Crown cap failing to seal

Brewing Processes
1

I replaced my years old hand capper with a brand new bench capper from my LHBS. It was a royal pain on first use but I thought I had fought it into submission. I have only used it to bottle once.

I pulled some bottles from my cellar to share this morning. I realized one of the crown caps hadn’t fully sealed. I was able to pull the cap off with minimal effort with my bare fingers. I am a little worried now about the rest of the bottles from that first run. The crown on the other bottle I had seemed pretty firmly on there. I suppose I could submerge the bottles to test there isn’t at least an obvious leak.

Is there a way to be sure that seal is correct? My old hand capper, as much as a pain as it had become, definitely seemed to crimp the crowns tighter. I could can feel a difference with older bottles still in my cellar. It feels like more of the edges of the cap are sticking out, if that makes sense.

I have an antique bench capper, too, that I tried a few times but went back to the hand capper for this same reason, that the old bench capper just didn’t seem to crimp the caps as tight. Is this a known difference between the two styles of cappers?

Barring the obvious mis-seated cap, which is what I think happened with the one bottle, am I worrying for nothing? I gave most of these bottles away, if there is cause for concern, I want to be clear with the friends I shared them to.

2

Which bench capper did you buy?  What is the brand of bottle caps?  Are the bottles standard American pry off cap style bottles?

Bench cappers will usually perform better on all brewery bottles compared to a wing capper when the height is adjusted properly.

3

I had a similar problem last year with the caps not being secure and in some cases, the bottles broke during capping with a wing capper. Turned out that I wasn’t using the standard American pry off cap style bottles (I was using Bass Ale bottles).

4

The capper is an Agata. I don’t know the brand of caps, they were offered in bulk at my LHBS. The bottles were also from my LHBS or recycled ones, all standard 22oz bombers, pry off not screw top. Not sure if my height is adjusted properly, I just moved it until the bottle just fit underneath and was able to fully pull the lever down.

5

I have seen a tool called a capping gauge with 4 holes in it, to test how “tight” the crimping tool presses the cap.  You need to use the right caps, but this gauge is called a go/no-go gauge, used by commercial bottlers to test every Xth bottle to make sure their capper stays in spec.  Has 1.120, 1.125, 1.130, 1.135 holes for 26mm bottles.  http://www.kingcrimp.com