Drinkmate. Better anyway because the removable/cleanable carbonator head allows you to carbonate any drink and also premix drinks. You’ll lose a lot of carbonation the SodaStream way of mixing after carbonating.
You can just get a cap that will fit on any bottle and attach to a traditional c02 tank. Added benefit that if you use this with any regularity it will cost you much less over time.
You can also get corny kegs like the other person posted but those can be pricey. You can get them cheap at restaurant auctions sometimes (I basically got mine for free but they were gross). These take up a decent amount of space but you can make a lot of stuff at once
Unfortunately a great many of them use Sodastream’s gas cylinders - after their patent expired and anyone could build a compatible unit - so you might not be able to escape them getting your money when buying CO2 refills, if there isn’t another brand of gas cylinder available where you shop.
Sodastream have released a new cylinder design (with a bayonet rather than screw fitting), presumably to again attempt to kill off the market for home refilling from a larger CO2 cylinder, or use in other brands of machines.
Where I live (Germany), most bigger Supermarket chains offer in house brand sodastream compatible gas cylinders. There usually even cheaper. I also have an ALDI in house sodastream dupe called soda star. Never saw a reason to buy sodastream, even before I knew about their political/moral questionability, when there are cheaper alternatives that literally do the exact same thing.
lol damn. I haven’t even used the first can up in like a year, but I don’t use it a ton. Just occasionally carbonate some gin drinks or re-carbonate flat soda or etc. have made a few sodas but not much, am going to be making some syrups soon so I’ll probably actually get more use out of it once I’ve made those. Still, absolutely love it.
I use a “Spärkel” carbonator. Instead of CO2 canisters, it uses packets of citric acid and baking soda to generate CO2 and uses a compressor to infuse the liquid.
Pros:
You can either use their pre-measured packets if that’s convenient for you, or do what I do and just buy a bulk amount of both the citric acid and baking soda.
You can carbonate pretty much any liquid. Water, wine, flat soda, mixed drinks, you name it. The sodastream will explode and cause a huge mess if you try to carbonate anything besides water.
They don’t appear to be Israeli.
Cons:
Because it uses a compressor, it needs to be plugged in to operate. It’s pretty loud too!
It takes longer than a sodastream. While a sodastream is almost instant, this will take 1-3 minutes depending on the level of carbonation you desire.
I suddenly find myself wondering if I could make carbonated water by mixing citric acid baking soda directly in a 2-liter bottle, and pressurize it by screwing the cap back on quickly. It’s probably a really bad idea due to the risk of explosion if you add too much reagent, and also because you’d end up with a bunch of sodium citrate in your carbonated water, which seems like it would be safe to drink but might not taste good.
You probably could, but you’d have the taste of citric acid (which is not awful) and baking soda in the water. The Spärkel has the water that activates the reaction in a separate chamber so they don’t wind up in your drink. You need to change that water every four or five times you use it.
Thank you, been looking for a replacement for my soda stream but have been hesitant since it’s so easy to get canisters for them, but none of the competitors.
Buy a used tank & mix machine as found in most restaurants. Register a business with your state. Sign the exclusivity deal with Coke or Pepsi. Buy the syrup. If you’re using this every day it’ll be cheaper than sodastream in a relatively short period of time.
Aww man, I like using sodastream. Is there an alternative that isn’t directly tied to an apartheid state committing genocide?
Drinkmate. Better anyway because the removable/cleanable carbonator head allows you to carbonate any drink and also premix drinks. You’ll lose a lot of carbonation the SodaStream way of mixing after carbonating.
You can just get a cap that will fit on any bottle and attach to a traditional c02 tank. Added benefit that if you use this with any regularity it will cost you much less over time.
You can also get corny kegs like the other person posted but those can be pricey. You can get them cheap at restaurant auctions sometimes (I basically got mine for free but they were gross). These take up a decent amount of space but you can make a lot of stuff at once
I’d assume that most other carbonators aren’t made by Sodastream 👍
Seconding Drinkmate. I replaced my soda stream a while ago and have been very happy.
Unfortunately a great many of them use Sodastream’s gas cylinders - after their patent expired and anyone could build a compatible unit - so you might not be able to escape them getting your money when buying CO2 refills, if there isn’t another brand of gas cylinder available where you shop.
Sodastream have released a new cylinder design (with a bayonet rather than screw fitting), presumably to again attempt to kill off the market for home refilling from a larger CO2 cylinder, or use in other brands of machines.
All of that said, I do like my Aarke machine.
Check out Soda Sense. They ship the bottles to you and provide a prepaid return label.
Where I live (Germany), most bigger Supermarket chains offer in house brand sodastream compatible gas cylinders. There usually even cheaper. I also have an ALDI in house sodastream dupe called soda star. Never saw a reason to buy sodastream, even before I knew about their political/moral questionability, when there are cheaper alternatives that literally do the exact same thing.
Drinkmate is solid idk where they are produced tho just that they are based in Michigan.
Love my drinkmate that I hook up to 5 Lb C02 tanks swapped locally!
lol damn. I haven’t even used the first can up in like a year, but I don’t use it a ton. Just occasionally carbonate some gin drinks or re-carbonate flat soda or etc. have made a few sodas but not much, am going to be making some syrups soon so I’ll probably actually get more use out of it once I’ve made those. Still, absolutely love it.
I use a “Spärkel” carbonator. Instead of CO2 canisters, it uses packets of citric acid and baking soda to generate CO2 and uses a compressor to infuse the liquid.
Pros:
Cons:
I suddenly find myself wondering if I could make carbonated water by mixing citric acid baking soda directly in a 2-liter bottle, and pressurize it by screwing the cap back on quickly. It’s probably a really bad idea due to the risk of explosion if you add too much reagent, and also because you’d end up with a bunch of sodium citrate in your carbonated water, which seems like it would be safe to drink but might not taste good.
You probably could, but you’d have the taste of citric acid (which is not awful) and baking soda in the water. The Spärkel has the water that activates the reaction in a separate chamber so they don’t wind up in your drink. You need to change that water every four or five times you use it.
Thank you, been looking for a replacement for my soda stream but have been hesitant since it’s so easy to get canisters for them, but none of the competitors.
If you have an older machine, the canisters are standard and there are third parties providing cheaper alternatives in many countries.
Like Soda Sense.
Buy a used tank & mix machine as found in most restaurants. Register a business with your state. Sign the exclusivity deal with Coke or Pepsi. Buy the syrup. If you’re using this every day it’ll be cheaper than sodastream in a relatively short period of time.
Wait, do you really have to go through that whole rigamarole just to get them to sell bag-in-box syrup to you?
Yes. But, it’s not difficult or expensive.
If you already have the machine plenty of places sell compatible cartridges, or you can get an adapter to hook it up to a larger co2 tank.
and it’s actually more affordable to get a larger co2 tank.
I’ve never used one of these, why not just get a good old fashioned soda syphon? Does a Sodastream do anything special?
https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/draft-brewer-flex-keg-system
Something like this is available from a lot of places, just gonna cost.