Bye bye Coravin capsules

[Joe_Raymond]

I would patent this and get it protected man. With some better mods you could cheapen it a bit and sell it commercially. Just a thought

[Bill_Klapp_deactivated]

@Steven S.

@Warren Taranow

I already have an argon tank and a regulator set up for my old winekeeper system. What’s the adaptor on the Coravin, and how did you connect it?

Yes, the tank and the regulator are off the shelf purchases. The gas delivery system configuration took more thought and effort to select, source, and assemble the components to forestall various problems, provide good usability, and address safety.

The real challenge though was hacking the Coravin internals. The Coravin looks simple, but it is a highly engineered device, tightly designed around low cost operation in a single way with almost no degrees of freedom inside. Attempting the smallest modification runs into all kinds of difficulties.

The fitting on the end came into existence to elegantly solve several mechanical problems adapting to an external gas supply. I designed the fitting from scratch using CAD software and had it custom made.

This post points out something that I try to avoid, which is products engineered with such greed and cynicism that the choice is “my way or the highway” with replacement parts. Coravin profits should have been driven by the device itself, and it should have been engineered to work with off-the-shelf, inexpensive argon capsules so that you did not have to do what you just did. Few will follow in your footsteps, and the high cost of capsules, along with the product not living up to its aggressive claims, guarantee its descent into obscurity…

[Arv_R]

That might be what a purist might desire – but as HP and its printer ink cartridges, or Gilette and its razor blades show – it is probably not the business model for keeping the inventor personally well stocked in FGs.

And yes I too agree with you that lifetime operating costs are a consideration for this kind of stuff.

[Alan_Rath]

@Bill Klapp

This post points out something that I try to avoid, which is products engineered with such greed and cynicism that the choice is “my way or the highway” with replacement parts. Coravin profits should have been driven by the device itself, and it should have been engineered to work with off-the-shelf, inexpensive argon capsules so that you did not have to do what you just did. Few will follow in your footsteps, and the high cost of capsules, along with the product not living up to its aggressive claims, guarantee its descent into obscurity…

Even though this is the business model of some extremely successful companies. I offer HP as one example. Or Keurig, Nespresso, and others. And many, many commercial companies in the chemical, medical, environmental fields (just to name a few) who make a high percentage of profit on disposables. Or cell phone companies, who essentially give away phones to hook you on monthly service charges for what is effectively a disposable.

[Bill_Klapp_deactivated]

But compare and contrast with the Durand. Not the same wine-related function, of course, and the Durand is really only a brilliant combination of the two simplest and most basic wine-opening tools, but it is attractively packaged, good for a lifetime and pretty much 100% effective. It sells for a princely sum vis a vis production cost, and people line up to buy them…

[Alan_Rath]

Bill, I don’t quite understand the analogy you’re trying to draw between Durand and Coravin. They are different products for different purposes (maybe even diametrically opposed, given that one is designed to extract a cork of any condition, and the other is designed specifically to let you drink the wine without extracting the cork).

Both are similar in the sense that (Durand in particular) they are priced fairly high for their purpose, and will appeal mainly to spendthrift wine geeks

I have no opinion on the ultimate value of the Coravin - lots of people seem to be buying and using it. And the vast majority of those people will never go to the trouble that Steven S. did (even though, as a chemist who deals routinely with helium and nitrogen gases, regulators, liquid gas dewars, etc., I am impressed with the setup). So, assuming there is utility in the device, I expect them to continue selling replacement argon capsules at a pretty good rate.

[Catherine_C]

Hi Steve Would you be willing to share your set up design. The prices of the cartridges have gone up again and it’s getting even more expensive.

[Rich_Brown]

Hi Steve Would you be willing to share your set up design. The prices of the cartridges have gone up again and it’s getting even more expensive.

Wow, nice work digging up this old thread!

Not Steve, but here’s a ‘simple’ solution to save a little money on capsules. Soak an empty Catavin cartridge in acetone overnight and then twist off the proprietary capsule on top (might need to use pliers as its somewhat difficult to get off). Purchase generic argon cartridges online and make sure they are threaded on top. Twist on and the capsule and use as normal.

Done and done

[PeterJ]

An alternative we used at the wine bar I worked at was found here in this topic:

Say "GOODBYE' to coravin capsules

I haven’t had any contact with the system or with John Steach for 18 months but it worked really well when we used it.