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.