5 ms·
I hope this encourages them to kill off the horribly conceived Keurig Kold project, or at least wait until it's ready for prime-time before releasing it. Some
by atourgates 11y ago
I hope this encourages them to kill off the horribly conceived Keurig Kold project, or at least wait until it's ready for prime-time before releasing it.
Some highlights:
* A single-serve soda maker.
* The machine costs $369
* Each 6oz flavor pod costs between $1 and $1.50
* It takes 90-seconds to make a single 6oz drink
* It takes 2-hours to come on and cool down enough to be ready to make a drink.
Even without the cost of the machine itself, you're paying about $0.20/oz of soda (which people say tastes slightly worse than the canned variety), compared to $0.12/oz just buying it by the can. Add the nearly $400 purchase price, the fact that it'd take 6-minutes to "brew" 4-cups for, say, a family, and the gigantic machine on your kitchen counter, and it's hard to imagine why anyone would buy this thing.
Keurig's coffee machines make sense. But at some point during the $200M 6-year development cycle for the Kold, someone should have stepped back and said, "Wait, this is a horrible idea and we should stop."
EDIT: I should add that Coke has invested a total of $2.4 Billion in Keurig (specifically to support the Kold) thus far. They should be doing a dance in the street, since an acquisition is the only way I can imagine them getting that money back.
- Johnny555 11y agoWhen I read this, I thought you were mistaken on the cost of the pods, but sure enough, they cost from $1.00 to over $3.00 per pod (on Amazon). I can buy Coke cans at Costco for around 35 cents/can or close to 3 cents an ounce. Why would Keurig think that I'd want to pay 5+ times more for the "convenience" of buying a big expensive machine to let me "make" coke at home!? And those capsules look big (which is probably because there's so much sugar in soda, they can't make them tiny. Probably about 1/4 the size of a 8 ounce can of coke.
- beau26 11y agoThe pods are awful. My friend, who buys lots of useless stuff, has described the Kold as "the most useless thing I've ever bought." A mini-fridge + 20 cases of Coke is cheaper upfront and in the long run.
- profmonocle 11y agoPlus it doesn't take 90 seconds to get a can out of the fridge!
- cakes 11y agoThat seems to be some reviewers thoughts as well - save the trouble and buy a mini-fridge http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/07/keurig-kold-irl/ http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/07/keurig-kold-irl/
- stevesearer 11y agoIf you have a soda fountain, you can buy a 5 gallon pod of Coke syrup for $81 which will make you 320 12-oz drinks: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/coca-cola-5-gallon-bag-in-box-fountain-syrup/prod7680002.ip http://www.samsclub.com/sams/coca-cola-5-gallon-bag-in-box-f...
- ryan-c 11y agoThat seems to work out to around 25 cents per 12 floz which is not a whole lot cheaper than the cans from costco. A four pack of two-liters is $4: http://www.samsclub.com/sams/coke-4-2-liter-bottle/prod9600433.ip?sprodId=prod9600433&selectedTab=allProducts&_requestid=939181 http://www.samsclub.com/sams/coke-4-2-liter-bottle/prod96004... which is 18 cents per 12 floz.
- Someone1234 11y agoBut it takes up less space, you don't need to resupply as often, and you can set the mixer on your tap to add more or less ratio of syrup to water.
- bdcravens 11y agoI suspect it's a licensing thing. The Soda Stream lets you make a liter of soda for about the price of a generic soda (when you factor in CO2 + syrup) As for the size of the pod, a cap of syrup smaller than one 12 oz drink's pod can make that same liter (though the Kold doesn't have a CO2 cartridge, so I'm sure the tech transfers the fizziness to the pod somehow)
- ryan-c 11y agoFWIW, you can buy a sodastream unit for ~$70 and then for another $200 to $300 get a conversion kit and a large co2 cylinder and from then on the cost of carbonation works out to less than three cents per liter. Not sure what the syrup cost is since I only use mine for sparkling water.
- conradev 11y agoI just wanted to comment to say that that is a brilliant idea. I only use my Soda Stream for sparking water as well, but I pay about 25 cents per liter for the standard refills.
- ryan-c 11y agoI have a co2doctor[0,1] kit, a 20lb capacity tank from amazon (bought new - you can get them used but then you don't know where they've been or how clean they are...) and filled it for about $30 at Carbonic Service[2] in Santa Clara. 0. http://co2doctor.com/ http://co2doctor.com/ (site down at the time this comment was posted) 1. http://www.ebay.com/sch/co2doctor/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from= http://www.ebay.com/sch/co2doctor/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg... 2. http://www.yelp.com/biz/carbonic-service-santa-clara http://www.yelp.com/biz/carbonic-service-santa-clara
- bpicolo 11y agoHelps that sodastream doesn't try to chill the drink, which you can just do ahead of time by refrigerating the water
- redfalcon6 11y ago
- sliverstorm 11y agoWho knows, maybe Coca Cola is playing a long game, and hope to refine the technology enough that one day they can ship around only the dry ingredients, and save $$$ on shipping all the water in each can?
- askafriend 11y agoThat'd be an insane amount of money being saved if that really did happen.
- gonzo 11y agoLike they do with their Freestyle product?
- sliverstorm 11y agoIn essence, yeah. Probably the catch is the vending machine style approach just doesn't work in homes or small offices- a Keurig approach, where the user supplies the raw materials packet, would be more suitable.
- BHSPitMonkey 11y agoNot to mention the aluminum cans are infinitely more recyclable than the used pods are.
- AjithAntony 11y ago>And those capsules look big (which is probably because there's so much sugar in soda, they can't make them tiny. Probably about 1/4 the size of a 8 ounce can of coke. Also "carbonation beads stored within the pod"
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]