Fuck soda stream, not only because there Israeli and had a factory in the occupied territories until backlash forced them out, they're also anti-repair.

I have one and one time I pumped it a bit too much and heard a pop and it would no longer work. I opened it up and found that a piece of foil had been ruptured, and found a video online of someone replacing it by unscrewing a plastic bit and replacing the foil. I eventually stripped the screw trying to get it out only to find in the comments of the video that they glue that screw in now . They don't sell a replacement part for it either so I eventually just had to use hot glue to seal it, which doesn't feel safe.

The foil seems designed to pop as a safety pressure release mechanism, but it basically bricks the unit afterwards and you have to buy a new one.

[–] grue 31 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

LPT: go get

a real CO~2~ cylinder with a CGA 320 valve (the 10lb size is plenty)
a CGA-320 CO~2~ regulator
some 1/4" ID reinforced PVC tubing
a carbonation cap + 1/4" barb ball lock disconnect (mentioned together because they're often sold as a set), and
a plain old empty 2-liter soda bottle.

That's everything you need to carbonate soda yourself without some proprietary bullshit device.

(I found the best price for the gas cylinder from a local company that resupplies restaurants etc. with soda dispensers, which is convenient because they can also refill it for you. The rest of the stuff can be found easily enough from Amazon or whatnot. I wouldn't buy the cylinder from Amazon unless I wanted aluminum instead of steel, for no good reason.)

[–] the_tab_key 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Even better: get a soda keg, fill with water and charge with CO2. Seltzer on tap!

[–] grue 1 points 1 week ago

Better, but more expensive and space-consuming, especially if you want to store the keg in a fridge. One day I'll do it right (including storing the keg(s) in a mini-fridge in which I've cut a hole to route a line to a dispenser), but that day is not today. : (

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