Since no one has the Pungo (or do they?) the whole comparison it moot until it’s actually used.
I don’t think fundamental design differences are moot nor require hands-on usage to make note of. Beta testers have had early versions of Pungo for several years. My Pungo information is taken from videos of it in action and discussions with the creator.
I think the comparison of principles of operation is potentially helpful for those weighing the purchase of the Coravin now versus waiting until the Pungo is publicly released. That’s the boat I was in recently. Though I ended up buying the Coravin as well as planning to buy a Pungo.
Hands-on is key. While I think Pungo will be much better for MY usage cases, I still have questions. For 1 example, does Pungo, with a thicker needle, tend to push corks in at all? (especially for older wines).
Not that my opinion matters or that I represent any appreciable percentage of potential purchasers, but if the Coravin were $200, I’d have bought one a long time ago. If the Pungo is under $200 (looks like not), I will definitely grab one.
Any updates on Pungo vs. Coravin?
I don’t own both. Just a Pungo. Have never pushed a cork in but I use it only for younger wines. Use it often. Wife likes a glass of wine and can have a great bottle nightly without deterioration till it’s gone. Wouldn’t use it or Coravin for old bottles since tipping (and sediment dispersal) would happen. Great service also. Had a minor issue and they refurbished it at no cost. Cartridges are cheaper than Coravin also.
I have owned both and cannot recommend Coravin enough.
Anyone that has owned a Pungo knows of the many many design flaws that render the device often useless. Burt & Co are super gracious always fixing the flawed devices but how many breakdowns are we supposed to deal with before just moving on?
I hadn’t used the device in years due to the malfunctioning when they contacted me to offer to fix another design flaw they found. I sent them the device which they promptly fixed and sent back.
I used the device a little before needing to switch cartridges. That first pull on a new Pungo cartridge comes out hot so any experienced user knows to be cautious on that first pour. The Pungo let out a little bit of wine, started to hiss and exploded off my 2008 Jones Family Cabernet causing ~$10,000 in damage to the sofa, painting etc. in my home (just a couple photos included below). I contacted Pungo who examined the device and said there was nothing wrong with the device so this was all user error. Tell that to my wrecked living room and insurance claim.
I got the insurance company to cover most of the damage, leaving me about $800-$1000 out of pocket. I told Burt I wanted nothing to do with the Pungo and he offered to buy my Pungo off of me for $150 so he could re-sell it to one of you. I said I wasn’t interested and offered to meet in the middle of my out of pocket expenses (~$400).
Burt went radio silent for months despite repeated emails from me asking about my counter-offer. Finally, after repeated failed email replies Burt sends me an invoice to pay for him to ship the Pungo back to me. Nice touch there. I finally tell Burt I don’t want to have to go the legal route but his complete failure to reply to my counter of $400 is leaving me frustrated, especially after all the lengths I went to with the insurance company, getting my place repainted, fixing the painting (reducing the claim ~$3000), etc.
Here is Burt’s reply:
Kevin,
The short response is “Go for it”. The long response is below:
Make sure you give Too a copy of the included instruction guide, which details the warranty agreement (pages 36-38), as well as the Important Safety Guidelines (on pages 2-3), and the specific details about fully inserting the needle (pages 20-21). I’ve also attached a photo of the very obvious and blatant Important Safety Instructions that is the first thing you see when you open the box.
My guess is a competent attorney that had your best interests (and not the lining of their own pockets) at heart, would advise against litigation for many obvious reasons. I’ll try to spell them out for you without using “a lot of words”, as these seem to frustrate you.
1.) Suing an out-of-state entity is quite a bit more work than suing the guy down the street. If you classify putting in a claim with your insurance as “extraordinary lengths”, it might be a bit overwhelming for you.
2.) The incident was, without doubt in our minds, user error. We video recorded everything from receiving your package, opening it, trying it as is, and then the actual teardown and inspection. All this, of course, will be presented as evidence if necessary. If you have a different conclusion than the one I meticulously laid out in the last few emails, I haven’t heard it. Perhaps you were planning on bringing expert witnesses (i.e., qualified forensic mechanical engineers) to the trial to refute our claims. If so, it’d probably be cheaper for you to lay out a convincing hypothesis directly to us beforehand, as our engineers charge hundreds of dollars per hour to actually testify, as I’m sure would yours.
3.) I initially offered you a brand new Pungo with a retail value of $429.00. You refused it and decided you didn’t want to continue using a Pungo. I then offered you a prorated refund of $150.00, since you’d had use of your Pungo for approximately 4 years and you only paid $329.00 for it. Frankly speaking, the small difference in the sum I offered you ($150.00) and the counteroffer requested ($400.00) makes you look rather petty. Doubly so when your next instinct was to threaten litigation instead of discussing it reasonably. Since this incident was a failure on your part to follow proper procedure in using the Pungo, we have no moral or legal responsibility to refund anything. However, when you made it clear that you wanted nothing to do with the Pungo in future, I merely offered the refund so that we could be rid of you once and for all. I could tell from your rather inaccurate, exaggerated, and agitated descriptions that you weren’t very receptive to finding out the actual cause for the incident. This attitude in combination with multiple past emails from you over the years stating (in your words) your ineptitude in using the Pungo, made me think perhaps it isn’t for you. Finally, knowing that past and future usage of the Pungo has, and would, save you thousands of dollars in spoilage doesn’t seem to be enough motivation for you to accept the fact that you were wrong, learn from it, and move forward to enjoy those savings. That doesn’t exactly make you the type of person we need to continue a relationship with.
4.) Since you’ve already admitted to accepting a settlement from your insurance company, it should be them that comes after us for full damages if they suspected liability on our part. We haven’t heard from them yet. Your requesting anything over your $250.00 deductible would actually constitute insurance fraud, and they usually take a rather dim view of double-dipping. Perhaps you would like to finally provide us with all the documentation you have up to this point, including your insurance company’s information, along with your policy #, cleaning bills, receipts, etc., as I’ve seen no evidence of this $8000.00 loss you keep insisting on.
5.) As a company, we have a very clear track record of not only dealing very positively with issues brought to us by customers, but proactively reaching out and upgrading their units on our dime, which is a rather rare thing these days. You yourself were the recipient of this level of service. On June 18th, 2018, three years after your purchase, I sent you just such an email, of which you glad to take advantage of. This email, your response, as well as the dozens, if not hundreds, of like responses from other customers would be something we’d love to have on the record in court. It would also be a good foundation for a countersuit, should you decide to continue to publicly insist that the Pungo is a defective and dangerous device.
In any event, I’m about done communicating with you as well. This has taken up way more time than is warranted, and has become rather tedious. I think I’d rather correspond with your attorney as well, or even better, a judge that’s willing to listen to hard evidence.
The $150.00 offer is off the table. Your Pungo is ready to ship back as soon as you pay for the shipping invoice I have twice sent you. Until then it will be in storage. I suggest you find a buyer for it whom will give you what you want.
Burt
Needless to say I have had much better experiences with Coravin. Each buyer must choose with whom they want to do business with carefully.
I know of no design flaws w Pungo, let alone “many many.” I’ve used mine for years, had a little hissing issue Burt fixed at no cost even though out of warranty. Even my mechanically disinclined wife manages it well. Bought one for my son who uses it often. Sorry for your experience. Kind of reminds me of all those Coravin bottle explosions before they retrofitted and provided a neoprene jacket to place around the bottle.
Damn Kevin, sorry to hear that! Another happy Coravin user here, and based on your story (granted we don’t know all the details) and the fact that my Coravin works incredibly well, I dont think I’ll be looking to try a Pungo anytime soon.
Is there explosion risk with the Pungo? I’ve used mine for 30+ cartridges without incident. It does occasionally hiss.
I’ve used my Pungo for years and have had no issues. I’ve not had a hissing issue.
For Coravin users, is the actual device of the Model 3 the same as the other models? That is, are you just buying cartridges and cosmetics with the more expensive models, or is it an improved and more functional device than the 3?
For Pungo, reading this thread I thought it might be cheaper. On their website it looks like $429 is base cost. Also, for the newer Pungo is the needle hole still big, so that taking the Pungo out of the bottle after using is contraindicated? Or can you use it like a Coravin and reinsert it into the same bottle a week later? Alan, you sound sold on Pungo, which is a great recommendation in my mind. Are you using it for younger whites, or for everything?
I have had a pungo for over 5 years and been thru hundreds and hundreds of cartridges. I use it on old and new bottles alike. Never had anything like what is pictured above happen and have had great customer service from those guys. In fact I just bought another one for my dad who is also an engineer and will really appreciate the great build quality of the pungo vs. the coravin. In my experience Pungo and the principals are a great example of a small well engineering product that I want to support. I understand others may well have different views and experiences of course.
I am glad people are sharing some of their good stories. People’s mileage may vary with their device.
I purchased one of the early models. It had to be fixed multiple times to the point where I gave up on using the device. Like I said in my original post, they were always quick to make the fixes to the device.
After they contacted me to send them the device for another fix, I attempted to use the device again. Nothing too complicated was going on in my use of the device. I replaced a cartridge, inserted the Pungo into the 2008 Jones Family wine and it exploded off the bottle spraying wine everywhere and causing all sorts of damage, but thankfully not striking anyone.
At that point Pungo chose to blame the user for their device exploding off the bottle.
I have had much better experiences with Coravin. It’s up to each consumer to choose what is best for them based on available information. I am simply sharing my experience.
John, do you “plug” the hole up like some of the years old reviews indicate? Or do you just pull out the needle and the cork reseals? Thx.
Brad,
The needle is to large to leave open. I use the nail like stopper they provide I pull the Pungo out. I’ve left bottles like that for weeks with and results were good. It comes with two stoppers. I have even used a 10 penny nail in a pinch when I had not stopper and works just fine as well.
I often have two bottle open so swap the device out reasonably often but many times I just leave the pungo in as I will drink one bottle over a few days. In fact I just pungo what I drink and leave it inserted until I need to swap it out. I’ll even put a white in the fridge with the pungo attached.
Do folks use the bottle sleeve with the Coravin?
I haven’t bothered, wondering whether that’s unwise.
I do not…but probably should.
Think I used it twice when they first sent it to me, and havent bothered since (been using it for years very successfully - was a fairly early adopter).
Had a bottle explode on me before they were making those… I use it
I’m sure it only takes one 
I really do need to start using it. Just lazy not to.