I regret getting mine. They are priced to hide the true cost of the carbonated tanks. I'm looking at doing the soda mod now (so that it'll take paintball tanks) but I haven't been able to figure out how to refill those.
I'm sure others will chime in, but I would hardly call a Sodastream 'healthy.'Our second hand store has a good one for only $8 right now. I think the CO2 cartidges cost under 50 cents each, so the seltzer bottle is only as good as how long it can stay pressurized without leaking. A few days to a week at best, if I recall. New ones may be better?
If it's carbonated water you're after, you can buy an old-school seltzer bottle for $30.
Cheers.
Way better idea: build your own!!!! I built a DIY carbonator a couple years ago, and it's fantastic! I keep meaning to write up what I did, but it's pretty similar to this setup: http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2012-06/how-make-your-own-home-carbonation-system
I get that the hacks are less expensive, but even LESS less expensive than those hacksis a small house that is too tiny handle a whopping sized CO2 container (that saves more money than any CO2 hack) but is just big enough for a small soda stream.I'm a bit baffled by this comment. Are you suggesting that when asking the question "should I get a soda-stream" the answer should be "buy a smaller house"? If so that's the most non-sequitous response I've heard here yet. Or perhaps you are suggesting that it's simply impossible to put a CO2 cylinder anywhere in a mustachian house. If that is the case, I also don't understand this response either, for two reasons. First, if someone wants to keep a CO2 cylinder in-house, it won't take up more room than a toaster-oven. It will fit in most base cabinets, or like a previous poster said you can leave it on the counter to really make a statement (not my choice, but hey). Second, there's no need to actually keep a larger CO2 cylinder at home at all - you can refill your sodastream cartridges (for free if you have a decent hookup) and then your storage requirements will never be more than the Sodastream carbonator.
(And what others said about looking for deals on the cartridges, but they do last a while).
Ah - finally a topic I can claim expertise on. This is the MMM way of doing Sodastream.
1) Purchase a used 20LB CO2 tank which has a dip tubed installed. Go as cheap as possible here, you are going to be exchanging this tank out with your local welder, so just need something to get in the door.
2) Purchase this: http://co2doctor.com/fillstationproIIspec.htm (make sure to either buy the paintball tank from here also, or a valve to trade out on your soda stream tank)
...Now $15/refill on a 20LB CO2 from welder shop buys you several years worth of C02 (most non-heavy users)... and you can refill as you desire.
3) Purchase this: http://www.amazon.com/Valve-Coca-Cola-Brand-Bag-Syrups/dp/B009B1PA90 (taps into bag-in-box products)
Bottom line:
This was the cheapest way of doing soda stream. Most local sams club sell COKE Bag-in-box (BIB) soda's... PROTIPS = Refrigerate both the box of syrup and the soda-stream bottles, prior to to carbonation/mixing. The key to getting water to hold carbonation = low temp. The key to getting syrup to hold carbination = low temp... So you want them both cold. 5 to 1 ratio = Coke's official ratio. Draw lines on my bottle with a sharpie, to know where to refill water first, then syrup to. I used tap water, and accumulated a taste for it very quickly.
PROCESS = fill bottle with tap water (up to water line), refrigerate until full cold... when you want soda, take bottle, carbonate, then fill up to syrup line... creating 5 to 1 ratio.
Update = Although we've mostly stopped drinking soda because it cost extra and it's terrible for health, we still use this rig to make carbonated lemonade and home made sprite, with lemon, limes, ehthyriol & stevia sweetner.
I get that the hacks are less expensive, but even LESS less expensive than those hacksis a small house that is too tiny handle a whopping sized CO2 container (that saves more money than any CO2 hack) but is just big enough for a small soda stream.I'm a bit baffled by this comment. Are you suggesting that when asking the question "should I get a soda-stream" the answer should be "buy a smaller house"? If so that's the most non-sequitous response I've heard here yet. Or perhaps you are suggesting that it's simply impossible to put a CO2 cylinder anywhere in a mustachian house. If that is the case, I also don't understand this response either, for two reasons. First, if someone wants to keep a CO2 cylinder in-house, it won't take up more room than a toaster-oven. It will fit in most base cabinets, or like a previous poster said you can leave it on the counter to really make a statement (not my choice, but hey). Second, there's no need to actually keep a larger CO2 cylinder at home at all - you can refill your sodastream cartridges (for free if you have a decent hookup) and then your storage requirements will never be more than the Sodastream carbonator.
(And what others said about looking for deals on the cartridges, but they do last a while).
Maybe I missed your point entirely?
Re places to get CO2: I got mine from Airgas (http://www.airgas.com/), which is a welding supply shop (mostly in the Northeast, I think). But they seem to do a fair amount of business to non-welders---the guy assumed I wanted CO2 for a home beer keg. (Which would have been great!) So the tank they sold me was labelled "food-grade CO2" (which I guess is just more pure???).
I'm going to try filling mine with dry ice when the canister is empty. I found instructions on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YouxAodQXv8&feature=c4-overview&list=UUi3s6qwTcD99sZjZuT4e33g
I'll let you know if it works.
I get that the hacks are less expensive, but even LESS less expensive than those hacks is a small house that is too tiny handle a whopping sized CO2 container (that saves more money than any CO2 hack) but is just big enough for a small soda stream.
Maybe I missed your point entirely?
I think the point here is that while a CO2 container is a cheaper alternative to the soda stream, if you have a small kitchen (or house) that has no room for a CO2 container (a small house that you may have chosen for the cost-savings), the soda stream is a pretty decent alternative to buying seltzer water in cans at a high premium.
Our house has a sodastream problem.
We used to have a bottled seltzer problem.
Before that we had a coke 0 problem.
Before that, well, you don't want to know.
Our sodastream usage works out to be $0.13 / liter, which is pretty good. We definitely drink more water than we used to, so that's a health plus.
I'm about to embark on a modification of the sodastream to use a normal kegerator co2 bottle. That should improve the efficiency to around $0.013 / liter. At that point... I'll no longer pay attention to how much we use it.
It's been a while and I feel a little bad for resurrecting an old thread... but the project is finished! I have a franken-seltzerator! Muahahahah! Startup costs: $253.10 Savings per month: $38.45 So we're breaking even in a little more than six months. After that, we're coming out waaaaay ahead! Plus I didn't blow myself or Mrs. FW up and the entire thing from start to finish took a leisurely hour (this includes the time to take all the photos for the blog). Honestly, I feel really dumb for not doing this a long time ago. Our seltzer addiction has been building over time, so we have an excuse for not doing this a couple of years ago. But six months ago... man I really should have pulled the trigger. And yes. We have a seltzer addiction. But the bright side is that we drink a ton of water! Full story with lots of photos is on the blog (http://www.frugalwoods.com/2014/08/11/how-to-cheap-homemade-seltzer-with-a-modified-sodastream/). Feel free to hit me up with any questions about building or facepunching about drinking enough seltzer that we needed an industrial sized system :-) | (http://i.imgur.com/Tdtv26Dl.jpg) (http://imgur.com/Tdtv26D) |
Feel free to hit me up with any questions about building or facepunching about drinking enough seltzer that we needed an industrial sized system :-)
Feel free to hit me up with any questions about building or facepunching about drinking enough seltzer that we needed an industrial sized system :-)
How much seltzer are you drinking?
Feel free to hit me up with any questions about building or facepunching about drinking enough seltzer that we needed an industrial sized system :-)
How much seltzer are you drinking? I bought a used Sodastream ~10 months ago. It has one of the larger carburetors (130L I believe?), presumably near full. I was happy with the Craigslist price, but assumed I'd be cursing the re-fills. So far we haven't had to do any re-fills, and I think we carbonate between 0.5-1L of water/day. I'm surprised we haven't run out.
How much were you carbonating?
(Also, I get free carbonated water at work out of the soda machine to quench my thirst for most of my waking hours.. that helps)
Well, I would vote for waste of money.
Indirect costs that you may not be considering are dental issues. Carbonated drinks have a low pH (3) - anyone concerned about enamel erosion with all that soda?
I don't understand the "addiction" to the bubbly stuff. It just seems like a waste of money to me. Tap water rules in my house--preferable room temperature.