Introduction: How to Fix a Broken Rabbit Electric Wine Opener

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My $20 Rabbit Electric Wine Opener from Costco broke. The motor spins but the corkscrew doesn't.

So I bought another one and then decided to see if the broken one was fixable. Turns out, it is -- IF you have a few items and tools lying around the house plus some time to kill. But hey, that's one less thing not going to the landfill, right?

Credit goes to this reddit thread which helped me overcome the initial hurdle -- removing the stainless steel cover.

Supplies

What you will need...

Required:

  • #1 Phillips screwdriver
  • Heat gun, or access to a gas stovetop (or some sort of heat/flame source).
  • About an inch of hard wire measuring 9/64" (or 3.5mm) thick.
  • Wire cutters or hacksaw

Good to have:

  • Nitrile gloves
  • An "ove glove" or oven mitt
  • Paper towels (because there will be a lot of grease)
  • Tweezers
  • Small flathead screwdriver
  • Lots of patience

Step 1: Remove Stainless Steel Sleeve

Using a heat gun, heat up the stainless steel sleeve to soften the glue holding it on. After a few moments, try pulling the sleeve straight off while wearing an oven mitt or similar glove as it will be hot. Be careful to not melt the plastic!

I rotated mine over a small gas burner on low and while it melted the glue in seconds, it also slightly melted the plastic at the end near the charging contacts. It's only cosmetic though and didn't affect charging.

Step 2: Remove Six Phillips Screws

Using a Phillips #1 screwdriver, remove all six screws.

I like the Wiha 26194 Screwdriver Set, Phillips With Precision Handles, 4 Piece set from Amazon.

Separate the body and remove the large spring, black plastic cork slider "thing", white ring and small spring as shown.

Step 3: Open the Motor Casing and Remove the Gears and Corkscrew

Twist open the motor casing counter-clockwise. You should wear nitrile gloves at this point and grab some paper towels because it's going to get greasy.

Inside you find 9 gears: 6 white and 3 orange. Carefully remove them all noting how they all fit in.

  • The top layer is 3 white gears.
  • The middle layer is the same as the top.
  • The bottom layer contains the 3 orange gears.

Now remove the corkscrew by first prying off the white "C" retaining clip. The corkscrew assembly will now slide up and out of the motor housing. See photos.

Step 4: Realize Why It the Darn Thing Broke

After disassembling everything, I noticed the problem, inside the orange gears were clear pins. They used to be attached to the clear disc part of the corkscrew. They are so small it's no wonder they were easily sheared off. This product was clearly designed to break.

There's no way those 3 tiny pins could withstand the torques required to open hard corks! They are roughly the size of a toothpick. See photo. The arrows show where there pins broke off. Sooo weak!

Step 5: Drill 3 Holes Into the Corkscrew Assembly

Using my drill bit set, I quickly discovered that the holes inside the orange gears were 9/64" (or 3.5mm). So I drilled 3 holes into the corkscrew. I drilled them in a different location where the original pins were.

Step 6: Make New Pins

I looked around my garage and found some of that stiff coated wire the comes with some orchids. They were the same size, so I used my wire cutters and cut 3 new pins that were just long enough to fit inside the new holes plus the thickness of an orange gear.

I probably should have filed the ends of the pins flat using a file, but just didn't feel like it.

I then reassembled everything... this part took over an hour for me because working in the grease was challenging, but I eventually got it all back together.

Step 7: Reassemble

Put everything back together. Make the small spring goes between the white trigger ring and the motor and then make sure the blade coming off the white ring is over the metal contacts. This is the "kill switch" for when the cork hits the top of the opener.

Next, add the large spring and then the black plastic cork retaining thing making sure that the sides are in the "rails" located on the sides of the body.

Screw it back together.

Slide the stainless steel cover back on then heat as needed to remelt the glue.

Profit?