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In this guide
Two devices promise to save an open bottle, and they work on different principles. Coravin pushes argon into the bottle and pours through a needle without removing the cork; Vacu Vin pumps air out and seals the bottle with a stopper. One is a $279 system with capsules; the other is a $19.99 hand pump.
The choice is not which keeps wine longer in the abstract. It is how long the bottle will sit, what closure it has, and whether the wine is still or sparkling.
The things in this guide
A closer look at the products, who they may suit, and what to check before buying.
Timeless Three+ Wine By-the-Glass System
Argon displacement lets a naturally corked bottle be poured without opening it; two capsules ship with the system, at about 15 five-ounce glasses each and 56–61 cents a glass.
Before you buy: Timeless will not reseal a synthetic cork; a natural cork may lose its seal after about 15 punctures; the needle is a $34.95 wear part; capsules are non-returnable.
Price checked October 1, 2026. Retailer prices can change.
Original Wine Saver, Black, with 2 stoppers
A hand pump with a click indicator and two reusable stoppers, backed by a five-year defect warranty and a ten-day still-wine result from a Meron B.V. lab study that Vacu Vin publishes.
Before you buy: Does nothing for sparkling wine; the pump must stay out of water and the dishwasher.
Price checked November 2, 2026. Retailer prices can change.Two ways to keep wine
Coravin replaces the wine poured with argon, an inert gas that, in Coravin's words, shields the remaining wine from oxygen. The bottle stays corked, and the system pours a glass through the cork without opening it. Vacu Vin removes air from the headspace and seals the bottle with its own stopper; the wine meets less oxygen, but the original closure is gone.
Neither method makes wine immortal. Coravin warns that a natural cork may begin to lose its seal after around 15 punctures, and Vacu Vin's ten-day figure is for still wine under vacuum, from a Meron B.V. lab study that Vacu Vin publishes on its US site. The methods buy different amounts of time, at different costs.
Coravin: $279 and a capsule habit
The Timeless Three+ is $279 and ships with two argon capsules, two screw caps and an aerator. Coravin puts each capsule at up to fifteen 150 ml glasses, about five ounces; at $54.95 for six capsules to $199.95 for 24, that is 56–61 cents a glass at non-member prices. The needle is a $34.95 replacement part that Coravin says lasts well over 500 uses, and the 30-day trial applies to systems bought directly from Coravin.
The system is for a bottle that stays open for weeks, not days, and for a closure it can work with: natural cork is the intended case, and the two included screw caps cover screwcap bottles. Coravin says Timeless will not reseal a synthetic cork, and its argon capsules are for still wine only; sparkling wine needs Coravin Sparkling. The cost per glass only makes sense if the bottle would otherwise be poured out.
Vacu Vin: $19.99 and a week
The Original Wine Saver is $19.99 for the pump and two stoppers. The click indicator takes the guesswork out of how much to pump, the stoppers are reusable and dishwasher-safe, and the warranty runs five years against manufacturing defects. The pump itself must stay out of water and the dishwasher.
The claim is up to ten days for still wine, stored upright. That is enough for a weeknight bottle finished on the weekend, and it costs a fraction of the Coravin. It does nothing for sparkling wine, where Vacu Vin points to its Champagne Saver, and the pump can turn sticky if wine is sucked into it, so the routine matters as much as the device.
The closure decides more than the price
Coravin needs a cork that reseals after the needle comes out. Coravin names natural cork first, adds agglomerated, multi-piece and twin-top corks, and says Timeless will not reseal a synthetic one. Screwcap bottles work through the Timeless Screw Cap, two of which come in the Three+ box, and even a natural cork may lose its seal after about 15 punctures.
Vacu Vin swaps the original closure for its own stopper, so a synthetic cork or a screw cap makes no difference, but the bottle has to stand upright and the pump cannot help sparkling wine. That makes the closure and the wine type the first questions, before the price: argon for a naturally corked or screwcap still wine that will last weeks, vacuum for a still wine that will last a week, and a different tool for sparkling.
When each one pays
If the bottle is finished within a week, the $19.99 Vacu Vin is the rational buy; the Coravin's capsule cost and $279 hardware cannot pay back on a bottle that would have been fine anyway. If the bottle is a good one that would otherwise be poured out after two glasses, 56–61 cents of argon a glass is small next to the wine saved, though the $279 system only pays back across many such bottles.
If the wine is sparkling, neither is the right tool. If most bottles have synthetic corks, Timeless will not reseal them and the pump is the one that works. The mistake is buying the more expensive device for a bottle that only needed a stopper, or the cheap pump for a bottle that will sit for a month.
How we put this together
Built from the product pages and listings below, without test scores or results we have not measured. Specifications and prices change, so check the original page for the exact model, current price, delivery, and returns.
- Coravin: Timeless Three+ (opens in a new tab)
- Coravin: FAQs (opens in a new tab)
- Vacu Vin USA: Original Wine Saver (opens in a new tab)
- Coravin: Pure Argon Capsules (opens in a new tab)
- Coravin: Timeless Standard Needle (opens in a new tab)
- Vacu Vin USA: FAQ (opens in a new tab)
- Vacu Vin USA: Meron B.V. study summary (opens in a new tab)
- Vacu Vin USA: warranty and refund policy (opens in a new tab)
