Dedicated Spring Water Soda Water Machine Build

[roger55]

Beautiful build. I've been contemplating building a continuous system with the carbonator tank in the fridge to avoid all the cold plate/flash chiller hassles. I want to add mine to an existing bar and was wondering if you could simply connect the input to the carbonator from the house water supply. Obviously it wouldn't come in cold, but I don't anticipate using it to continuously produce seltzer, just a few glasses a night.
Thoughts?

Thanks.
Personally, I wouldn't do it that way as it would affect the performance of the system. It would probably work for a glass or 2 like you say but what if you had company or a party?
Why not do it exactly the way I did but refill the 2 1/2 gallon jugs with your tapwater?

 

[bryanf650]

Thanks for the response. I really appreciate you sharing your experience. It really just comes down to space. I'd like to fit it in 'wet bar' (really just a 6' counter with 2 zone beverage fridge and sink). 99% of the time it will be a glass or two at night. I guess we could break out the old soda stream for guests.

I wonder if you could extend the capacity by running the tap water through a heat exchanger in the fridge (possibly water filled) to pre-cool the water before it goes through the carbonator...or maybe just a 1 gallon holding tank?

 

[roger55]

Thanks for the response. I really appreciate you sharing your experience. It really just comes down to space. I'd like to fit it in 'wet bar' (really just a 6' counter with 2 zone beverage fridge and sink). 99% of the time it will be a glass or two at night. I guess we could break out the old soda stream for guests.

I wonder if you could extend the capacity by running the tap water through a heat exchanger in the fridge (possibly water filled) to pre-cool the water before it goes through the carbonator...or maybe just a 1 gallon holding tank?

I wouldn't do that either. I don't know exactly what kind of results you would get but you sure would be taking a chance that you wouldn't be happy with it.
The other thing is that both the motor for the pressure pump (if you used that) and the motor for the carbonator make too much noise for putting in a living area.
I understand what your goal is but I just don't see putting the money into something that would be so less than ideal.
For what you want I'd go the Sodastream route and convert the CO2 supply to a larger cannister that is not proprietary. They make adapters where you can use paintball cannisters with them.

 

[bryanf650]

Thanks for the response. I'm not ready to give up yet.

What to do you think about using a refrigerator reservoir to pre-chill the tap water before it goes to the carbonator, such as this

http://www.appliancepartspros.com/ge-water-tank-tube-wr17x10734-ap3188462.html

it would serve the same purpose as your tank/pump setup, but with less available water volume. My crude math says this would hold about 3/4 gallon. Obviously this would heat up a bit as new water replaced the cold water, but with the carbonator tank in the fridge and this feeding it, wouldn't this perform like your system but with just less capacity?

Thanks again,

Bryan

 

[roger55]

Thanks for the response. I'm not ready to give up yet.
What to do you think about using a refrigerator reservoir to pre-chill the tap water before it goes to the carbonator, such as this
http://www.appliancepartspros.com/ge-water-tank-tube-wr17x10734-ap3188462.html
it would serve the same purpose as your tank/pump setup, but with less available water volume. My crude math says this would hold about 3/4 gallon. Obviously this would heat up a bit as new water replaced the cold water, but with the carbonator tank in the fridge and this feeding it, wouldn't this perform like your system but with just less capacity?
Thanks again,
Bryan

That would have to be better but I think it is still less than ideal and it wouldn't be what I would want. It may work for you OK but I just can't know.
My wife and I hit ours pretty often in the summer when we are working around the house. It's hot down here in Texas and we drink a lot of water. Right now we've got a a contractor building an addition on our house and we are letting him and his helper use the system too. My system will handle anything I will ever put to it plus more.

 

[sarink]

This is a project I've been working on to incorporate this into my bar (it's still pretty rough around the edges). Because I use so little seltzer, the pump does not run very often. Admittedly it's pretty noisy when it does, but it only lasts a few minutes. I don't have a huge issue with it being in my "living area".

I incorporated a Brita, so that I don't need to use spring water. Although, I've found that the taste is dramatically altered with tap water or even Brita. I actually drained the entire system one day and purchased a bunch of spring water at Sam's Club instead - but maybe it doesn't bother you.

I also fit the entire thing into a mini fridge. It doesn't take up too much space, as you can see.

I thought the same thing as you, that since I don't use it a lot that it was overkill. But if you want it as part of a bar, and you host a little dinner party or something, people are going to want to use it. You could go smaller, but you'll probably regret it whenever you have people over.

 

[roger55]

Excellent!!!

Are you happy with how it is working for you? I expect that the performance of your system would be just like mine. If you have another fridge in the house where you can pre-cool your 2 1/2 gallon jugs of spring water, you're capacity on the machine would basically be unlimited.

I think what you did may help Bryan in his plans for a system that takes up less space than mine does.

Have you thought about making a box cover for your motors? You could put some foam insulation inside the cover and I bet it would reduce the noise a bunch. I don't think heat build up would be a problem because the motors don't run often enough.

Btw, I'd like to see close-ups of you're dispenser and the brand/part number for that. Is the dispenser working just like you hoped it would?

 

[bryanf650]

Wow, Sarink! That is very close to what I was thinking, although I still would like to use the tap water with an in-line charcoal filter for purification (we are on the Hetch Hetchy water system here norcal--basically snow melt water from the sierras--so our water has excellent taste). The mini-fridge pictures really help me visualize the whole thing.

So, I'm thinking that the system would look like (brackets mean in-fridge):

tap->backflow preventer->[charcoal filter->fridge water reservoir->}carbonator->{carbonator tank}->seltzer faucet.

I'm tempted to try it out this way and convert to sarink's setup if I can't get the performance.

I know a little be about sound isolation--For really good sound isolation I would build a 1/2" MDF box to fit over the pumps and line it with foam backed MLV (mass loaded vinyl). Make sure the vinyl is pointed towards the sound source (not the foam) and try to minimize any gaps. Mount the pumps on another piece of MLV. I am a little concerned about over-heating, but as long as the pumps run for a short period it shouldn't be a problem. If it is, then add some PVC pipe vents. Complicated, I know, but it should really cut down on the noise.

 

[sarink]

It's working great! There were a lot, lot, of struggles along the way, and I certainly learned a bunch. Probably would still be working on it had I not found this thread/your build! So thank you

The dispenser is a Cornelius UF-1 (the electronic push-button version). I had to find my own power supply for it, and rewire it, but it was pretty straight forward (so long as you can use a multimeter and solder). If anyone's interested in this, I can take some pictures and describe it in more detail.

I do plan on building a box (I think you and I may have discussed this briefly a few pages back, actually). I also need to build a nicer "bar", get some loom around/zip tie the wires...lots of polishing to be done yet. What you see is very much just a functioning prototype. I've got big plans for this xD

 

[roger55]

... I am a little concerned about over-heating, but as long as the pumps run for a short period it shouldn't be a problem. If it is, then add some PVC pipe vents. Complicated, I know, but it should really cut down on the noise.

I don't think you need to worry about heat at all.
Mine pumps are in the garage and when hot cars are pulled in in the summertime, I'm sure it gets over 100 in there. I doubt yours would get that warm.
Remember though that I had to change out my hose for higher pressure stuff. The heat made the cheaper hose swell up.

 

[Seannoo]

I have a question for you about the set up, but it would be under the assumption that your city water was of good quality.
My wife is psycho for her sparkling water, and we have a sodastream, but she goes through about 3 liters a day. For her birthday I am going to set her up with an automatic system using a carbonator, hooked through the (pressurized) city supply as a source, a good filtration system and then to an output device. I was throwing around the idea of a bar gun, a single valve soda dispenser or a beer tap type dispenser. I have found a couple if sources for a water chiller system meant for a soda fountain, and thought to use that.
As I have continued to think about it, I've wondered if have just been over thinking this whole process about the water delivery.
So....onto my actual question: do you think the system would work to have the water sourced from the city water, through the filter, through the carbonator and then hooked up to my refrigerator's water inlet and dispensed out if the door. It would be in my garage fridge and the ice maker is not connected. To my knowledge, the water just runs through a coil of hose in the refer compartment and then to an electric dispensing valve in the door.
The only reaso I would think that it wouldn't work would be if the co2 caused too much pressure in the line and were to blow something.

What are your thoughts on this type of a setup?

Thanks in advance!

Sean

 

[bryanf650]

I haven't actually built anything yet (parts are on order and I'll be trying a modified version of Roger55's setup), but I've done a bit of research and will offer my opinion. I'm sure others with more experience will chime in.

I don't think that would work. The output from the carbonator is around 100psi and typically you need a special faucet to deal with that pressure to avoid it becoming a fire hose. I have read a couple threads where people have used beer taps to dispense, but typically they need some sort of restrictor to control the flow (such as ~25 ft of 1/8" ID tubing). Sounds like that works pretty well, but I would worry about putting 100psi into a beer tap (the restrictor reduces flow, not static pressure).

 

[sarink]

That's exactly how restaurants do it. The McCann carbonator was made to work that way.

Your water line is what that Shurflo pump simulates, because roger55 did not want to tap into his home's water line.

You should be able to copy this setup, eliminating the Shurflo pump and WaterWorker tank, and just hook up the carbonator to your water line directly.

There are many high-pressure in-line filters you can also purchase.

 

[roger55]

Sean,
Sorry it's taken me so long to respond. I'm out of town right now and this has been my first opportunity to get online.

Bryan is totally correct. The output system to the front of your fridge would not work for the carbonated water. You would need to redesign that part completely.

As far as the input to the carbonator motor, I'm not sure how well that would work because the water lines into the rear of the refrigerator are typically just 1/4" tubing and create a lot of restriction to the flow volume. The filter adds restriction too and can just about stop the flow altogether when it gets old.
And, you would not want the electric motor part of the carbonator inside the refrigerator, only the carbonator tank. You would have to run the water into the fridge so it would cool through it's tubes and then run a line out of the fridge and into the carb motor. Might be a challenge.

So, I have several concerns about what you are wanting to accomplish.

 

[Taz420NJ]

Roger I don't think you're properly seeing what he wants to do. He wants to have the carbonator outside the refrigerator. He wants to plumb the input of the carbonator pump to his city water (he would use 3/8" hose for that, going through his filters first), then plumb the output of the carbonator tank to the 1/4" water inlet of the refrigerator - which essentially runs through a jockey box coil inside the refrigerator to the valve. This is virtually identical to how commercial soda fountains are plumbed. My Wunderbar gun has all 1/4" inputs.

In a commercial setup, the carbonator tank is rarely refrigerated, and rarely has a pre-chilled water supply. It carbonates at high pressure/room temperature, then the soda water goes either through a cold plate in the ice bin of the fountain, or an ice-block refrigeration system, which is enough to continuously chill the soda water to prevent offgassing.

Now my only concerns with what he wants to do is that he needs to find out the maximum pressure that the refrigerator's water system is designed for (80-100PSI would not be unheard of), and he needs to open the fridge up and make absolutely certain that there are no brass or copper components in the water system, otherwise the system would be toxic with carbonated water running through it.

 

[Taz420NJ]

It's working great! There were a lot, lot, of struggles along the way, and I certainly learned a bunch. Probably would still be working on it had I not found this thread/your build! So thank you

The dispenser is a Cornelius UF-1 (the electronic push-button version). I had to find my own power supply for it, and rewire it, but it was pretty straight forward (so long as you can use a multimeter and solder). If anyone's interested in this, I can take some pictures and describe it in more detail.

I do plan on building a box (I think you and I may have discussed this briefly a few pages back, actually). I also need to build a nicer "bar", get some loom around/zip tie the wires...lots of polishing to be done yet. What you see is very much just a functioning prototype. I've got big plans for this xD

Well you got my attention with that.. I have wanted to put a couple fountain heads in my kitchen for a while now. What is that thing next to the soda head? I don't see it in any of the literature for the UF-1. And how are you connecting the soda and syrup lines to the head? None of the ones I have seen for sale have any kind of a hose barb, they look like they are supposed to mount directly to some standard manifold in a fountain.

 

[Taz420NJ]

After much procrastination and lallygagging on ordering parts (I finally gave in after trying to find alternatives to paying almost $60 just for the stupid clamps ) I finally have my system producing soda water!!

Basically I installed the carbonator tank and a 10 button Wunderbar gun inside my regular kitchen fridge. I also constructed a plain water chiller reservoir out of 10 feet (folded) of 1" PVC pipe, which fits perfectly behind the shelves - so I don't actually lose any extra space. It holds about a half gallon, which is fine. It's actually more than the chiller in a built-in water dispenser holds. The two gallon soda tank is what I'll be using most of the time..

I ran the hoses (currently have two extras for post-mix soda in the future, I'll probably add a third before I seal everything up since I have three BIB pumps) through a 2 1/2" hole in the bottom of the fridge, then through the wall and down into the basement where I have the carbonator pump, CO2 tank, and water filters.

I'm using a three stage 10" filter bank, with a sediment filter and two carbon block filters. It does a respectable job on our nasty water.

I'll have some pics up later..

 

[bryanf650]

Yay! I finally got my system up and running and it turned out much better than anticipated. My goal was to put a soda dispenser into a wet bar to provide filtered soda water to a fountain head on the counter. I already had a 2-Zone wine/beverage fridge in the wet bar, but I was hoping to build a compact system so I could still use most of the fridge. The water path is

house water->charcoal filter->reservoir->carbonator->fountain head

The reservoir and carbonator tank are in the refrigerator and the pump and filter are under the sink.

I got lucky in a couple places. Using the mini Mcann 43-5000 carbonator and setting the next to the fridge wall allowed me to keep everything very close--in fact, I didn't even have to extend the electrical cable that runs between the tank and pump! To make the reservoir I bought 3 32oz fridge reservoirs, zip tied them together and connected them in series. The idea being that I would have approx 1 gal of chilled fizzy water available at any time (the tank also holds 32oz). By having the fridge reservoirs in series the warm incoming water won't warm up the water going into the carbonator until all the reservoirs are flushed. Just by chance the reservoirs fit perfectly above the compressor hump in the fridge, so I hardly lost any space in the fridge!

I just got it working last night, but it seems to be pretty solid. It is a bit loud when the pump runs (a loud hum--much quieter than a garbage disposal, but no exactly whisper quiet), but that is pretty infrequent (every other 12 oz glass or so).

Here are some pics (sorry for the mess, the house is in the final stages of construction):

 

[sarink]

After one of my lines blew and leaked an entire tank of co2 in addition to spewing soda everywhere...I had put this project on the shelf for a few months, but it's got my attention again. I'm actually going back on what I said in an earlier post, as I am rebuilding my soda machine with a McCann Small Carbonator and Jabsco 1 liter Accumulator tank instead of the WaterWorker. It's about halfway done now, I'll post some more pictures when it's finished!

bryan, nice setup! I have to say though, I'm a bit confused... why use those fridge reservoirs? Why not just purchase the larger carbonator with the bigger seltzer tank? FYI, you might like this link to the McCann Horizontal Carbonator Tank, I'm not sure about the dimensions, but it appears as if it may fit on that little shelf in the back of your fridge, saving you even more space. And are you sure that the tubing you've used/those (are they the "quick connect"?) couplers are sufficient to hold the pressure of this system? Roger and I have probably had this setup working for the longest (of anyone in this thread) and over time both of us have blown lines. It is seriously not fun. I would highly recommend you consider replacing the tubing. Look back a few pages for the Apex Bevlex stuff that roger posted. Also, what happened to your other co2 tank? Looks like you switched.

Taz, super sorry I didn't get back to you. In case you were still wondering... The "thing" next to the Cornelius UF-1 dispenser is completely unrelated (it's a pump that I am using to dispense different syrups into the glass via an Arduino). As for setting up the UF-1, by itself, it does not come with all the necessary parts you need, and it was somewhat time consuming for me to figure this out. I'm sure it is far too late now, but I'll post the information here anyway. In addition to the UF-1, you need the following parts:
1919 - Mounting block
77050100 - Inlet fitting
1081 - Retainer screw
318762000 - Retainer
Search the part numbers on 3wire.com
Also, you owe us pictures!

 

[bryanf650]

Sarink,

Funny you should mention leaks. I just finished upgrading those tanks last night to a custom PVC tubing based reservoir that I built. Two of the refrigerator tanks units started to leak after a few weeks of use. My logic in using them was that they would only be holding the same pressure that they hold when in a refrigerator (house pressure) and that they were clean, non-outgassing and had good volume were cheap and readily available. I think they started to fail because they couldn't handle the pressure fluctuations when the carbonator pump switched on and off. It was a pain to try and interface the 5/16 line--but actually all the JG fittings worked fine and didn't leak. All the high pressure stuff was always high-pressure reinforced tubing with either flare with barb and SS Oettiker clamps and should be good for the 80-100 psi room temp environment with plenty of safety factor. With the new reservoir, everything is high pressure capable.

Regarding the tank, I originally bought that little 4lb tank because I thought it would fit better under the sink and still allow for a lot of storage. Unfortunately it is a pain to get it filled and the standard 5lb tank fits fine and is a simple swap out for filling. I have the 4lb tank for backup now.

Thanks for the suggestion of for the carbonator tank. I looked into that tank, but wasn't sure how the float/switch worked so I went with the smaller Mcann as a complete working system (used). I decided not to use a big tank under the theory that with my multiple reservoir tanks in series the temperature of the carbonator water won't change until warmer house water flushes all the reservoirs. This should give me ~2.5l of cold, fizzy goodness on tap before the temperature starts to affect the carbonation. It seems to work pretty well--I filled 2l of soda to take to a party and didn't detect a temperature change from beginning to end.

Other than the reservoir leaks, everything works great and my wife and I have really enjoyed having the seltzer on tap.

Here is a pic of the new reservoir.

 

[bryanf650]

One last pic. You can still see the old soda stream on the counter, but here is the final wetbar with everything closed up. The soda faucet is on the right side of the sink.

Thanks for all the help! I'm not sure I could have done it without you guys. I'd be more than happy to provide p/n's etc if anyone is interested.

Bryan

 

[MT2sum]

I like this idea, Thanx

 

[MT2sum]

I have one of those carbonators in my "stuff." I'm a packrat, and I hate to get rid of anything. I bought an old coke 'soda fountain' machine back when I was an appliance repairman and the carbonator came with it .... I sold it and the buyer only wanted the coke machine, not the carbonator setup, so I've been packing it around for about 30 years, thinking I might do something with it one of these days ;0 - now I know what I'll do with it! I don't know exactly how yet, but this thread has given me some ideas. The wife makes milk kefir and water kefir ... the milk kefir tastes like the buttermilk we used to make on the farm when I was a kid, and the water kefir is kinda like soda pop, but without enuff carbonation .... now I gotta figure out how to adapt some of your ideas to that.

I won't be able to get to the carbonator for a few months, it's still back in Montana, and we're visiting in Tennessee until the winter is over, but I've copied and pasted all of the posts and pix so that I can use some of your ideas for my setup. Then she can make soda pop as well, just make syrups and add them to the soda water. Our syrups will, of course use organic-tyoe sugars .... we are anti-white sugar .... (we only use pilloncillo, jaggery, panela, or organic sugar which is not heavily processed and still has the molasses in it for the vitamins and minerals the body needs - the white sugar has all of the food value stripped out of it) because, as was said earlier, most sugars are toxic (I agree with your original statement, roger55!) - I use the same sugars in my beers when sugar is called for, and it really makes porters and stouts taste better IMHO.

A lot of beer recipes say to use table sugar - which could be cane or beet - I used to haul the aged, dried sludge for a sugar-beet plant in Montana and I wouldn't use beet sugar on a bet - they have to use 17 different toxic chemicals to process that bitter, black relative of the radish. The sludge is so toxic it has to be pumped into ponds and aged for 4 or 5 years in the open air before it can be used as dirt for fertilizing the beet fields. Just think of the ground underneath the ponds, which are not lined, just a layer of gravel at the bottom, I can imagine how much of those toxic chemicals are slowly seeping into the earth .... I know the wells in the area are very deep, but eventually ........ Use beet sugar at your own risk!

 

[bryanf650]

I just started experimenting with making some syrup to make lemonade and hard lemonade. The nice thing is that you can adjust the sugar to your liking. Most syrups are just way too sweet for me. I don't have any recipes, I just keep mixing until I like it. Just made a lemon, lemon zest, lime, raspberry combo that worked out really well for regular lemonade and somewhat dangerous hard lemonade. I wasn't expecting to make syrups this when I started working on making the soda dispenser, but I think it will be a fun little hobby since it is so fast to make a syrup...

 

[MT2sum]

bryanf650 - when you figure out your recipes, write them down and don't forget us ...... I agree that most available syrups are too sugary, we would tone them down if we had some recipes, so I'm with you on that! Besidesw that most (all?) commercial syrups are bound to be made with white sugar .... Pepsi I know for sure uses beet sugar .... so we wouldn't be using any commercial syrups, only home made.
I haven't checked out these recipe sites, but they all say they have recipes ..... might give you some ideas:
Mother Earth News
Not Dabbling in Normal
Huffington Post
... and there's more, I just put "DIY soda recipes" in the Startpage search and I got 8 or 10 results. The Huffpost article mentioned something about some books with recipes, so I'm going to copy them down and look in the local library for them.

 

[Beerlover88]

I'm trying to replicate this system with not a lot of success. I've got a McCann's Big Mac carbonator with the tank separated from the pump. The differences are that I'm using a mini-fridge, and a old style crane neck soda tap like the one in Bryan's post above.

The first glass comes out carbonated, but subsequent glasses do not. The water comes out really fast, even when using 12' of 1/8" supply line to the tap to reduce the pressure.

I'm just trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm thinking that my water is just not cold enough in the mini-fridge, or I've got the PSI too high to the carbonator (110 PSI). Any other ideas? I really want to get this working.

Thanks!

 

[bryanf650]

I think your pressure might be too high or maybe something is wrong with your faucet. I found that at higher pressures the seltzer comes out to fast and then foams up an loses carbonation. ~80 psi seems to work well for me with the fridge set to 41deg. In theory you can lower the pressure if you lower the temperature to achieve the same carbonation. I was a little afraid of freezing the lines, so I kept my fridge at pretty high temperature.

Is the water pre-chilled coming into the carbonator in your setup? Obviously higher temperatures incoming water will affect the carbonation level.

Also, maybe the 12' line is hurting you by allowing the soda to warm up?

 

[roger55]

...I didn't see if anyone asked yet, but how long is your CO2 tank lasting just making seltzer?

Now that I've been using my system a while, I can give a good report at how long my 20# CO2 tank lasts. The carbonated water is used by both my wife and I and we drink it every day, year round.

I've filled re-filled it 3 times since the initial full bottle in February of 2012. I just got a re-fill llast week so I just started my 4th bottle.

The fist bottle lasted 13 months.
The second bottle lasted 12.5 months
The third bottle lasted 15.5 months

I don't know why the 3 bottle went a little longer. I suspect Airgas might not fill them all to the exact same charge.

I wasn't too happy when Airgas nearly doubled the price in 2014.

My first refill in early 2013 cost $16.83 and the refill I just got was $31.22

Just as a note, my system is now almost 3 and a half years old. Everything I did to work out the initial bugs has been posted in this thread. It's a solid and reliable system and I'm extremely happy that I built it.

 

[piyoman]

i'm interesting in doing something similar to this but I haven't found an inexpensive solution to completing the faucet side. It seems a simple wall mounted soda faucet costs $150+ and $450(!) for a tower. I'd like to adapt a beer faucet tower but I haven't heard of any confirmed set ups. There's chatter of running 8-10' or 30' of 1/8" line directly from the carbonator or 100psi keg but not really a definitive answer as to what was successful. Ultimately I'd like either a regular filtered water faucet or faucet tower for beer to mount and dispense the seltzer water on top of my bar fridge. Adapting a wonderbar soda gun or Cornelius UF-1 dispenser head could be doable but I'd prefer a more elegant solution if possible. Any confirmed suggestions?

 

[WasserMitGas]

Now that I've been using my system a while, I can give a good report at how long my 20# CO2 tank lasts. The carbonated water is used by both my wife and I and we drink it every day, year round.

I've filled re-filled it 3 times since the initial full bottle in February of 2012. I just got a re-fill llast week so I just started my 4th bottle.

The fist bottle lasted 13 months.
The second bottle lasted 12.5 months
The third bottle lasted 15.5 months

I don't know why the 3 bottle went a little longer. I suspect Airgas might not fill them all to the exact same charge.

I wasn't too happy when Airgas nearly doubled the price in 2014.

My first refill in early 2013 cost $16.83 and the refill I just got was $31.22

Just as a note, my system is now almost 3 and a half years old. Everything I did to work out the initial bugs has been posted in this thread. It's a solid and reliable system and I'm extremely happy that I built it.

Hi Roger,

Awesome setup!! Thanks for sharing so many great details and pictures . I love carbonated water, and I'm working on a somewhat similar setup with a Mccann Big Mac Carbonator I got on ebay for $135 shipped. I picked up a tank and regulator, and it all tests good when the output line is submerged in ice water to cool it. Now to figure out what my cooling and dispensing solution will end up being!

piyoman, I was thinking about a pressure regulator before the faucet, and just using a normal faucet like filtered water systems use. <$50 for a regulator and <$30 for a small faucet would probably work pretty well. Can anyone here weigh in?

http://www.kegman.net/categories/Soda,-Seltzer-&-Water/Soda-Regulators/Secondary/
http://www.homedepot.com/p/DuPont-1-4-in-Faucet-in-Chrome-WFFT110CH/203445405