primitives discuss club-soda machines

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x87849

Oh my.

Melissa G  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jun-18-11 03:10 PM
Original message
 
Club soda machine?

I am remembering a good discussion somewhere on DU that started with Soda Club sodas and Co2 machines. Is there a general consensus that these are worth it? If so, which is best?

I was thinking of buying one for my h***y.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jun-18-11 10:02 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. I have the Soda Club basic setup with the big, clunky machine instead of the cute little Penguin.

I've enjoyed it tremendously because I haven't had to lug heavy bottles home from the store and put the empties out for recycling. I've been using a Brita filter for the water and just switched over to a faucet mounted Pur filter from Costco.

The Soda Club sodas aren't quite as gassy as supermarket soda, but that's a good thing once you get used to the ides. The mixes are great but I find myself switching over to seltzer in the summer when it's hot.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd do it all over again.

Melissa G  (1000+ posts)      Sun Jun-19-11 10:27 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
4. Thanks, Warpy!

I use a Big Berkey for my filtered water. http://www.bigberkeywaterfilters.com / I've sold water filters and this one is a great value. I used to have the faucet kind, but for my purposes these are much simpler, long lasting and more economical.

Why do you like the bigger version instead of the penguin?

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Sun Jun-19-11 10:42 AM
Response to Reply #4
 
5. The big one was all they had when I got mine but I imagine the CO2 cartridges are a bit bigger and last a bit longer. There are several stores here where I can exchange cartridges. I have 3 and take 2 at a time in to exchange.

I found out about them from someone else here at C&B.

Yeah, damn it.

For some reason, we're not getting as much advice from the cooking and baking forum as we used to.

csziggy  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jun-18-11 10:38 PM
Response to Original message

2. I got a Soda Stream a few months ago for h***y
 
Since he likes fizzy flavored water every day. Overall he likes it. The Soda Stream soda syrups are pretty good imitations of the name brand. The flavored water versions were too bitter for hubby.

In order to give him a bigger selection of flavors, I bought some flavor concentrates from Prairie Moon -http://www.prairiemoon.biz /. They have pre-mixed syrups but their sugar free versions use neotame. H***y has been experimenting with Splenda and Truvia sweetners for making syrups from the flavor concentrates. He is dissatified with the Splenda versions - apparently once the mixed syrup sits in the fridge for a few days they get bitter. He just made his first syrup with Truvia so he's not sure if it will be better.

He may experiment with diluting the concentrate without a sweetner and adding sweetner as he mixes each bottle of soda. If there is a reaction with the Splenda, this should reduce that.

Melissa G  (1000+ posts)      Sun Jun-19-11 10:18 AM
Response to Reply #2
 
3. Thanks, csziggy, I think you and Warpy were the two principal posters in the elusive thread I was searching for. Why did you go for Soda Stream over Soda club? Any other good options out there?

We tend to use juice with our fizzy water around this house, but my husband has been drinking the grocery brand generic flavored waters lately.

That's the correct word, not the baby-talk word.

csziggy  (1000+ posts)      Sun Jun-19-11 11:24 AM
Response to Reply #3

6. I could get Soda Stream, the syrups and the carbonators locally

A locally owned shop, Bed Bath & Beyond and a restaurant supply place all carry the Soda Stream line. Now Kohlers also sells some of the Soda Stream line, but they do not take the empty carbonator bottles in trade so they are not the best source.

We signed up for Bed Bath & Beyond emails so we get their coupons almost every week. I bought the Soda Stream with a 40% off coupon and we use them for the carbonators, the only really expensive replacement item.

Warpy had a source for retrofitting the carbonator bottles so they could be refilled locally or for fittings that can be used to attach other CO2 bottles to the Soda Stream. It took h***y three months to use up the first of the Soda Stream carbonators so I doubt we will go to that extent. If you want to look at that check out: http://www.co2doctor.com/index.htm 

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
13. More and more places are exchanging the CO2 bottles

I go to Williams Sonoma for mine mainly because there's a Border's close by where I buy the offbeat magazines I prefer.

Hmmmmmmmmm........

pscot  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 12:00 AM
Response to Original message
 
8. Has anyone found an alterntive to the polycarbonate bottles that come with the soda stream? I've heard they can leach bad stuff into the water.

supernova  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 12:49 PM
Response to Reply #8
 
9. Is there something unusual about the bottle? I would think you could use any litre-sized bottle, glass, metal or BPA free, provided it had the right neck to attach to the atomizer.

edit: We've considered a soda stream because I like flavored water (usually lime or lemon) and he still drinks lots of colas and root beer.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #8
 
12. I don't premake soda so the stuff isn't in them long enough to leach much of anything

Contrast that with the stuff that sits in a warehouse and then on store shelves, often for weeks.

I consider any risk minimal.

NMDemDist2  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jun-23-11 05:04 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. we got a SodaStream for christmas and LOVE IT!!! but........we immediately went to the welding supply store and bought two 5 lb canisters that fit under the cabinet. so instead of going through 2 of those little Sodastream canisters every weekend, we rock on for 6 weeks and the 5lbers only cost us $8.50 to fill

the adapters were easy to install and we got them at http://co2doctor.com /

read the FAQs, there's lots of options to save $$$$ on co2

Melissa G  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jun-24-11 10:12 PM
Response to Reply #14
 
15. Sounds great!

If h***y goes through his canisters quickly I will go to CO2 doctor and copy your idea! How many bottles of fizz are you supposed to get out of a soda stream canister? How many do you get from your 5 lb one?

[Ballygrl]

I think the Soda Stream line is an advertiser on the Sean Hannity show.

[GCBill]

How could any self-respecting progressive drink carbonated beverages? They use CARBON DIOXIDE! A greenhouse gas! 

Drinking a glass of club soda is like spitting in AlGores face.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to run and grab a beer, 

[zeitgeist]

Fascinating find Frank.  When I was a wee little nipper at one point we lived in small N E
village where I could walk to school.  Of course it was up hill both ways but that is another story for another day.  It was just shy of one mile.  Had I walked one tenth mile away from the school I could have ridden the bus. (although this was not allowed)  

There was a small apothecary in the village en-route to school which had a soda fountain.  You could get a fountain Coke for a nickle and for that price you could also have a squirt of cherry or vanilla syrup added as well.

For the more financially well endowed one could order an ice cream soda with whipped cream and a cherry,  they cost a quarter. There is a difference between an ice cream soda and a frappe in New England btw. You could also get a frappe which used milk rather than fountain soda and was mixed in a neat machine (frappes also cost a quarter).  

I could have a soda a day, or one ice cream soda, or a frappe, for the quarter which was big dough for me when I was a kid.  I rarely had the ice cream soda or frappe choosing a Coke a day, most often with a squirt of vanilla.  They also had penny candy, bubble gum ball cards, and roast nuts.  Some weeks I invested in a single Coke, penny candy, a pack of cards, and  roast nuts.  

Life in a costal New England village was grand for a kid back then. We could stay out until curfew after supper but the sidewalks were rolled up at 5pm.  One had to go to the big city after 5pm if they wanted to find an open store.

[franksolich]

Great post, sir, wonderful post, and I thank you!

[zeitgeist]

Great post, sir, wonderful post, and I thank you!

I am on the one finger typing machine today. Man this keyboard is tiny and I have small hands for a guy.

[franksolich]

I am on the one finger typing machine today. Man this keyboard is tiny and I have small hands for a guy.

I did a little correction on your formatting above, sir.

The two small towns where I grew up--alongside the Platte River and then in the middle of the Sandhills--each had three drug-stores (they were the same-sized towns, circa 3,000 each), and all three drug-stores had soda-fountains.

Every so often, a couple of strange men from out of town, but who knew my parents, would take my younger brother and me to have root-beer floats.  This probably happened about four or five times a year, from when I was four until I was eleven.  They weren't always the same men; in fact, most of the time they were different.

I thought they were just being nice guys, but they were actually professionals in the hearing business coming to observe me--apparently I was a phenomenon--and I wasn't going anywhere without the younger brother, so he was always taken along too.

I don't remember how much those root-beer floats cost at the time.

By the time we moved to the Sandhills, such nonsense had stopped, but that was far along in development of the drive-ins and fast-food places, and so those memories are of A & W Root Beer Floats served in frosted mugs by a car-hop.

Born without a sweet-tooth, candy stores never had an appeal for me.  In fact, as a little lad, when accompanied to the movie-theatre by an older sister, I brought along celery, and bought only popcorn at the concession-stand.

[GOBUCKS]

"I found out about them from someone else here at C&B."

Yeah, damn it.
For some reason, we're not getting as much advice from the cooking and baking forum as we used to.

Wow, thanks for the translation, coach! I thought C&B was "c***s & bitches".
I guess sometimes the most appropriate answer isn't the right one.