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Cork Pop III

by Dale Dougherty

As seen in MAKE 02 Toolbox

Type(s): Hand Tool, Household Product
Tags: cork

http://corkpops.com/
$28 (US, estimated) Buy from amazon.com

Tool photo.

If you find yourself putting a wine bottle between your legs and tugging an old-fashioned corkscrew to pull out a cork, here's a new twist on wine openers: the Cork Pop III. This wine opener uses a low-pressure propellant cartridge to blast the cork from the bottle. Cork Pop III houses a needle that you insert all way through the cork; then you press the cartridge to release a jet of air and … lift off. The cork doesn't fly through the air but you can imagine that it does. Getting the cork off the needle is the only difficulty I've had using it.

A cartridge will open about 60-80 bottles before you need a refill. Amazon reviewer, Leanna J. Kamp, said she used up her cartridge because she liked teasing her bird who whistled when it heard the blast of air.

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70% success rate
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We have one of these floating around the house and I've used it on lots of bottles. Overall I'd say my success rate at opening bottles is about 70%.

The best case scenario -- the cork is pushed smoothly from the bottle -- happens rarely. More often the cork reluctantly emerges from the bottle as you pull the needle out. This is still fine, however, and I count these as successes.

Sometimes the cork is tenacious and remains firmly in the neck of the bottle as you pull the needle out. This happens pretty much every time with synthetic corks. I think the directions even say that it doesn't work well with synthetic corks.
Posted by super_J_dynamite on August 21, 2006 at 08:46:22 Pacific Time