have you guys seen this

my LHBS just started carrying the soda stream product line it is freaking sweet!
I had the chance to use it today so quick and simple and the soda syrups taste good too. Diy crown and cokes here i come!
if i get an extra 100 bucks in going to pick one up

http://www.sodastreamusa.com/

I think I saw a blip about these on a HGTV show where they took a trip to a "going green" type convention. Looked pretty cool, but since I stick to beer and water, it's a little pricey for me.

jppostKW said:

my LHBS just started carrying the soda stream product line it is freaking sweet!
I had the chance to use it today so quick and simple and the soda syrups taste good too. Diy crown and cokes here i come!
if i get an extra 100 bucks in going to pick one up

http://www.sodastreamusa.com/

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You make your own crown?

klyph said:

You make your own crown?

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good call semi homemade kinda like cookies in the tube......Although i have been volunteering at the local distillery. so if i take home a bottle i made it would be! going to take a couple years till than though

I've been using their products for years. My kegger has a cornie of soda water in it and I just add a half cap of whatever flavor I want to a pint.

Just as an aside: I have a box with 9 full bottles and one crushed bottle in it. UPS is supposed to pick it up to settle the damage claim, but I suspect it won't happen. I got a replacement shipment a few weeks ago. I think I'm set until the end of the year.

the downside to the sodastream carbonator unit is that it uses unique co2 tanks and the cost of exchanging empties for full ones is really expensive for how little co2 you actually get...

but their bottles of syrup are really great

They say you can only use it to carbonate water and if you try to carbonate other things (juices, homemade sodas, etc.) you may wreck it.

Has anyone tried carbonating other things with it? Do you have a sense of why that may wreck it?

I make a lot of soda with juice and I'd be interested in it if it would work for carbonating other things than water.

One more question......can you fill there bottles from another CO2 filler without wrecking them? Would this be cheaper?

Do you have a sense of why that may wreck it?

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The system operates by bursting measured amounts of CO2 into the chilled water. The metering system is tiny and easily jammed/gummed up. But I know people who carbonate juices routinely.

There's no way of recharging their bottles that I know of, although someone, somewhere has probably rigged up a kluge for doing it.

a much cheaper alternative (in the long run) is to buy a CO2 tank and a carbonator cap, then you can refil the tank for 5-10$ and just use 2L PET bottles for carbonating anything you want

in order to fill the sodastream bottles from a larger co2 tank, you need a filling adapter and you have to replace the cylinder valves with non-blocked units (the stock valves are designed to prevent unauthorized refilling..)

or, you can buy a high-pressure adapter hose that allows you to connect the sodastream unit to any standard co2 tank, but it requires dutting a hole in the unit for the hose, the hose isn't very flexible and it ends up being a bulky setup.

carbonator caps are a lot less hassle.