Sodastream or alternatives , what’s your setup and are they worth the bother?

[Sideburns]

I’m thinking about buying a SodaStream or one of the equivalent sparkling water makers, and I’d love to hear from people who actually use them.
I’m in the UK, so UK-specific experiences are especially helpful, but I’m interested in hearing from anyone.
A few things I’m curious about:

• Which brand/model do you have, and how long have you had it?
• If you were buying again, would you choose the same one?
• How easy (and expensive) is it to exchange or refill the CO₂ cylinders where you live?
• Are there differences between brands that aren’t obvious until you’ve lived with one for a while?
• Any reliability or maintenance issues?
• Do you mainly use it for plain sparkling water, or do you make flavoured drinks as well?
• Has it actually saved you money or reduced the number of bottles/cans you buy?

Basically, I’m after the good, the bad, and the “I wish I’d known that before buying.”
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or recommendations!

 

[Twelvefret]

Thanks for posting. I had no idea these were available.

 

[Sideburns]

Usually buy a couple of 2L bottles of sparkling in the supermarket - I like San Pellegrino because it isn’t a full on fizz, though I’ll drink just about anything if the Na levels are low.
The idea behind cranking the stuff out for myself was convenience - no more lugging 2Litre bottles of water from the supermarket.

 

[Masamune]

No idea about the new machines but we had one just like this

It worked perfectly for years but we stopped making fizzy drinks. The canisters appear to be easily available nowadays. The flavoured drinks never really tasted like the cans but it's been years since using a sodastream.

Get one here!

 

[Sideburns]

No idea about the new machines but we had one just like this

View attachment 179540View attachment 179541View attachment 179542

It worked perfectly for years but we stopped making fizzy drinks. The canisters appear to be easily available nowadays. The flavoured drinks never really tasted like the cans but it's been years since using a sodastream.

Get one here!

It was a heavily marketed thing years ago - don’t hear too much about them now, but they’re still around. I’d be using it to softly carbonate water rather than make flavoured fizzy drinks.
I visited with family member in Canada years ago and they used one just to carbonate water, they then exchanged the used CO2 cylinders for refilled replacements.
I notice on the Sodastream website they operate an exchange programme via the mail or via trusted resellers. I put in my home town on the search and was surprised that our out of the way back of beyond place had some exchange resellers - what a surprise.

 

[R181]

It was a heavily marketed thing years ago - don’t hear too much about them now, but they’re still around. I’d be using it to softly carbonate water rather than make flavoured fizzy drinks.
I visited with family member in Canada years ago and they used one just to carbonate water, they then exchanged the used CO2 cylinders for refilled replacements.
I notice on the Sodastream website they operate an exchange programme via the mail or via trusted resellers. I put in my home town on the search and was surprised that our out of the way back of beyond place had some exchange resellers - what a surprise.

Many years ago we had one to make our own soft drinks/coke from and exchanged the CO2 cylinders at the retailer. Just found it easier in the long run to buy our soft drinks in paper cases and recycle the cans and paper cases.

Bob

 

[Sideburns]

Many years ago we had one to make our own soft drinks/coke from and exchanged the CO2 cylinders at the retailer. Just found it easier in the long run to buy our soft drinks in paper cases and recycle the cans and paper cases.

Bob

Thanks for your reply, Bob.
That’s pretty much where my thinking is at too. The idea sounds great, but I do wonder whether it’s actually easier just to recycle the bottles/cans rather than deal with exchanging CO₂ cylinders. I guess it all comes down to convenience in the end.

 

[R181]

Thanks for your reply, Bob.
That’s pretty much where my thinking is at too. The idea sounds great, but I do wonder whether it’s actually easier just to recycle the bottles/cans rather than deal with exchanging CO₂ cylinders. I guess it all comes down to convenience in the end.

You are welcome. It also cleared up the counter space taken up by the machine and that was also appreciated.

Bob

 

[Twelvefret]

A person that used to brew their own beer said it’s possible to wind up with 5 gallons of bad beer.