Soda Gun - Anyone used one of these?

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Atl300zx

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I've been looking at adding a Pre-mix soda gun to my kegerator. That way i will be able to keep Coke, Sprite, Ginger Ale, Tonic Water, Soda Water, Energy Drinks, etc cold and carbonated. I always end up buying 2L's and the go flat.

The Pre-mix soda gun seems like the best way to do this, but i was wondering if someone already did this and i could look exactly how they hooked it up. I assume sodas should be much more carbonated than beer, and wanted to see what other parts would be needed to make this work.

Here is a link to a pre-mix soda gun to give you all the idea.

http://www.wunderbar.com/products-product.aspx?ProductID=14
 
I looked into the idea, but decided it was a bit much for one person. What I have is a keg of soda water and 1/2L bottles of mix (sodaclub) in the fridge. I keep the soda keg at 30 psi, which means secondary regulators for the ale kegs. The soda line is 12 ft of 3/16th. A pint of soda water & 1/2 cap of mix does the trick.

This also means keeping the kegger fairly cold, otherwise you have to add ice & the soda goes flat.
 
I've looked at home soda fountain stuff, both bar guns and regular dispensers, in the past and here are my thoughts.

1. You don't drink soda fast enough to keep a 2L from going flat.
2. Beer guns should be cleaned daily, which is a lot of work.
3. Coke/Pepsi distributors typically are not interested in dealing with individuals YMMV. Note that Sam's Club does/did resell coke bag-in-box syrups but their website currently only shows an off-brand.
4. A new 4 flavor bar gun system from Sams is $1,700+. Obviously used could be cheaper.


I think you would be better off, even if you get brand name syrups, mixing it in corny kegs and dispensing with regular taps. Alternatively, buy some carbonator caps and re-pressurize your 2L bottles after use.
 
my thought on this was to basically custom rig this unit up to 2 liters. I would imagine that they could resist the pressures needed and the caps could be drilled and grommetted. Maybe i am wrong.

As mentioned befroe, i would only do this as a pre-mix, i dont have to have to mess with mixing syrups. Also i dont have anymore space in my freezer for anymore cornies, but a ton of space for things like 2 liters.
 
I picked up a cheap wunderbar gun from ebay for ~60$ works great, though i do post mix. Basicly keep the water in a corney keg and syrup outside the fridge. Most mixes are in a 4:1 - 5:1(Water : Syrup) mix. The hardest part of all this is keeping the water carbonated by far.

As for serving premix, well i dont see why this wouldnt work, but you still would need to keep the mix cold/pressurized to keep it carbonated, or a cold plate to chill it properly
 
MadWeezel said:
As for serving premix, well i dont see why this wouldnt work, but you still would need to keep the mix cold/pressurized to keep it carbonated, or a cold plate to chill it properly

I would keep all my 2 liters in my kegerator so they would all be cold. As mentioned before, i should be able to drill some holes in the caps of the 2L and feed in Co2 to keep pressurized and to serve the beverage. Something similar to this
http://www.instructables.com/id/ELS4LP8T6YEP306EDN/?ALLSTEPS
but with an actual soda gun.
 
If possible make sure the umblicle is kept cold too, that way the pop in the lines dont go flat.
 
MadWeezel said:
or a cold plate to chill it properly

Now that's a nifty idea. Those cornys can hold a helluva lot of pressure. If you ran a plate chiller inside the fridge and kept your mixes and water outside the fridge that would save almost all of your room for beer in that fridge. :rockin:

Not exactly the easiest or cheapest option but nonetheless interesting.

I imagine you could keep a couple box-bags outside next to the fridge, and a corny of carbonated water outside as well. Press the wunderbar button, water goes into the fridge, through the plate chiller, outside icy cold, and mixes with the syrup at the gun.

Ideally you could have your syrups and water anywhere you like. All the restaurants here have their stacks of syrups and co2 in the very back that supply the entire store (usually 2-4 dispensers spread across the store).
 
:off: btw just seen this at the wunderbar site.

roll-a-bar.jpg


http://www.wunderbar.com/documents/2007-rollabar-list-price.pdf

List price $8,220.00

Ouch!
 
I picked up a cheapie pre-mix Wunder Bar gun.

So i wont need to mix syrups and water. I will take pictures when i rig it all up.

7 button model....

What do you all recommend as the top 7 mixers i should use this for? I am leaning towards carbonated ones as i wont have to worry about them going flat.

Will non-carbonated beverages b/c carbonated?
 
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