Old IT acronym: PEBCAK. Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard.
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It has a thinner worm with a very sharp point so tends to require less pressure when driving the worm, reducing risk of pushing the cork in if it doesn’t have a lot of friction along the glass.
You can drive the prongs down further because of the way it fits over the worm piece than you can using a waiter’s plus a prong opener.
So the more delicate the assignment, the greater the advantage for the Durand.
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Yes, much better, have used mine many many times and it always comes through. Amazing tool!
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Thank you. I appreciate the detailed explanation. It makes a lot of sense.
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Sorry Tom, its 100% user error. I’m still batting .1000 with my Durand and use it pretty often.
As they say…practice makes perfect. Give it another shot!
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I was right. From Jan 2022:
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Wow, it’s like deja vu or something. Even the joke about a PhD engineer not needing to read the instructions.
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I resisted getting a Durand for a long time and just did the Pulltap/Monopol hack. The Durand is more reliable, which is really the whole purpose of the screw/prong approach.
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I’ve only had mine fail on 1 or 2 bottles. Usually its when the cork is so loose, even a light tough pushes it in or where its super crumbly. Mine is getting pretty beat up at this point after dozens if not hundreds of bottles. The ah-so tines are getting very bendy when rotating and pulling for tighter corks compared to a new one a friend got. Waiting for it to break soon.
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I have messed-up at least one other ah-so while using it to remove a very tight cork; my conclusion was that I probably didn’t need an ah-so, and shouldn’t have used one.
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I use the Durand a lot.
I affectionately refer to it as “Durand Durand”. The young staff don’t have the foggiest about my lame Dad joke, having never listened to Girls on Film or The Reflex…but I digress…
It’s weakness is soft and crumbly corks. Sometimes the screw can hollow them out, but these corks are so bad, nothing will work.
To me it’s still the best solution on ''Planet Earth"
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10% eh? That’s rough. 
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Yes, major deja vu….
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Kent,
That’s good to know. There may be an application to just go in solo with the Ah So portion when these types of corks are encountered with the initial worm attempt.
I’ll merge another thread — my Durand, at its exorbitant price and all, is the only thing in my wine life that makes sense. Saved many a disintegrating cork. Love it and never had a problem.
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What in the Tom Hill is going on?
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I’m a Durand fan. As designated noob at a recent tasting of heavy hitter Burgs and Bordeaux, I got to open most of the bottles. 09’ Rousseau Chambertin? 82 Chevalier Blanc? What could possibly go wrong?
I was a touch sweaty about it, but they all opened great.
There was, memorably, a 28’ Montrose (not a typo) that @Sarah_S tackled with the Durand. That one DID have a crumbly cork and came apart some on the way out, but the wine was fresh and delicious, so I guess it did its’ job.
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They probably don’t know who Jane Fonda or Roger Vadim are either….
Ha ha ha! Oop!
How about it’s worked 100% of the time 
Almost a .1000 percent increase!
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