I bought one and tried it out on a few bottles. It doesn’t seem like it crimps the caps very tight compared to a wing capper or commercially bottled beers, but the bottles did hold liquid (water) when inverted, It seems like you barely have to but a opener on the cap and it’s off.
Thanks in advance for your comments and experience.
One of the possible problems may be the height adjustment is off. Does the gap under the handle and the capper body close when crimping a cap? When this gap closes all the force exerted on the lever is transferred to the capper body instead of moving the bell further downward. I use plastic discs under the bottle to raise them higher. I have the older button height adjustment Agata. Some bottles are just a little shorter than others.
I called the store where I got it from. They pulled a new one off their shelf and reported that they had problems also. They said it was a new design and apparently not working as well as older models.
They’re sending me a return shipping label and are going to refund the purchase price.
i used a super agata for about two years, until the plastic piston that holds the capping bell broke. i had noticed that some of the agata sealed bottles opened easily, and also had a few flat/bad bottles.
i looked for a replacement with a steel piston. i got a g. francis professional bench beer bottle capper from amazon.
i was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to make a much better cap seal than the super agata. however, it is not as easy to deal with bottles of different sizes, requiring adjustment when the bottles differ. after a few batches, i got used to the workflow, and now prefer the francis.
your mileage may vary…
Now that’s a good LHBS or online store. I’d do business with them.