soda machine carbing?

I read thru about the first 30 pages of Papper's thread on pasteurizing to get semi-dry/semi-sweet carbonated cider. The idea REALLY appeals to me, but with some of the missteps that people have had, I fear that I just can't do it safely with my setup.

The only other way that I see that to do it (and not have to store the whole lot in the fridge praying they don't blow) is with cold crashing and force carb kegging. SWMBO says I have to run a few more batches before I can gear up to kegging. She's not willing to cut me loose at the LBHS so that I can keg 3 gallons of my first brew. I don't really blame her.

What I do have is an American born sense of ingenuity. I've got one of plastic tubs that you use to ice down pony kegs and a buddy of mine that's a retail manager thought that one of those home soda machines would be a nice addition to my home, so he brought me one for free when his store quit carrying them.

So, my devious mind has gone to work and come up with these questions.

Can I cold crash by setting my 3gal Better Bottle in the keg tub and covering with ice for 24 hourish? I've heard that you really need to rack off and crash again for best results. So maybe 2 24hr sessions?

At that point, I figured that I'd bottle half still and subject the other half to the soda machine to carb it up. The still ones could be carbed up with the soda machine when opened, the pre-carbed would be ok to take out of the house to parties/picnics.

Other than a few extra bucks for some ice, anyone see a hole in my process?

The soda machine is a SodaStream deluxe. It's one of those used to inject carb straight into individual bottles.

I have tried this before since much like you, I had a soda stream and nothing to do with it. The carbonation didn't really last long after removing the 1L bottle of my cider. I've tried more carbonation and still it didn't meet my expectations. I was even hoping to carb it up and transfer to bottles and cap it...however, I was met with a pitiful hiss sound when I opened it. If you have better luck with it than I did, please let me know. I may have botched it up somewhere in my attempting to carbonate it process. Seemed fairly straight forward though. I will warn you now it will make a mess...so be prepared for that. Too much CO2 also may give the cider a bit of a sulfur smell as well I believe, so be careful.

Soda Stream machines do not play well with anything except water. This is a relatively inexpensive way to get started Soda carbonating kit And later you can use it as a portable tank for dispensing kegs.