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> Sodastream. Has significantly increased the amount of water i drink and conversely decreased other crap being drunk I agree with carbonating your own water,

> Sodastream. Has significantly increased the amount of water i drink and conversely decreased other crap being drunk I agree with carbonating your own water, but sodastream is expensive compared to a DIY carbonation setup. Get a 5LB CO2 tank, some carbonation caps on Amazon, and a good gas regulator. Total should still be less than $200 USD. The 5LB tank will last at least 5 times longer than the sodastream and total assembled size on my counter is about the size of a sodastream setup. Refilling that tank at a food safe gas supplier is even cheaper than exchanging a sodastream tank.

jjice 4y ago
Any good resources to learn how to set this up for a layman that enjoys sparkling water?
- naasking 4y ago
  This looks like a decent overview: https://www.madebybarb.com/2016/06/13/diy-home-carbonation/ https://www.madebybarb.com/2016/06/13/diy-home-carbonation/
xeromal 4y ago
I think of a soda stream as an entry level device to get your foot in the door. You'd be hard pressed to convince many people to drop 200$ on soda water equipment but if you let them buy a 50$ soda stream and they love it to death. They might upgrade. You can retrofit sodastreams to use those CO2 tanks too.
- naasking 4y ago
  > You'd be hard pressed to convince many people to drop 200$ on soda water equipment Agreed, but I expect the HN audience is already far from the norm covered by your "many people".
  - xeromal 4y ago
    Very fair. haha.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
buildsjets 4y ago
Plus having bulk CO2 around is handy for welding, aquarium keeping, and grow ops.
troyvit 4y ago
We grabbed a soda stream at the thrift store. The expense of the canisters is bad, but if you go to a welding & gas supply store they'll refill the canisters for much less than soda stream charges for a fresh one. We also noticed that soda stream will happily give you expired canisters.
- naasking 4y ago
  > The expense of the canisters is bad, but if you go to a welding & gas supply store they'll refill the canisters for much less than soda stream charges for a fresh one. Yes, but it still adds up to more in the end. The cheapest within driving distance I've found [1] is half the cost to refill the sodamistic 60L bottle from what sodamistic charges, and almost half the cost of refilling the 5LB tank, but the 5LB tank holds 5x more CO2, so after 2-3 refills you're already losing money compared to a DIY solution when accounting for cost of the whole setup. [1] https://www.sodamistic.com/CO2.html https://www.sodamistic.com/CO2.html
Havoc 4y ago
I'm aware of the DIY option - perhaps if I end up buying a place with a bit bigger kitchen. For now the fact that I've got a sodastream swap place in walking distance makes it an acceptable solution
kevstev 4y ago
I tried this- someone left a 5lb CO2 tank on my corner and I had it refilled- I was excited since I am a home brewer and have always been interested in kegging. I got a regulator, the cap, and then tried to carbonate a 16oz water bottle. It in theory worked, but I could never get the same carbonation levels that I could from a soda stream or store bought bottle. And doing the shake thing for 30 seconds felt like a lot of work for lackluster results compared to the soda stream as well.
- mynameisash 4y ago
  > I am a home brewer and have always been interested in kegging Once you start kegging your homebrew, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. After primary fermentation, I siphon from my carboy into a 5 gal corny keg, then I hook it up to my CO2. Turn the pressure up to maybe 20-30 PSI (strictly for carbonating; turn it down for serving) for maybe a day or two. If you want, you can shake it to dissolve CO2, but I'm lazy and just let time do its thing. It's awesome. So much less work than bottling.
  - kevstev 4y ago
    Yeah I am not a huge fan of bottling, but living in the city, space is always at a premium. It's more about just not having an ugly kegging setup somewhere. I now have a basement and am actually just thinking about keeping it there if I get one. I have also been hoping to "fall into" a corny keg, but the value of those just seems to keep going up over time.
- naasking 4y ago
  The sodastreams have a better cap for sure. They suggest 2 rounds of carbonation IIRC, and I do 3 to achieve the same levels. Shaking is a must because increased surface area exposed to CO2 increases absorption into the liquid, although I only shake for 5 seconds on each round. This is done with sodastream too IIRC. I also use the 750mL bottles instead of 2L bottles. Also higher pressures are better obviously. Another tip is to use cold water because that apparently absorbs CO2 better. You can also carbonate wine. My girlfriend was very excited to be able to buy cheaper white and rose wines and just carbonate them instead of buying more expensive bottles of sparkling wine.

jjice 4y ago

Any good resources to learn how to set this up for a layman that enjoys sparkling water?

naasking 4y ago
This looks like a decent overview: https://www.madebybarb.com/2016/06/13/diy-home-carbonation/ https://www.madebybarb.com/2016/06/13/diy-home-carbonation/

xeromal 4y ago

I think of a soda stream as an entry level device to get your foot in the door. You'd be hard pressed to convince many people to drop 200$ on soda water equipment but if you let them buy a 50$ soda stream and they love it to death. They might upgrade. You can retrofit sodastreams to use those CO2 tanks too.

naasking 4y ago
> You'd be hard pressed to convince many people to drop 200$ on soda water equipment Agreed, but I expect the HN audience is already far from the norm covered by your "many people".
- xeromal 4y ago
  Very fair. haha.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

buildsjets 4y ago

Plus having bulk CO2 around is handy for welding, aquarium keeping, and grow ops.

troyvit 4y ago

We grabbed a soda stream at the thrift store. The expense of the canisters is bad, but if you go to a welding & gas supply store they'll refill the canisters for much less than soda stream charges for a fresh one. We also noticed that soda stream will happily give you expired canisters.

naasking 4y ago
> The expense of the canisters is bad, but if you go to a welding & gas supply store they'll refill the canisters for much less than soda stream charges for a fresh one. Yes, but it still adds up to more in the end. The cheapest within driving distance I've found [1] is half the cost to refill the sodamistic 60L bottle from what sodamistic charges, and almost half the cost of refilling the 5LB tank, but the 5LB tank holds 5x more CO2, so after 2-3 refills you're already losing money compared to a DIY solution when accounting for cost of the whole setup. [1] https://www.sodamistic.com/CO2.html https://www.sodamistic.com/CO2.html

Havoc 4y ago

I'm aware of the DIY option - perhaps if I end up buying a place with a bit bigger kitchen. For now the fact that I've got a sodastream swap place in walking distance makes it an acceptable solution

kevstev 4y ago

I tried this- someone left a 5lb CO2 tank on my corner and I had it refilled- I was excited since I am a home brewer and have always been interested in kegging. I got a regulator, the cap, and then tried to carbonate a 16oz water bottle. It in theory worked, but I could never get the same carbonation levels that I could from a soda stream or store bought bottle. And doing the shake thing for 30 seconds felt like a lot of work for lackluster results compared to the soda stream as well.

mynameisash 4y ago
> I am a home brewer and have always been interested in kegging Once you start kegging your homebrew, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. After primary fermentation, I siphon from my carboy into a 5 gal corny keg, then I hook it up to my CO2. Turn the pressure up to maybe 20-30 PSI (strictly for carbonating; turn it down for serving) for maybe a day or two. If you want, you can shake it to dissolve CO2, but I'm lazy and just let time do its thing. It's awesome. So much less work than bottling.
- kevstev 4y ago
  Yeah I am not a huge fan of bottling, but living in the city, space is always at a premium. It's more about just not having an ugly kegging setup somewhere. I now have a basement and am actually just thinking about keeping it there if I get one. I have also been hoping to "fall into" a corny keg, but the value of those just seems to keep going up over time.
naasking 4y ago
The sodastreams have a better cap for sure. They suggest 2 rounds of carbonation IIRC, and I do 3 to achieve the same levels. Shaking is a must because increased surface area exposed to CO2 increases absorption into the liquid, although I only shake for 5 seconds on each round. This is done with sodastream too IIRC. I also use the 750mL bottles instead of 2L bottles. Also higher pressures are better obviously. Another tip is to use cold water because that apparently absorbs CO2 better. You can also carbonate wine. My girlfriend was very excited to be able to buy cheaper white and rose wines and just carbonate them instead of buying more expensive bottles of sparkling wine.