Does anyone here use a Sodastream? My wife likes to drink the 1L HEB flavored carbonated water. I do the cooking, so I do the shopping, and I'm getting tired of lugging around those bottles every trip to the store. We also end up with bags of plastic bottles to recycle requiring more trips to drop it off.

Do the flavors, as far as carbonated water go, taste okay? Some of the reviews on the newer machines on Amazon hint at a 15%+ failure rate in the first months, but for just a few bucks I can get item protection from Amazon for a few years.

I don't care to do a cost savings analysis, as I am sure this is more expensive. I simply want convenience at this point. I might look in to what I can order from Prime Pantry as well, but that doesn't solve the excess bottle problem.

I used to have one a long time ago. They worked fairly well but it wasn't very convenient when it ran out co going to a different store to get it. And having those bottles around unless there's a place to refill them. These problems probably have been fixed since I've used mine. I just buy the cans now.

We have one my sister gave us for Xmas years ago. Didn't use it for years but we suddenly started this summer ... I think it might have been inspired by getting some Topo Chico based on a thread here and then craving bubbles at a time when HEB was out of Topo.

The CO2 bottles can be refilled at Bed Bath and Beyond in B/CS (and I assume elsewhere). We just finished our first bottle of CO2; each carbonates about 60 liters.

We don't use their syrups. We often just use it as a mixer but I've done a homemade grapefruit syrup that came out well. If you google for them there are a lot of recipes for homemade syrups and premise syrups of different kinds.

We drink tons of sparkling water. The soda stream is used daily in our house. I'm cheap, so I have a filler adapter that I use to fill my tanks from my kegerator co2 tank.

Only hiccup we had was ordering some extra bottles from Amazon the three pack arrived with only 2 lids. Not a soda stream issue though.

schmendeler said:

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I'm getting tired of lugging around those bottles every trip to the store

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use a cart?

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Smart ass. I like to use the little cart so I can zip around the gordas with their 5 children sitting in the middle of the aisles and the wine carrier full of water takes up valuable beer space.

I use soda steam for sparking water. The flavors suck!

Technically you're supposed to only carbonate water... but I've made various twists on carbonated mixed drinks (negroni, manhattan, margarita, etc). You just have to be careful.

The flavorings suck; they taste too sugary or not close enough to the "real" thing.

Also, the quality of the carbonation is not anywhere near what the manufacturers use when bottling. It creates a different mouth-feel (FTFY protected). I'll tolerate Sodastream-infused water but don't prefer it and won't go out of my way to keep myself outfitted with supplies.

Tell me more

I'm just leaving on vacation, but if I remember when I come back in a week, I'll post some.

We use ours on occasion. I just add the MIO water drops to ours and it tastes fine. We don't buy the soda stream flavors....they're expensive and the "soda" flavors are way off. blech!

My father in law has one in his garage and he rigged his to a big CO2 tank (think old school concession stand coke machines). So much cheaper and he hardly ever has to refill the tank.

we use ours all the time. carbonated water with any mixer you can think of. ginger, citrus, berries, cucumbers etc. just cut the mixer and drop it in. the carbonation infuses the water with the flavors.

I do not use Soda Stream, but I do make my own carbonated beverages. I am a beer homebrewer, so I use my larger CO2 system and carbonate 5g of well water at a time. I keep it cold and on tap in my keezer, but I have also kept a keg warm with a picnic tap when the keezer is full.

The nice thing about this approach is that I can just keep a half-dozen syrups in the garage fridge, so that each user can mix to taste .. ranginging from soda-like consistency for the kids to very lightly flavored for me.

I used to buy a dozen or more litres of club soda a week. The soda steam made that very convenient and cheaper. Then I got a converter to connect a 20lb CO2 cylinder to it and now it's practically free. If it weren't for the aquarium and beer keg, the CO2 would last a lifetime.

Where can I guy a converter? I got through a tone of CO2 on my SS.

Reload8098 said:

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Where can I guy a converter? I got through a tone of CO2 on my SS.

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Amazon, eBay. Search for soda steam or soda machine adapter. There's houses that connect to a cga320 on a big tank, or adapters to connect paintball canisters that are considerably cheaper.

Even cheaper, but perhaps more work: unscrew the valve off of your completely empty canister and put in crushed dry ice (weighed to match the canister's capacity). Then screw the valve back on and wait for the dry ice to warm and liquefy.

Thanks. Looking to not having to return those small canisters to Walmart. I like my water to be similar to TopoChico which to me has the most bubbles/fizz etc.

What pressure do you have you co2 at for the water.

I have an 8 keg kegerator and have considered putting water in one. For the price of one of them little fancy machines you can probably buy a kegerator.

Or this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072ZY5NGH/ref=asc_df_B072ZY5NGH5297655/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B072ZY5NGH&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198106240524&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17539037161550007115&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028763&hvtargid=pla-355930033122
plus a CO2 tank.

bbry81 said:

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What pressure do you have you co2 at for the water.

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sparkling water or soda can be anywhere from 25-40psi. Personal preference.

Impulse buy at Spec's the other day with the Sodastream in mind:

Jack Rudy changed vodka/gin and tonics for me. Use it with Topo or heavy carbonated Soda Stream and it's so much better than tonic water.