Trouble with Buon Vino Automatic Bottle Filler

[analog_kidd]

I bought one of these Super Automatic Bottle Fillers the last time I was at my LHBS, and I'm just now getting around to using it.

The instructions say to siphon out the wine using the small tube, the one that goes into the overflow bottle. I can't get any fluid or air to flow from that tube to the big tube.

I hold my finger over the outflow of the regulator, with the pop-up in either the up or down position, and blow, but nothing comes out. With the pop-up in the down position I can get air to flow from the outflow of the regulator to the big tube, and it stops when the pop-up goes into the up position, which I expect, but I would think that the path would then shift to the small tube. But it does not.

Am I doing something wrong or is mine defective?

 

[Julie]

My husband, Mike, took mine and thru it across the basement! Sorry I know this is no help to you.

 

[analog_kidd]

Well, I went back down to look at it again, and all of a sudden it started working. Guess I just had to get mad at it and walk away for a little while. I was tempted to smash it against the wall. Glad I didn't.

However, I had the carboy tilted up with a 2x2 under it, and when I got to about three bottles left, the hose pulled it down off my table and made a huge mess all over the floor, my shoes and pants. Just moments before, I was grinning and patting myself on the back for what a nice clean operation I was running.

 

[Boyd]

Well, I went back down to look at it again, and all of a sudden it started working. Guess I just had to get mad at it and walk away for a little while. I was tempted to smash it against the wall. Glad I didn't.

However, I had the carboy tilted up with a 2x2 under it, and when I got to about three bottles left, the hose pulled it down off my table and made a huge mess all over the floor, my shoes and pants. Just moments before, I was grinning and patting myself on the back for what a nice clean operation I was running.

The outlet hose on my mimi filter came loose once and squirted me and the floor.

I said to myself, Oh Gosh, (actually something quite a lot stronger, a whole lot stronger if fact) and quick cleaned up the mess before the BOSS found out.

She sometimes lacks humor.

 

[joea132]

I have the floor model. It's a pain in the butt and fills slowly. The cork guy is always waiting. This last time I actually filled and corked at once. I'm looking into a 3 spout gravity filler.

Be careful jamming the rubber nozzle too far upon the spout. I split mine and had to special order it. It goes without saying but be sure to run sanitizer solution and water through the lines before filling. I run 3 bottles, take the hose out of the solution and run the rest through until only a few drops are left. Then run water and get it dry as possible without running the pump dry for too long.

 

[BobF]

After a few rounds of bottling with the Buon Vino via vacuum, I actually (finally) have a smooth, clean process going with it.

I don't try to fill/cork concurrently. I fill the bottles then come back for a corking pass.

For the volume I'm doing, 80-100 gallons/yr, I can't justify investing any more in my bottling line. I will probably build a small doodad to hold bottles while they're filling at some point though. I haven't had one go over yet, but that seems like the weakest link in my process at this point.

 

[montana99]

I used the super automatic bottle filler once. When I was cleaning it a small silver bead fell onto the floor from somewhere in the filler. I cannot get the flow regulator to depress. Help!

 

[DoctorCAD]

The small silver BB goes behind a set screw to regulate the flow.

Once you get it set up right (not the easiest thing to do) it works very well.