SodaStream[Solved. Everyone likes it.]

starmanbrand

My birthday is coming up and my girlfriend needs a gift idea. I don't really need anything and I love kitchen gadgets. I was thinking of getting a sodastream.

Anyone around here have any experience with them? Using them, owning them, whatever? I live pretty close to a couple of retailers so I'm not too worried about being inconvenience by picking up co2 refills. While I'm more interested in carbonating things other than their syrups, I do enjoy soda. Is their Cola similar to Coke or Pepsi?

matt has a problem

We have a SodaStream Jet at work, to make Italian sodas. We haven't used their syrups though, we're using Torani fruit syrups. It works well, we've made around 3000 drinks with no problems.

The cylinders are expensive though. For $20, we can get a local liquor store to fill up a 5 pound CO2 canister (our local fire station will fill it up for $10, too). Or you can pay SodaStream $30 for two of their 14.5 oz cylinders, or one of the 33 oz.

The SodaStream cylinders and machine use a proprietary nozzle. You can buy mod kits, that consist of a hose with a standard CO2 canister coupler on one end, and the proprietary coupler on the other . They're about $100, the 5 pound cylinder was about $50. It just depends on how often you want to make drinks of course, we discovered that we'd burn through one of their 14.5 oz cylinders in about 2 days making drinks for sale.

Drinks don't stay carbonated as long as store-bought, but it doesn't really matter, they're really make-at-consumption anyway since the bottles that come with the kit are 1L size. You can cap them obviously, and they'll last about a day before they're a little too flat to be any good.

saltiness

These things are awesome. My GF and I have one and we use it all the time. I've never actually made their cola though. We usually just make plain bubbly water (which is a great way to ween yourself off sugary soda if you so desire) and I sometimes make tonic water for G&Ts.

Skoal Cat

If you like kitchen gadgets, maybe you can get into sous vide?
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=44

Six

I have a sodastream and love the thing. Yes, they use a proprietary valve so as to rape you on CO2 refills, and yes, you can fix the thing to work off regular CO2 tanks, but I haven't found doing that worthwhile.

Mostly I just tear through dozens of bottles of club soda, sometimes with some lemon juice.

I've used the syrups, and they're fine, but I don't drink a lot of canned soda so I'm not that interested and haven't bought any syrup (I just used what it came with). The cola and other stuff you make tastes more like fountain soda than canned soda, but it's good if you like that.

starmanbrand

Wow, bunch of quick posititve responses....YOU'RE ALL BOTS! jk, thanks. Keep them coming. I don't think I'd use enough carbonation to need a five pound canister, but its information thats good to have.

As far as the sous vide, I don't think I prepare enough meat at the moment to make it really worth it. I know you can do vegetables, but spending an hour in the bath vs a fraction of that steaming or saute? I will probably fold and get one, though. Back when I was looking into them, iI could only find the labstyle bath+circ that ran for several grand.

Skoal Cat

You can do amazing eggs in a hot water bath too. I use mine to cook a bunch of chicken breasts for lunch for the week.

Dr. Frenchenstein

according to what i've read around the interwebs, you can cobble together a workable sous vide cooker with a cooler and water at the temp you want. obviously, it's not as precise. I actually bought a temperature selectable crock pot to test that out for sous vide cooking, i haven't bought the sealer yet, so i haven't tried it.

mehmehmeh

if you like diy stuff

here is a homemade carbonation system
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Soda-Water-%26-Home-Carbonation---Pays-For-Itsel/

and a diy $75 sou vide set up
http://seattlefoodgeek.com/2010/02/diy-sous-vide-heating-immersion-circulator-for-about-75/

I have built a carbonator myself of of these instructions. It is much bigger and less elegant than the soda stream, but much cheaper in operation. Also made a wide mouth bottle out of a nalgene that I have used to carbonate various fruits. Results have been interesting but still use the system mostly for water/soda.


I have been looking into the immersion circulator but i don't think i would use it very much.

starmanbrand

So it seems the impressions are generally favorable. Anyone have any experience with the cola or dr pepper type flavors?

And I probably wont go the DIY route. While I could probably manage it, I want something that looks good if its sittin in my kitchin'.

Comahawk

Had one as a kid a long time ago... My only complaint is that the machine was very loud, so if you live with anyone, don't intend to make your pop at 0600 as it may piss some people off.

Then again, that might not apply to the new machines.

matt has a problem

Comahawk wrote: »

Had one as a kid a long time ago... My only complaint is that the machine was very loud, so if you live with anyone, don't intend to make your pop at 0600 as it may piss some people off.

Then again, that might not apply to the new machines.

The Jet machine we have makes noise, but it's just the blowoff valve when you've carbonated the water enough. It makes a pffffbbbbbttttt noise after 3 or 4 injections, to tell you everything's bubbly.

Comahawk

matthasaproblem wrote: »

Comahawk wrote: »

Had one as a kid a long time ago... My only complaint is that the machine was very loud, so if you live with anyone, don't intend to make your pop at 0600 as it may piss some people off.

Then again, that might not apply to the new machines.

The Jet machine we have makes noise, but it's just the blowoff valve when you've carbonated the water enough. It makes a pffffbbbbbttttt noise after 3 or 4 injections, to tell you everything's bubbly.

The one we had made a noise like 1000 seagulls being bashed against a pile of broken glass.

matt has a problem

Comahawk wrote: »

matthasaproblem wrote: »

Comahawk wrote: »

Had one as a kid a long time ago... My only complaint is that the machine was very loud, so if you live with anyone, don't intend to make your pop at 0600 as it may piss some people off.

Then again, that might not apply to the new machines.

The Jet machine we have makes noise, but it's just the blowoff valve when you've carbonated the water enough. It makes a pffffbbbbbttttt noise after 3 or 4 injections, to tell you everything's bubbly.

The one we had made a noise like 1000 seagulls being bashed against a pile of broken glass.

It sounds like you got the knockoff version, SodaScream.

saltiness

Comahawk wrote: »

matthasaproblem wrote: »

Comahawk wrote: »

Had one as a kid a long time ago... My only complaint is that the machine was very loud, so if you live with anyone, don't intend to make your pop at 0600 as it may piss some people off.

Then again, that might not apply to the new machines.

The Jet machine we have makes noise, but it's just the blowoff valve when you've carbonated the water enough. It makes a pffffbbbbbttttt noise after 3 or 4 injections, to tell you everything's bubbly.

The one we had made a noise like 1000 seagulls being bashed against a pile of broken glass.

I was gonna say mine sounds like what would happen if you put 1/2" exhaust with no muffler on a corvette and revved it up to 7krpm but I think the seagull analogy is better.

DeathPrawn

starmanbrand wrote: »

So it seems the impressions are generally favorable. Anyone have any experience with the cola or dr pepper type flavors?

And I probably wont go the DIY route. While I could probably manage it, I want something that looks good if its sittin in my kitchin'.

I don't know how the SodaStream works or whether it can be used with custom syrups (is it anything more than just a CO2 tank with a custom-fitted bottle?), but you can make some pretty delicious home-made cola with supermarket ingredients (i.e. no mucking around with essential oils and emulsifying agents, like OpenCola or similar recipes): http://www.tristanstephenson.com/wordpress/2008/01/19/homemade-cola-recipe. It doesn't taste too much like Coke or Pepsi, but then again most knock-off colas don't either.

saltiness

Sodastream only carbonates the water so you can but whatever you want in it afterward.

starmanbrand

Alright, we can mark this bad boy as solved. All the positive comments make me thing this will be a worthwhile doo-hickey to have.