About

Brushed stainless accents and rubberized handset

NiMH battery pack and charge included

Rechargeable base unit and removable foil cutter

Removes up to 80 corks with one full charge

Removes synthetic corks with ease

Waring has been making products for commercial kitchens for over 60 years. Today Waring Pro brings that expertise home with premium, commercial-quality products, including the Cordless Wine Opener. The Cordless Wine Opener effortlessly removes up to 80 natural or synthetic corks with one full charge. Entertaining friends and family is easier than ever, with Waring Pro. The ultimate in extravagant convenience, the Waring Pro Professional Cordless Wine Opener ensures effortless enjoyment of your favorite wines. Not afraid to tackle the synthetic corks that make other wine openers cower in fear, the Waring Pro can removes corks with just the push of a button--up to 80 on one full charge! The brushed stainless accents add a stylish touch to any kitchen countertop and a foil cutter is included for clean openings and tidy pours.

  • Type: Wine opener; corkscrew
  • Color: Black, metallic
  • Model: WO50
  • Made In: China
  • Warranty: 5 years on motor; 1 year on everything else
  • Composition: rubber grip, stainless steel accents, plastic
  • Manufacturer: Waring

Ambitions

Apparent goal: kids gift/registry home kitchens restaurants everywhere
Intended audience: novice advanced beginner good home cook gourmet professional
Diet/nutrition: does not apply scary empty promises helpful essential
Green?: not especially neutral mixed blessing earth friendly green!
Innovative: step back standing still progress trendy genius
Problem solving: no better baby steps solid steps giant steps a revelation
Competition: outclassed follower in the pack strong challenger likely champ

Utility/Quality

Ease of use: impossible frustrating OK simple child's play
Intuitive: Ph.D. required barely logical effortless brilliant
Instructions: missing incomprehensible adequate unnecessary excellent
Quality: cheesy questionable good years of service impressive
Parts to lose: inevitable some/many one-piece self-storing not a problem
Power source: none hands batteries outlet green
Clean-up: nightmare wipe clean soap & water scouring pad dishwasher
Does it work?: not at all adequately well very well perfectly
Availability: airfare required online kitchen store department store supermarket

Packaging

Easy to open?: impossible maddening tolerable good opens itself
Green?: fills a landfill huge waste passable minimal waste impressive

Economy

Time saving: time wasting not really modest substantial huge
Labor saving: less efficient marginal a bit noticeable remarkable
Money saving: money wasted none $ $$ $$$
Beats the old way: worse no change better definitely entirely new
Where will it live?: garage/attic drawer cabinet countertop elsewhere

Summary

Fulfills ambitions: falls short almost there satisfies exceeds home run
How often used: once/twice ≥daily ≥weekly ≥monthly ≥yearly/holidays
Worth the space?: no does not apply w/unlimited space w/limited space absolutely
Need it?: a luxury discretionary basic equipment for serious cooks get it
Value: ouch! a little pricey worth splurging on the money a deal
Overall rating: skip it fair good very good excellent

Comments: If you have ever struggled with a corkscrew – well, who hasn't? Waring's new powered wine opener is meant to solve that problem for good. On a full charge, the company says, the opener will remove up to 80 corks (natural or synthetic). There is a foil cutter included, which stows neatly in the front of the unit.

One visitor to our test kitchen exclaimed at both the size of the unit and the label touting its capacity to remove 80 corks on single charge. Who would need to remove 80 corks?, she wondered. Apparently Waring doesn't call it a professional opener for nothing.

Some customers have reported problems with battery life, especially after an extended period of disuse. Waring says you will need to recharge the unit if it is left off its base for more than 30 days. The company recommends that you store the unit on its base so that you always have a fresh charge. Nickle-metal hydride batteries, which are used in this unit, are typically rechargeable up to 1,500 times (which is to say, the opener may be good for 120,000 corks, or 6,000 a year for the next 20 years, or slightly more than one cork a day for the next 328 years – your choice).

In our experience, the wine opener worked very well. Place it squarely over the bottle, hold the bottle in one hand to keep it from turning, and push the toggle button down (as in the corkscrew moves down into the cork and pulls the cork up completely out of the bottle). After the cork has been removed from the bottle, push the up side of the button to move the corkscrew up and the cork down, where you can remove it from the end of the corkscrew, or worm.

The corkscrew is likely to go all the way through the cork, so if you are going to want to recork your bottle, you'll want a replacement stopper.

If the cork breaks, you are going to have a dickens of a time getting it out of the opener. The entire cork disappears into the unit, and if only a fragment goes in, it will not protrude far enough out for you to grasp with your fingers. Some combination of needle-nose pliers and relentless teenager will quite possibly be required to get it out.

The list price is on the high side, but we have seen it many places for less than half that. The wine opener and its base unit do take up a certain amount of space – more than a standing wine bottle. But sometimes there is a price to be paid for convenience….