[Closed] Soda stream alternative

my partner has a soda stream and its been going strong for over 6 years now and gets a lot of use. I can't stand the thing but they are pretty solid.

my partner has a soda stream and its been going strong for over 6 years now and gets a lot of use. I can’t stand the thing but they are pretty solid.

Do you know which model it is?

Do you know which model it is?

Partner v1.0 as far as she's concerned, but that's not important right now.

Might seem a bit Margo and Jerry from the Good Life, but what about a Soda Siphon?

There are some knockoffs on amazon/ebay. They won't be any better.
There are some overpriced posh ones, aimed at you.
But it's just a valve for co2 and a frame to hold that and the bottle. There's nothing to them. They are all functionally the same. How rough do you intend to be with it?
We have a low end one (Genesis). It gets used several times a day. Yes, there is a lot of plastic there. But it's been totally reliable for years. I wouldn't throw it on the floor. But I recommend just buying the cheapest one you can find on offer somewhere.

Watching with interest. I failed to find anything that didn't use SodStr cartridges, and the price of using them really put me off.
It's crazy how buying co2 and squirting it into tap water is soooomuch more expensive than just buying fizzy water.

So I didn't bother in the end...

^i don't think the Co2 cartridges are the issue - reading people's reviews the Sodastream ones especially don't seem to be very sturdy or well built with repeated comments of seals leaking and Co2 being wasted with no support from Sodastream. I don't want one and it's going to defeat the object of using less plastic if it ends up in the bin because it breaks and I can't fix it.

What is this? COP26 and see how much CO2 we can emit unnecessarily? There’s no hope, even amongst cyclists!
Use less plastic but more CO2?

see how much CO2 we can emit unnecessarily?

The CO2 is a by product of fertiliser production. Either it is captured and put into sodastream cartridges (or beer or soft drinks) and then ends up in the atmosphere, or it is simply released directly to the atmosphere from the fertiliser plant.

So whether or not you use a CO2 cartridge makes no difference to the amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere.

These are a bit spendy but are solid bits of kit..

Posh bubbles

Also available at the posh tat bazar that is Lakeland.

But if the Government didn’t subsidise the fertiliser production (nationalisation?) and we used a better approach to farming, then what would be the excuse for laziness or fizzy water?
Still doesn’t excuse not using a bicycle pump - I know different thread!

I bought a soda stream jet (cheapest one they make I think) at start of lockdown 1.0 because the restrictions on supermarket number of items (to stop panic buying) was playing havoc with my bottled sparkling water habit.

It's not missed a beat.

Also it can take then bigger 1L water bottles which not all of them can.

I'm only here to say that one of my strongest childhood memories is trying to get "one more push" of CO2 into the glass bottle they used at the time. It made that humming noise, and then the bottle shattered quite dramatically.

Can you use Sodastream machines to re-carbonate drinks or do they not work like that? Like, if I had a bottle of Coke in the fridge that'd gone flat?

Might seem a bit Margo and Jerry from the Good Life, but what about a Soda Siphon?

I got one of those from a charity shop for a few pence. Long story short, I discovered why it was in a charity shop in the first place and it ended its life in the recycling.

There are some overpriced posh ones, aimed at you.

Do they hurt less than the cheapy ones when they blow up? Maybe just don't point them at other people

I'm a homebrewer and keg into Cornelius kegs. As my wife and kids don't drink i have a keg of fizzy water for them.

It's not exactly a cheap solution, or space efficient, but i have a large CO2 cylinder and the kegs take 19 litres which lasts a couple of weeks at a time.

Kegs last for decades, mine are 10 years (and they were second hand) and i've never touched the seals.

Gas cylinders likewise. Refills aren't cheap, but few and far between and you'd get hundreds and hundreds of litres of fizzy water so way cheaper than buying. Homebrew fridges to store them are normally picked up free, but then there's the cost of electricity to run the fridge.

^ as above, but I use expired CO2 fire extinguishers and a welding regulator with my kegs.

Even bought a small 2 litre keg for experiments. Like carbonated milk which is a bit odd

You can also get a fizzy drinks bottle cap with the same gas post as a cornie keg. So you can reuse fizzy drinks bottles which have really high pressure ratings and are very cheap

FWIW - and I know this isn't answering the original question - I've had a couple of Sodastreams over the last 10 years. I really want to like them - when they work they are great, but the build quality plus hassle of exchanging CO2 bottles keeps souring me.

When I was looking around last Christmas, I did a quick back of envelope maths, and realized that Aldi and Lidl carbonated water at anywhere from 17p to 30p per bottle meant it was far cheaper for me to just buy cases of bottled water from them, although I'm sure all the shipping of bottles of water around increases my carbon footprint.

We'd considered a soda stream too as we drink a fair bit of sparkly water, so use around 8no. 1l plastic bottles a week and feel a bit bad about that. Probably 5no. 2l milk bottles a week too, but I'd don't fancy that fizzed up!

My question has always been though what does fizzed up tap water actually taste like? If you're a regular drinker of sparkly water you do notice the difference between different waters and some bargain basement supermarket ones taste pretty foul. How do people find fizzy tap water?

My guilt over my sparkly water habit is slightly off set by the fact we don't buy other bottled/canned drinks or booze, other than the local dairy milk.

We are drinking 'premium' sparkling water so there would be a saving cost wise with a sodastream but it's mainly for the plastics aspect.

I do like the idea of the DIY method. I'm an engineer in the chemical industry with access to piping/fittings/hose etc and have a few unused Cornelius kegs bought for a project that could reaapear at home.
Not sure if a Chernobyl-esq Wallace&Grommit style device is what MrsRNP had in mind though🤷🏼‍♂️

you can buy valves to allow you to refill sodastream gas bottles from a big CO2 canister if you use it a lot. The maths on them doesn't work out otherwise.

The wife got one a couple of years ago and we were getting through £15 bottles of gas in no time. I consigned the bloody thing to the cellar where it now gathers dust. Honestly it was way more expensive than buying bottles of bubbly water (not that I'm condoning this action at all) so we now just don't bother at all.

How do people find fizzy tap water?

Berkshire - Thames water. I can’t stand drinking our tap water out of a glass. But I like it in carbonated form.

Oddly I also drink it out of my bike bottle. Maybe the mould valve gives it flavour.

We've had one of the base ones for about 5yrs now - no issues at all, takes Litre bottle which is bit faff to screw in compared to 80's lever pull one.
No hassle changing cylinder, sainsbury have them, when do self scan shop just scan new one, scan returns code on old one and hand old cylinder to bemused staff member and explain what it is, every time. Argos also do them.

No idea of the cost (I'm guessing lots) but what about a Zipp tap? Boiling water, filtered cold and sparkling water all from the same tap.

We've had one for well over a year without issue

If it helps, I have just returned a Sodastream as not fit for purpose. Build quality was shocking ( esp as they are 80 quid). And it couldn't carbonate water beyond mildly flat. Sodastream suggest 5 presses of 2 second. with mine, 15 press of two seconds and was still just a little fizzy.
I also have an issue with something made in a factory on "resettled" land in Isreal, so watching the recommendations.

I may have just been unlucky - but I wouldn't buy another. That said, once you actually could get hold of their customer services, they were very good - and returned my purchase cost with no problem.

bearnecessities

Partner v1.0 as far as she’s concerned, but that’s not important right now.

🤣

Wins the forum today, spluttered out my coffee reading that

I consigned the bloody thing to the cellar where it now gathers dust

this is what bothers me! - it'll sit alongside the expensive macerating juicer that was the worlds greatest fad for awhile.

I have just returned a Sodastream as not fit for purpose. Build quality was shocking

Coupled with this - Amazon one star reviews all pretty much say the same.

carbonated milk

has no one else got an issue with this!?

that the robust lever operated fizzy bomb making machines we all remember from the 1980’s don’t exist anymore

Almost 40 years on, and I can still remember the feel of the cheap plastic, the lever that felt like it would snap off at any moment, and the top of the dispenser which wobbled and did eventually snap off. Robust was not in the description.

I consigned the bloody thing to the cellar where it now gathers dust

That's what happened to ours in the 80s, partly because of the above and partly because it was so expensive compared to shop-pop. I was probably 12 or 13 and still remember my parents complaints! That's why I haven't inflicted a Sodastream (and my moaning about the Sodatream) on my kids. Making memories..

Do you know which model it is?

Going by photos on google im gonna say a jet.

Off of Gladiators?

has no one else got an issue with this!?

I've seen things, you people wouldn't believe.

Back at college we had a drinks machine which we realised dispensed all the ingredients sequentially. So if you got, say, orangeade, it would dispense concentrated orange, then water, then highly carbonated water. So we took to mixing and matching, whipping out cups mid-vend and swapping in others to make drinks that weren't on the menu. Hot Vimto, not a problem - just regular Vimto, black tea and a matter of Indiana Jones-level careful timing.

And that, my friends, is how we invented fizzy chicken soup.

Supposedly in the early 80's 10m UK households had a Sodastream - over 40%.

We looked a couple of years back and the price of gas canisters means it's cheaper to buy 1.5L bottles from the supermarket, and that's before you've dropped £80 upwards on the machine itself. Their 'annual subscription' plan works out at 21p a litre if you max it out.
https://sodastream.co.uk/products/sparkle-saver-s-plan

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sparkling-water/sainsburys-sparkling-water--basics-2l (Aldi price match) 8.5p a litre.

Which seems insane. So we just don't drink much sparkling water.

(but watching with interest. The issue seems to be that the gas canisters are too small so the economics/profit margin etc on exchange mean they're overpriced.
Sodastream gas is 425g for £15-25.

Pub style CO2

is £23 for 6kg (though maybe cylinder rental costs and delivery stack up)

carbonated milk

has no one else got an issue with this!?

Could you just fit a cows arse with an EGR valve and hey-presto?

Just to go full hand-wringer, I seem to remember that there was some Israel/Palestine reason why Sodastream are A Bad Company. Can't quite remember what it was now.

Just to go full hand-wringer, I seem to remember that there was some Israel/Palestine reason why Sodastream are A Bad Company. Can’t quite remember what it was now.

Yes, Israeli company, now owned by PepsiCo

So two ways of reading that. Either Pepsi bought it to ensure prices remain high and they protect their existing business, or as a hedge to transition into selling expensive branded syrups if consumers make a big shift.

Have happy memories of Sodastream as a kid, but the price of normal fizzy soft drinks is so cheap now its not worth the hassle. The soda stream refill are very expensive compared to the cost of CO2 so a very expensive way of having fizzy water or fizzy flavoured drinks.

Cougar Full Member
Can you use Sodastream machines to re-carbonate drinks or do they not work like that? Like, if I had a bottle of Coke in the fridge that’d gone flat?

When my parents had a Sodastream in the '80s I quickly learnt that if you attempted to add fizz to liquid that already had flavouring/syrup in it you'd end up with the liquid bursting out of the top of the bottle and making a mess of the Sodastream and the worktop it was standing on.

Had a Genesis back in the 90s, think it fell out of fashion before it broke. Now have a "cheap" one we got from B&M for about 40 quid last year that works fine. It's mostly a summer thing for me (soda and lime for hot days) but the economics offset the amount of water I'd be buying in terms of pointless weight being hauled about the place.

I remember in the early 80s persuading my dad to buy the dandelion and burdock flavouring, for no particular reason, I think it's still at the back of a cupboard.
Boak!!!

Don’t forget to get a Rap Tou while you’re 80s shopping

My God, i think Mum had one of those!

We had a soda stream in the late 80s. A carnival i think. The first of the plastic bottles, with blue lids.

It had a sliding door that made it seem like you were drinking the future.

The cheap soda streams are Ok. Very simple design these days. But way too expensive to operate. You can buy adapters to use paint ball gun CO2 canisters with them which can be refilled wherever you might get that done. Still expensive.

Afaik BOC won’t supply to residential customers. But your local ‘specialist’ hydroponic supplier will probably have big CO2 bottles to rent to you.

The Swedish sodastream looks fancy but has the same CO2 price problem.

Zipp taps are about £4,000 for the bubbly one. And take a fairly small tank @£50 a go.

Quooker is about £2,300 for a tap that does sparkling. And about 30p/L for sparkling running costs.

Best thing is a few old plastic fizzy drinks bottles, a fridge, some pipe, a couple of carbonation caps, a regulator, and a big tank of CO2. Super fizzy. Fairly cheap to run. https://classbarmag.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/124/A_guide_to_carbonation.html

Edit. Well, the best thing unless you can get a post-mix bar gun set up.

Zipp taps are about £4,000 for the bubbly one

Annoyed with my brother for this - he worked for Zipp in Australia and never 'borrowed' whilst he was there.

Best thing is a few old plastic fizzy drinks bottles, a fridge, some pipe, a couple of carbonation caps, a regulator, and a big tank of CO2. Super fizzy. Fairly cheap to run.

This is the route im going down - home brew co2 is cheap and plentiful and the added element of danger is a huge plus.

Just as an aside, does anyone else find the amount of people complaining about poor economy that probably use disposable CO2 bulbs for inflating tyres amusing or is it just me?

For those using industrial CO2 I assume fire extinguishers are food safe. I know the gas is all the same (we use the same gas in the reactors as goes to the breweries) but it's in case there were any greasy bits or such? I can't think of any other reason not to tbh and I know plenty of folk use them for aquariums and recharging paintball/air rifle tanks.

@chrisl I learned that same lesson! See also adding the syrup before the gas.

Just as an aside, does anyone else find the amount of people complaining about poor economy that probably use disposable CO2 bulbs for inflating tyres amusing or is it just me?

A lot of assumption there - it's exactly why I've got an Airshot and carry a Topeak Morph. I still have the bag of CO2 bulbs I was given 5 years+ ago unused. IME if a tyre's knackered enough that you can't solve it with anchovies and a pump CO2 isn't likely to solve the problem

A lot of assumption there – it’s exactly why I’ve got an Airshot and carry a Topeak Morph. I still have the bag of CO2 bulbs I was given 5 years+ ago unused. IME if a tyre’s knackered enough that you can’t solve it with anchovies and a pump CO2 isn’t likely to solve the problem

same here - airshot, although I rarely have to use it; and a lezyne pump.

As well as the wastefullness of a one hit and done implement, I am also worried that I would try to use it and fail. My normal puncture repair procedure is to swirl the sealant over the hole, pump up, if that fails, try the plug; if that fails, second plug; if that fails, tube.
I'd need like 4-5 cannisters to be sure enough to leave my pump at home (I get like 2 or 3 punctures a year).
Modern tyres stay on the rim even at 0 psi, so the near instant fill is only necessary in a self supported race type situation.

IME if a tyre’s knackered enough that you can’t solve it with anchovies and a pump CO2 isn’t likely to solve the problem

I have similar opinions of spare tubes and no puncture repair.

Had a discussion with a pal who has a SS the other day, and it's sat in a cupboard hardly used. Said it was crap, hardly made the tap water fizzy and what fizz it had didn't last long, and that the fizzy tap water was nothing like sparkly water from the shop. Wasn't happy with the number of co2 cartridges he had to use too, which are a real pain to get where we live.

Call me evil, but I'll stick with having to buy it and actually enjoy it.