---
title: What Short Fills Actually Cost
url: https://fizzwizz.ca/cost-of-short-fills/
date: 2026-10-15T07:41:38+00:00
modified: 2026-10-15T07:41:38+00:00
lang: en_US
---

# What Short Fills Actually Cost

Short fills feel like a small, normal loss. A few cans pulled here, a few bottles dumped there. Put a number on it and it often isn't small at all.

## Where short fills come from

There are plenty of causes on a packaging line. One that's easy to overlook sits upstream, in the bright tank: head pressure that drifts during the fill. If head pressure moves, fill levels move with it ([Head Transfer Mode](/head-transfer-mode/)). Foaming from over-carbonated or warm product is another.

## A simple way to work it out

![Coins spilling out of a can, illustrating money lost to short fills.](https://fizzwizz.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/15-inline-coins-from-can.jpg)

You need four numbers from your own line:

| Input | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **A** | Packages filled per year |
| **B** | Share rejected or dumped for short fill, overfill or spillage |
| **C** | Cost of the beverage in one package (ingredients, energy, labour, excise if already incurred) |
| **D** | Cost of the empty package (can or bottle, lid or crown, label) |

**Annual loss = A × B × (C + D)**

That's before counting product lost to spillage that never made it into a package, or the time spent re-running and sorting.

### Illustration only

These inputs are made up to show the arithmetic. Use your own.

| Input | Example |
| --- | --- |
| A: packages per year | 200,000 |
| B: share lost | 2% |
| C: beverage cost per package | $0.40 |
| D: package cost | $0.25 |

200,000 × 0.02 × ($0.40 + $0.25) = **$2,600 a year**, on these example inputs. Halving the loss rate halves that figure.

## What stable head pressure does

In Head Pressure Mode, FizzWizz connects the CO2 input directly to the arm and holds the headspace at your set pressure, defaulting to 15 PSI. On the line in our video, head pressure varied by about 0.02 PSI during the entire fill.

Breweries using FizzWizz report the results in their own words:

> "I can run my bottling machines flat out and achieve 70% reduction in spillage and short fills." Henry Pedro, Boxing Rock Brewing Co.
>
> "Instantly less short fills, carbonation level is exactly what I want each time." Mathew Kenny, Tatamagouche Brewing Co.

Your result depends on where your losses come from. If drifting head pressure is part of it, that part is fixable.

Across customer data and its own testing and trials, BrewWizz has seen 70 to 90% less product lost to short fills or overfills, alongside a 10 to 30% reduction in CO2 consumption.

**Want help working out your numbers?** [Contact us](/contact/).

## Sources

- [Head Transfer Mode](/head-transfer-mode/) (15 PSI default, 0.02 PSI variation, fill levels).
- FizzWizz [Testimonials](/testimonials/) (Boxing Rock, Tatamagouche) and [home page](/) (70 to 90% and 10 to 30% figures, based on BrewWizz customer data, testing and trials).
- Worked example: illustrative arithmetic only.