Soda Stream

I have seen a lot of posts here about soda streams. I am wondering though. Are they that great? I would very much like to do a force carb system without dropping crazy amounts of money on it. Are Soda Streams the way to go?

Thanks much in advance

I have one and I use it daily. I can't drink sugary carbonated beverages, for some reason it doesn't matter if it is corn syrup, sugar, caffeinated, or whatever it always gives me a headache the next day. However, I love carbonated beverages, can't live on beer, and find flavored carbonated water that doesn't have artificial sweeteners difficult to find and expensive when I do. So, I use my soda stream and add their flavoring extracts. In fact, I am looking into buying a fitting so I can run it off my CO2 tank in my kegerator as my single biggest complaint is that their CO2 refills are absurdly overpriced...$15 for the small size at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Here's my thoughts on the economics of it.

Some folks here have had some success force carbonating in a Tap-a-Draft system with some modification to hook up a paintball tank and regulator.

I think it boils down to this:
If you want an aesthetic device that fits on your countertop, and you're satisfied with carbonating only water and adding flavored syrups (beit storebought or homemade), get the sodastream.

If you're looking for a cheaper alternative in the long run, have some space to devote to it, you want to experiment with force carbonating ready made beverages and have more flexibility, get yourself a kegging setup.

Sodastream can run off cheaper paintball tanks with fittings at co2doctor.com. I may have to do this because walmart is showing no sodastream tank exchanges available or orderable at any branch for months. Only one bby store left to check. I wonder what the risk is for unclean paintball co2 tanks or gas. I'm sure they would just laugh if I demanded food grade (I live in a quirky area not at all like mainland usa).

The book "the artisan soda workshop" has a rave review of sodastream on page 17 which might even be readable online with the amazon sampler feature. The author passes on sodastreams explanation to her on why they only want you to add syrup after carbing. Sugar or whatever buildup can crystalize in the nozzle and clog and build up pressure. Therefore you have the knowledge on how to cautiously violate that rule.. just don't be a jerk and sue them if you get hurt doing it. I bet much of their high cost is to buildup a fund to payout for frivolous lawsuits like if their bottles burst (still worth it to buy their pricey half size bottles which work a lot better preserving fizz).

I would say buy sodastream for convenience and freedom to make flavors to your taste. Their premixed flavors are putrid to me because they all have at least half some fake sweetener. There is hardly enough headroom in the bottle to put in conventional sweetener (except maybe for expensive agave which is extra sweet). So I don't think you can easily replicate commercial sodas which require a lot of room for maybe 20% syrup.

But replicating commercial sodas is a fools game even if it was easily attainable, because like the book "fix the pumps" says we are in the dark ages of dumbed down sodas. A hundred or so years ago sodas were creative and aimed at excellence rather than mass market. You can do this yourself or at least fine tune like using good ingredients with less sugar needed to cover up it's low quality. However you won't attain this without a lot of initial failures and a battle with foam volcanos.

daft said:

Sodastream can run off cheaper paintball tanks with fittings at co2doctor.com. I may have to do this because walmart is showing no sodastream tank exchanges available or orderable at any branch for months. Only one bby store left to check. I wonder what the risk is for unclean paintball co2 tanks or gas. I'm sure they would just laugh if I demanded food grade (I live in a quirky area not at all like mainland usa).

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If you have a Bed Bath and Beyond try them, that is where I exchange, I keep all the $5 off a $15 purchase coupons they send me so I get the exchange for $10.

The book "the artisan soda workshop" has a rave review of sodastream on page 17 which might even be readable online with the amazon sampler feature. The author passes on sodastreams explanation to her on why they only want you to add syrup after carbing. Sugar or whatever buildup can crystalize in the nozzle and clog and build up pressure. Therefore you have the knowledge on how to cautiously violate that rule.. just don't be a jerk and sue them if you get hurt doing it. I bet much of their high cost is to buildup a fund to payout for frivolous lawsuits like if their bottles burst (still worth it to buy their pricey half size bottles which work a lot better preserving fizz).

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I accidentally tried to carb once after I put in the water flavor extract and it made a mess...it was a one time deal so I don't know if it will always happen but it was good enough evidence to only carb water for me.

ok, thought i would chime in with my 2 cents. I thought about the same as you, get a soda stream and enjoy the soda made from home. Then I started doing the math. Had I gone that route, then I would have spent almost as much as buying 2 soda streams for all the conversions or buying the tanks that is suppose to go in there. Instead, I spent some money getting 2 paintball tanks and everything needed to use a carbonation cap. That was fine for us for a while, but then we upgraded to a 5 gal keg with a picnic tap. It's spending about the same amount, but we were able to spread the payment across several months. Now we are enjoying carbed water with our choice of syrups mixed in (my son has come up with some weird combos like butterscotch/watermelon mixed) and it might cost us around $3.50 a month, which is what we are charged with refilling the CO2 tanks, and we don't have to worry about making the bottles explode when adding syrup. We mix by the glass. But your mileage will vary, depending on how much you use the machine.

:smack: sorry for the long-winded post.

Kythcat said:

getting 2 paintball tanks and everything needed to use a carbonation cap. That was fine for us for a while, but then we upgraded to a 5 gal keg with a picnic tap. It's spending about the same amount,

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I wonder if sodastream benefits over the carbonation cap by it's injector that goes below water level. Or it's a drawback forcing you to stay with their headroom constraints. But with the keg, doesn't that bring in a lot of complications to keep the water cold at carbing time? Won't fit in my fridge, or at least it would collapse the plastic shelves, let alone the carbing apparatus.

Your right, to go the keg route you would need a kegerator of some sort to keep the water chilled. I've had a sodastream for probably 3 years now and we use it daily. My biggest complaint is the cost of the co2 bottles. At $15 each its about 10 times what they should cost. Using their syrups puts the per liter cost right around $0.50. Which is about the same cost of soda on sale. Now the main reason we keep using it is the ease of use. My wife likes plain seltzer water, the kids like cola and root beer. Its easy to accomodate everyone. That being said I'm working towards a keg and refridgerator setup to get away from the expensive co2 refills. If your thinking about a sodastream in order to force carb anything but water, forget about it. The juice, beer,wine, whatever erupts like a mini vulcano due to the force of the co2 being injected. I know because i've tried...

daft said:

I wonder if sodastream benefits over the carbonation cap by it's injector that goes below water level. Or it's a drawback forcing you to stay with their headroom constraints. But with the keg, doesn't that bring in a lot of complications to keep the water cold at carbing time? Won't fit in my fridge, or at least it would collapse the plastic shelves, let alone the carbing apparatus.

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It probably will, but then I'm lucky right now as I have space under my sink that stays cold year round, so don't need a Kegerator or fridge yet. It's something I am looking forward to getting in the future when I have the extra money.

For cheaper sodastream syrup I got ahold of some monin syrup bottles which are pretty good... torani may be cheaper but havent found them. And frozen concentrate cans work great.

For cheaper co2, http://co2doctor.com/freedomo.htm offers not only adapters so you can insert paintball bottles in the sodastream... it also seems to offer fittings to fill sodastream co2 bottles from a big cheap one by yourself. I can't follow his boobytrap warnings though.

I've got to admit my sodastream machine is crippled from me stroking the lever too fast and forcefully (once). I can barely get the gas to pulse. There seems to be a stupid interlock so I can't open it up to see if it is self repairable or if I need to return it or what. It seems to realize I have a new co2 bottle in it and waits till pressure drops til I can unlatch it?

I have both, a Sodastream with the co2 doctor adapter to use paintball tanks and a kegging system with several carbonator caps. I use the Sodastream daily. It's much easier than using the carbonator caps and SWMBO let's me leave it on the counter. I use the carbonator caps whenever I brew a fresh batch of beer, cider or hard lemonade to force carb a 2 liter bottle or smaller bottles for friends. For me the cost of the adapter wasn't a big deal since I was given the Sodastream for Christmas and didn't pay a cent for it. $15 for 14.5 oz of co2 seemed insane to me, but $4.50 for 24 oz in a paintball tank seemed very affordable. My system holds up to a 24 oz tank inside the Sodastream housing so from the outside you have no idea that it has paintball tank inside. I loved the idea of the other adapter that allows you to use a 5# co2 tanks, but SWMBO would never allow that on the kitchen counter.

Sorry, I had to fix my co2doctor link... should have been http://co2doctor.com/freedomo.htm for the simple paintjet tank substitute valve. Then you hit http://co2doctor.com/usandcanada.htm ordering page which show the huge array of other options where you can retain your sodastream tank and either fill it yourself from a bigger tank or fill it at the paintball place. But those last options seem to have a lot of pitfalls depending on your local situation. Also you can run it directly off a huge tank.

Ok, i ordered the paintball adaptor valve. I don't suppose anyone knows what the max size paintball tank that will fit in a fizz model sodastream? By words on the site they say twelve oz... maybe playing it safe... but they seem to show a picture of my fizz with a twenty four oz paintball tank. Also that site says the sodastream tank mating seal tends to leak... do you suppose the expensive replacement sold by co.doctor is worth it to save co2?

According to Sodastream it will use their larger tank which means it will fit at least a 20 paintball tank, more than likely it will fit the 24 oz tank as well. When you open the back where the co2 tank goes does it have a small adapter at the bottom that is removable? If you do, it will fit the larger tanks, I'm just not sure if it will fit the 24 oz or just the 20 oz.

Try a local Staples store for C02 refills. Around here, they
are the only place to get the larger tank size.

So am I correct in assuming that if anything other than plain
water is used to be carbonated, a huge mess is likely to be
the result?
Kind of like putting Mentos mints in soda?

Mash said:

So am I correct in assuming that if anything other than plain
water is used to be carbonated, a huge mess is likely to be
the result?

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Well, you start by carbonating a sodastream bottle of chilled water that you filled up to a line about 85% high; there is an injector that just reaches the water. Then you add syrup and cap and give it one somersault to mix.

If you don't use their crap syrup, there is about 1/3 chance it will foam like a bomb so start unknowns over the sink. Stuff like grape concentrate and dry sugar are dangerous, especially if you unwisely carbonated to a high level.

There is one third chance that something new will start to foam, but be slow enough that you can cap it quickly and will calm down for opening if you rechill it a bit. Especially if you chilled the flavoring and poured it in really slow.

There is one third chance that it will behave nicely, then you can learn how much you can max the carbonation without trouble or with a quick grab for the cap. I find thawed concentrate pink lemonade is an well behaved and tasty example.

I think it may be intentionally rigged to be difficult if you don't use their flavors. There is barely enough room for conventional sweet flavors in that 15% headroom... no room for foam anyway. They get around this by putting half splenda (yuk) even in the non-diet sodastream flavors because it takes less room to be equally sweet. I expect it would be harder to carbonate if you kept the water level lower where the injector doesn't reach. I find switching to their optional half liter smaller bottles is easier to avoid foam... there may be more headroom percentage wise or something, but it just works better and easier for me.

I dump the whole bottle of concentrate into my keg along with 3gallons of water. Works great and for big parties I have room for other ingredients (rum and coke on tap, anyone?)

cliffhanger1821 said:

I dump the whole bottle of concentrate into my keg along with 3gallons of water. Works great and for big parties I have room for other ingredients (rum and coke on tap, anyone?)

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I thought about buying one of their dr pepper mixes and doing this You can only make three gallons at a time? Not the whole five gallons? What psi do yo carb at?

When I add liquor it is three gallons water, one soda stream bottle, and two 1.75 liter bottles of whatever liquor I am adding. I think it makes a little more than 4 gallons at about 7.5% alcohol, using about 40 proof liquor if my calcs are correct

Carb at 25#

I am trying to back track where I found the kit that I want. It is not pretty, it is a tank, regulator and hose, quick connect cap that fits a 2 liter. You squeeze out the air, and pop in the CO2 and the bottle pops, you shake it and whoola...If I find the kit again, I will come back and post it. Seems like it was around 150 bucks or so, whole system.

Stuntman-- is this what you were thinking? Keg Connection It's the one I bought to start with, and then moved to the keg.

Kythcat said:

Stuntman-- is this what you were thinking? Keg Connection It's the one I bought to start with, and then moved to the keg.

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http://www.kegoutlet.com/sp202-soda-carbonating-kit-5-lb-co2-tank.html

I thought that was it, then I started looking all over my links (I am still getting used to chrome, had it for over a year) and found this link for a 5 lb cylinder 139.

Any thoughts on pros/cons of getting a Sodastream model that can accommodate the 130L larger CO2 tanks? I like the Source unit, but it only takes the smaller canisters. Should I be concerned about this at all? I am thinking of using the CO2doctor adapter, or equivalent to cut down costs.

In https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/cheaper-co2-attempts-sodastream-411646/ i describe the fantastic results of 20oz paintball bottle inside my sodastream buzz, although it looks perfectly sized for a 24... which would decrease co2 costs almost by a factor of ten vs $oda$tream tanks.

Also see my topic on better syrups... sodastream ones are gross, with even the nondiet ones including a revolting sugar substitute.

A few months back there was a bit in bon appetite magazine about some hipster bartenders using the sodastream to make carbonated cocktails. To get around the foaming/spraying problem they attached a piece of vinyl tubing to to injector and used that to carbonate.

Im guess the tubing cut down on the pressure a bit to make the force carb a bit more gentle.

Injecting a bottle of anything but water in a sodastream can gum up important pressure points like the nozzle and the overpressure blowoff valve (vital in every use, to let you know when to stop injecting and to prevent you from bursting an ageing soda bottle). Also there is tremendous blowback of bottle contents when you disconnect it from the machine.

With water you will see your machine insides increasingly coated by spray on mineral deposits... with even a trace of flavoring I can imagine you would create some insect paradise with hundreds of sugar ants or whatever living inside or visiting at night. I detach the bottle slowly anyway to reduce the loss of soda bottle co2 from explosive blowback.

Should I be concerned enough about residue (from the manufacturing process) on the interior wall of a paintball CO2 tank to open it up and clean it out before I fill/use it for the first time in my SodaStream Source? I just don't want to ingest anything that's unhealthy. I have never homebrewed or used a PB CO2 tank for anything food related so I really have no clue.

I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction as my authentic SodaStream carbonating tank is due to run out within a day or two and there is no way I am paying for another exchange.

I think it's not a problem, and I didn't get any off tastes from mine, but someplace sells special food grade versions. I think it's from co2doctor, and someone mentioned you can get better deal from his ebay offerings than the same paintball tanks on his web site.

I want to use the carbonater caps. It screws onto 2 liter soda bottles (or any bottles the same thread size This seems like a nice alternative if you already have kegging and ball lock. I plan to use one of my gas lines just to carbonate beverages with this.

Hi
i have sodastream and i bought flavors from http://soda-mix-flavors.com/
the flavors are really great and same as the original taste,
try the energy drink and coke and you find that its very good,
so i think that its great thing to use the sodastream.

I use the soda stream syrup In a 3 gallon keg and carb it up that way. 12 liters of soda for $5

Try and a few drops tabasco sauce. Now I realize the black cherry concentrate + agave syrup only needs a spicy bite.

That concentrate has more character than simple fresh b.c. juice... I think the heat gave it elements of raisin/plum/raspberry/wine. I am regretting taking it off my amazon subscription list, where the free shipping and 15% discount takes it under $6 a pint. I used the last bit filling the entire headspace of half liter sprite bottles with it, and that was a very decadent dr pepper lite taste.