Xiaomi automatic corkscrew review

Comments

TGIF — time for wine (and a review)!

I’ve been using the electric corkscrew Xiaomi Mijia for more than a year now and I’m pretty happy with it.

It features a rechargeable battery, which means there’s one more gadget to charge. However, I dare say you won’t need to charge it frequently unless you drink wine a crate a day.

Its full name is Xiaomi Mijia Huohou automatic electric corkscrew and you can buy one for about € 22.

What’s in the box

It comes in a minimalistic white cardboard box, like many other Xiaomi products.

Apart from the corkscrew (pretty heavy one) there’s also a user’s manual in Chinese, a foil-cutter, and a USB-to-Micro-USB charging cable, but no USB charger.

Usage

The corkscrew is extremely easy to use. The only control it has is an up-down rocker button.

First, cut the foil off the bottle’s neck using the provided cutter tool so that the cork is exposed.
Then you put the bottom of the corkscrew on the neck and push Down. The device will light blue and start to whirr—the cork will be pulled out. As soon as the cork is entirely out of the neck, the device will automatically halt and the lighting will turn red.
Finally, you push Up and the motor will reverse and push the cork out of the gadget.

This is a short video demonstration of the action:

Charging

The battery level is displayed by four small white LEDs when you hold either button.

In order to charge it, plug it to any USB port or charger using the provided Micro USB cable:

A full charge takes a couple of hours.

Conclusions

As I said, I’ve been using this gadget for more than a year. And it just works, it’s quite robust and easily pulls both corkwood and plastic corks.

I can’t say how many bottles it can run on a single charge but it’s definitely dozens. I’m not a huge wine drinker so I’ve charged it perhaps tree times over the past year.