Lucict
Member
Hello everyone,
I finished an infinite soda setup a few months ago and I wanted to share it here with an explanation on what I did. A few of the posts (here and here, for example) were very helpful with my setup. My pictures are attached.
I found a McCann's Big Mac locally for about $100. I drilled a hole through my countertop (granite) with a diamond hole saw. I have a 20lb C02 tank set to ~105 psi hooked up to my carbonator. The water is filtered and then runs through a cold plate before dispensing. I am using a Wunderbar bar gun for dispensing. I have flat and carbonated water right now. I ran a dedicated electrical circuit to power carbonator and anything else I need. My cold plate is 7 circuits and is currently housed inside of an electric portable refrigerator/freezer in an ice water bath. I took this route because it has a low power draw (about 45 watts when running) and is capable of freezing things. But, the thermostat isn't always accurate. Instead of relying on the thermostat, I have a few temperature sensors with a wifi relay inside the ice water bath that are hooked to my home automation system (Home Assistant). If the temperature rises above 34 degrees, the cooler automatically turns on. Once the sensors read slightly over 32 degrees, the cooler turns off. This has worked fairly well, with my soda dispensing between 35 and 39 degrees. I have a submersible UV-C light in there as well, to combat any bacterial growth. The UV-C light turns on when the cooler turns on.
One problem I ran into is that my cold plate doesn't fit very well in the portable fridge--the cold plate is a touch too big, so I had to put it on an angle. I am guessing that this is impacting my output some, but I'm not sure how yet. In any event, we use the gun everyday, multiple times a day, from filling kids water cups to enjoying some carbonated water with a Monin syrup. The cooler usually kicks on after one draw to bring the temp back down, but it stays pretty consistent for multiple draws. I would like to pick up an ice machine at some point to see how that would improve the setup.
I am hoping to add some soda syrups to my bar gun soon. I picked up a secondary regulator and was going to buy a couple Flojet T5000. I'd like to be able to serve some regular soda as well as some juices/lemonade. My only concern is the size of many bag-in-box products--at 2.5, 3, or 5 gallons of syrup, the product will probably go bad before I can use it up. That's ok, but I was thinking it would be more cost effective and fun to get smaller amounts of syrup and be able to go through it faster. If you know how to adapt a Flojet to draw from a gallon jug, or anyone who supplies small BIB amounts, please let me know.
I finished an infinite soda setup a few months ago and I wanted to share it here with an explanation on what I did. A few of the posts (here and here, for example) were very helpful with my setup. My pictures are attached.
I found a McCann's Big Mac locally for about $100. I drilled a hole through my countertop (granite) with a diamond hole saw. I have a 20lb C02 tank set to ~105 psi hooked up to my carbonator. The water is filtered and then runs through a cold plate before dispensing. I am using a Wunderbar bar gun for dispensing. I have flat and carbonated water right now. I ran a dedicated electrical circuit to power carbonator and anything else I need. My cold plate is 7 circuits and is currently housed inside of an electric portable refrigerator/freezer in an ice water bath. I took this route because it has a low power draw (about 45 watts when running) and is capable of freezing things. But, the thermostat isn't always accurate. Instead of relying on the thermostat, I have a few temperature sensors with a wifi relay inside the ice water bath that are hooked to my home automation system (Home Assistant). If the temperature rises above 34 degrees, the cooler automatically turns on. Once the sensors read slightly over 32 degrees, the cooler turns off. This has worked fairly well, with my soda dispensing between 35 and 39 degrees. I have a submersible UV-C light in there as well, to combat any bacterial growth. The UV-C light turns on when the cooler turns on.
One problem I ran into is that my cold plate doesn't fit very well in the portable fridge--the cold plate is a touch too big, so I had to put it on an angle. I am guessing that this is impacting my output some, but I'm not sure how yet. In any event, we use the gun everyday, multiple times a day, from filling kids water cups to enjoying some carbonated water with a Monin syrup. The cooler usually kicks on after one draw to bring the temp back down, but it stays pretty consistent for multiple draws. I would like to pick up an ice machine at some point to see how that would improve the setup.
I am hoping to add some soda syrups to my bar gun soon. I picked up a secondary regulator and was going to buy a couple Flojet T5000. I'd like to be able to serve some regular soda as well as some juices/lemonade. My only concern is the size of many bag-in-box products--at 2.5, 3, or 5 gallons of syrup, the product will probably go bad before I can use it up. That's ok, but I was thinking it would be more cost effective and fun to get smaller amounts of syrup and be able to go through it faster. If you know how to adapt a Flojet to draw from a gallon jug, or anyone who supplies small BIB amounts, please let me know.
