Good point. I have a floor corker that has a bench capper attachment that I use.
I’ve used two wing cappers. One worked fine - gave that one away when I got out of brewing for a few years. The other broke the neck of one or two bottles from each case, and produced a poor seal if I backed off on the pressure. That’s when I bought a bench capper.
Then I posted has really good seal. But yeah, I’ve used some really bad ones too.
+1
Yes, these types of cappers do have some shortcomings as mentioned but this is a good capper. I’ve had this one for 8 years and it’s always sealed well and worked great for me and I’ve never broke a bottle with it or had one not seal. I have a backup one in case it breaks but so far so good.
Everybody’s experience is different though.
I have one of those red Italian ones and it worked quite well for a long time, then the bell got a bit bent. I can’t get a new one, though, because I told my wife it was the only red Ferrari that I would ever buy.
You do realize that the bells are removable and replaceable? I actually have 2 different sized bells that I interchange for different sized bottle baps (can’t remember the exact mm now but beer bottles vs european champagne bottles
Yes, I know the bells are replaceable. It was a joke. I guess I should have used an emoji. 
Probably 17mm & 19mm. When I bought my bench capper M.B. listed it as a Ferrari but the label on the capper itself say Gryfo, & it came with 17 & 19mm bells. It has been a good solid, durable, well build capper for the most part, as of yesterday it’s capped over 9,600 bottles. My only real complaint is that it has a spring loaded head which is only a problem when a bottle gets hung up in the bell, about the time I almost get the bottle pried loose the spring kicks the bottle out a high velocity to slam into the base, usually with one of my fingers caught in between. Fortunately the only bottles I have that are prone to getting hung up are Pacificos and Coronas which seem to have greater variability on neck diameter than American bottles. At this point I have weeded out most of the problematic bottles, but some days either the spring tension gets out of whack, or maybe I don’t hold my mouth right, and then I’ll have a dozen or so bottles give me grief. If I had another dozen or so cases of New Belgium, Sam Adams or other American bottles I’d completely retire the friggin Pacificos and eliminate my bottling gremlins.