I know a few of you use them, and I tried to find the thread where people were waxing rhapsodic about them, but my search skills are failing me. I usually drink about 4 6-packs of carbonated water a week, and now that we’ve moved into a place of our own, my SO was thinking about getting one, but I wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on which system was best.
We have a regular soda stream, and it is awesome. Ben is a big seltzer drinker, so having the ability to make our own rocks.
Williams and Sonoma carry the refill canisters, so we can always pick up more there. The only problem is that I have to deal with the cranky Victor NY store manager when I go there. I am not fabulous enough for him. However, we love the soda stream maker.
I’d go with the Fountain Jet – it comes with the 110 liter canisters (vs. the 60 liter canisters the other models use), which means more soda per canister, and way less expense shipping stuff back and forth. IE, it’s cheapest (both up-front, and ongoing cost wise).
And, given how much you drink, definitely not the Penguin, as the glass carafes are half the size of the 1-liter bottles the other models all use.
We have a Soda Club Penguin, and really like it. Yeah, the glass bottles are smaller, but I just don’t like the way water tastes coming out of plastic bottles, so the glass ones work great for me.
We’ve been very happy with ours. In fact, the first one we had broke after about a year–it quit sealing well, so the bottles wouldn’t gassify well–and SC replaces it no questions asked.
We have one and love it. Geoff is the seltzer drinker and he used to go through at least a bottle a day. It probably saved our relationship with our neighbors, who were pissed that we were filling up the recycling bin so fast. We have the Fountain Jet and it works fine, although I think we need to replace a few of our bottles. At the time, ours didn’t come with the 110 liter cannisters, which is a pity. Looks like they do now, though.
I like some of the soda mixes, but I am not too terribly picky so I don’t know if you want to take my word for it. They basically taste like store brand, and I don’t mind store brand.
Unless you have a Williams-Sonoma that carries the Penguin nearby, that is. We have the Fountain Jet model, and I’d definitely recommend it over the Penguin for the reasons stated, but we usually use the 60-liter cannisters simply because we can get them locally. It’s about the same price as ordering them from Sodastream, plus shipping, but it’s a whole lot more convenient to just run out to the store when we need more (and WS will take your empties, too).
For us, one 60l cannister lasts about a month, and we buy them in pairs, so we don’t even have to go to the store very often. It’s a whole lot better than the several-times-a-week trips to the store we used to make buying bottled seltzer (and taking back the bottles). And a whole lot cheaper, too. The Fountain Jet is only $99, and if you drink as much seltzer as we do, it pays for itself pretty quickly.
Plus, I like that you can make it as fizzy as you want.
Can’t argue with convenience :)
(The Fountain Jet, just in case it’s not clear, works with both 60 and 110 liter canisters – given that, and that it’s the cheapest, it’s a no-brainer)
That’s what I was thinking, too!
Now to show this thread to the SO so he can make a decision.
Oh, and count me in on the “SodaStream is awesome” bandwagon, if that wasn’t obvious :)
I’ve been sold since the last time this was brought up, but never bothered to actually follow through on it. So this time I decided to go visit the SodaStream website.
Which is when I noticed the ad at the top of the page.
HERE’S TO YOU, TOM!
Every time I drink a glass of cold soda water, I will feel good knowing I actually bought something from an ad on QT3.
60 and 110 liters?! Gosh, you Americanos are extreme!
Cripes, at the rate that my Girlfriend and I go through Seltzer, this thing my just be the cat’s pajamas.
I drink about 48 liters of carbonated water a month, so it will take me a couple of months to go through a canister.
We got connected with Sodastream based on the last Qt3 thread, and over the past year it has been nothing short of great. Being able to adjust the level of carbonation is wonderful, and it just works. I love things that just work.
Whoever first mentioned this thing on QT3 would be making out like a bandit if they only had a referral program :)
The canisters aren’t 110 liters in size, they contain enough compressed CO2 to make 110 liters of fizzy water.
Same here. I love the stuff (and the Diet Cranberry-Raspberry mixes pretty damn good with tequila, btw).
Well, I prefer seltzer to regular water, and I generally don’t drink anything else except for coffee in the morning, and a beer or a glass of wine with dinner. We go through about two liters a day (that’s for both me and Karen), which seem like, I dunno, a normal amount of water to drink?
Huh… I didn’t know they had been around that long. FWIW, they just introduced two new models, (the Genesis and the Pure), and they use the same bottles as the old ones.
I have a Fountain Jet. Then I got a whole bunch of flavored syrup concentrates (you can get them with sugar or without and add your own sugar/sweetener, I got sans-sugar as it’s cheaper and sometimes I like to add Splenda instead of sugar) from Prairie Moon: http://prairiemoon.biz/index.html.
Now I can make wacky gross combinations like Raspberry Bubble Gum Sarsaparilla.
Had one for a few years. I am a big fan of the energy drink mix. It was nice to save money on monsters / rockstar / etc.
I just drink seltzer now. Four to five shots. :)