So obviously you''re reading this hoping to understand why you should buy this product and why you shouldn''t. And you''ve read a bunch of reviews and there doesn''t seem to be a middle ground. Seem''s either people hate it and tell you to beware, or love it and highly recommend it.... so you''re confused....correct?Well, read this review from someone who understand technological things and simply isn''t some person looking to get soda for 10 cents per liter bottle. If this is what you''re looking for, it isn''t going to happen. At least not unless you own a carbon dioxide supply company.
So why should you buy this?
1. First off, it does work as advertised. Once you connect the CO2 cartridge, there''s not much more to set up, other than put some water (preferably spring or filtered COLD water) in the liter bottles (or 14 oz bottles sold separately), inject the "proper" amount of carbonation into the bottle and then add whatever amount of flavoring you wish. I say "proper" amount of carbonation because the soda maker (at least the ones bought recently I have the "Dynamo" model and this review was written in Nov 2011) will add carbonation to the point where the pressure will force the unit to make a sort of "buzzing" sound which indicates that the maximum carbonation has been added into the water, and the excess is being forced out to create that "buzzing" sound.
2. The ability to add carbonation up to the point where the SodaStream "buzzes" or "burps" brings up another plus. You can add less carbonation than the SodaStream maxes out at, in which case you won''t hear the warning sound. But when you do this, you create carbonated drinks which have varying amounts of carbonation in them. If you desire less, you can make carbonated drinks with less.
3. Flavors. A third plus. Yes, some people don''t like the flavors that SodaStream provides. But these are the same people SodaStream were probably never going to satisfy anyway. SodaStream provide a bunch of flavors....cola''s (diet/reg), Dr. Pepper-like flavors (diet/reg), Sprite and Sierra Mist-like flavors (diet/reg), Orange, Energy, Grapefruit, lightly flavored unsweetened "MyWater" flavors, etc., etc. The point is, as a 3rd plus, you can use their flavors or you can experiment and try anything you like that will flavor your soda. I use Mio water flavorings which provide excellent, low calorie alternatives. If you don''t like their flavors, then don''t complain and knock the technology. Be creative and leverage what the SodaStream gives you....which is convenience and flexibility/options.
4. Green. A fourth plus is that you refill plastic bottles espcially designed for use with SodaStream soda makers. Because of this, you don''t buy cans or 2 liter bottles from the store, in some states paying a redemption free for the right to lug this stuff home, then drinking your soda and then accumulating all these cans and bottles to take back to a redemption center, or worse, throwing them away and filling a ton of landfills.
5. Health. A fifth plus...or at least it can be. People really shouldn''t drink too much soda. At least soda with sugar in it. It leads to obesity, diabetes, etc. Yes... you can flavor water with stuff like Mio or add some juice from an orange or lemon. But not only does it not taste as good as a soda, you just know that flat water based drinks are missing something. And what''s missing is that carbonation and the SodaStream will add that for you, and allow low calorie flavored drinks to taste better and be better for you!
6. Space. A sixth plus is space. That''s obvious. You don''t have all the bottles and cans sitting around, and the SodaStream unit only takes up a small amount of counter space.
7. Convenience. Yes you do save time and hastle from going to go to the store to lugging around bottles and cans of soda, this one is sort of a wash. See the reasons why you don''t buy the SodaStream. But at the same time, those who claim that it''s hard to find replacement CO2 cartridges, don''t get out of the house much. In California at least, you can get replacements at any Staples, Macy''s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Sears, Costco, and Target (to name a few). What may be issue is returning the unused cartridges, since not all stores that carry the cartridges, support sales and exchanges of the old cartridge. But what i do is simply collect the unused ones, and then periodically go to a store that does accept them.
So now lets address why you shouldn''t buy the SodaStream. Or better yet, lets address why you don''t buy the SodaStream.
1. To save money. While i know you will save money per liter, my feeling is that if that''s the primary reason you''re looking to buy the SodaStream, i don''t recommend it. It''s not signifant enough in my humble opinion, to warrant spending around $100 to $130 for a SodaStream unit, another $30 (minimum, less tax and shipping if you purchase the cartridges online).
2. Convenience. Despite the convenience "pluses" i mentioned earlier, as i stated, this is sort of a wash because you still have to go and return cartridges, and purchase syrup/flavoring, albeit less frequently than buying soda depending on how much you used to buying at one time.
Hope this information helps. One last note. In California where we have to pay a 5 cent redemption fee per can, this tilts the money saving and convenience to the "plus" side. A 24 pack adds another $1.20 at the cash register, and then you have to store the sticky cans and bottles until you can accumulate enough to make it worthwhile, to drive to the local redemtion center to get your cash back. That''s incentive enough alone to purchase a SodaStream!!!
We live in a small condo with a long walk to our unit, and we got the Sodastream mainly to cut down on the number of plastic bottles we were hauling in and out of the place. Also, my husband drinks a lot of diet soda, and the sodium isn''t good for his high blood pressure. The Sodastream diet syrups are low sodium or sodium-free, and they''re sweetened with sucralose instead of aspertame (which some people think is healthier). For those who don''t drink diet drinks, the non-diet syrups are sweetened with a cane sugar-and-sucralose mix, instead of high fructose corn syrup, so they''re much lower in calories than name brand sodas.
The Sodastream has been great for our purposes. I have a lot fewer grocery bags to haul up the stairs every week, and a lot less recycling to carry out to the bins. We make soda as we need it, in whatever flavor we''re in the mood for, so we can have a lot of flavor choices without having a lot of extra bottles sitting around. The water comes out perfectly fizzy if you follow the directions, and we''ve been very happy with the flavors. My favorites are the lemon lime, grapefruit, and cranberry. My husband likes the diet cola and ginger ale. Best of all, we never "run out" of soda. If we open the fridge and there''s none in there, we simply make more.
Before we bought this product, I read a few consumer reviews that made me worry a little about the availability of CO2 refills and flavor syrups. For most people, this won''t be a problem. You can simply order the CO2 canisters and flavors online, leave the empty CO2 canisters on your doorstep, and a messenger will drop by to pick up the empties and deliver your supplies.
Unfortunately, the messenger system can be a bit of a problem for those of us who live in security buildings, or in areas where it''s not safe to leave things on the doorstep. Sodastream doesn''t give you an estimated delivery date or a way to track your package. The messenger tends to show up at unpredictable times, day or night. The guy who delivers in our area is not too bright and speaks very little English. Twice he''s been unable to follow the directions posted on the security system in our lobby so that we could buzz him in.
Fortunately, you can just exchange your CO2 canisters at Williams & Sonoma and Sur La Table stores. (And they last a long time, so you don''t have to do it very often.) Unfortunately, the same is not true of the flavor syrups. Brick-and-mortar stores carry a very limited variety of flavors, so unless you only want a couple of basic flavors, you still have to order refills from Sodastream (and deal with their messenger service). But again, for the vast majority of people, this won''t be as much of a hassle as it is for us.
A number of people have complained that the cost savings of the Sodastream are greatly exaggerated by the company. That might be true. If you''re really pinching pennies, you can certainly make carbonated water on the cheap with some supplies from a home brewing store. But if you don''t have the space for a DIY setup and don''t want your kitchen to look like a science lab, the Sodastream is a simple, easy alternative.
One more tip, for those of you who are deciding which model to buy we originally liked the more expensive "Penguin" model, because it looks more stylish on the countertop, and it uses fancy glass carafes. But then we realized that if we wanted to make soda and take it somewhere (to work, in the car, on picnics, camping, etc.), the plastic 1-liter bottles were much more practical. It''s something to consider, especially if you want to break the habit of spending money on soda at the vending machines at work.
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Beware the real total cost of ownership when buying this product.These are great in the UK, where you can buy the gas refills (actually exchanges) in many supermarkets for not much money. However, in the US there are pitifully few outlets for the refills (Williams Sonoma and Camping World) and as such they are always out of stock. Because these gas cylinders have a proprietary fitting and anti-refill valve on them, they cannot be refilled at paintball, welding, or homebrew stores, so your only option is to mail them to Sodastream and obtain refills from the manufacturer directly. This adds up very quickly, and there is simply no way you can achieve the 20c per liter carbonation they claim here. The cheapest refills available from the manufacturer today are 3x14.5oz cylinders for $39 + $10 shipping = 41c/l. But since you have to have 3 cylinders first, you have to buy 3 more first (another $75 + $10 shipping), and these are their SALE prices.
It''s an interesting novelty and the kids love it, but when the first gas cylinder runs out, the soda cans on the supermarket shelves are going to look really tempting again. It''s a shame, here''s another great idea marred by poor execution. I can''t see that there is anything ''green'' about burning up so much in shipping heavy cylinders back and forth across the country.
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Let''s start off with the hardware. The machine is mostly plastic, but it appears durable. I''m a great abuser of products and I haven''t managed to break anything on it yet. The bottles are of above-average plastic thickness, so they''ll probably last as long as the company claims they will. The CO2 canisters are well made and the only disadvantage is that they''re proprietary and need to be send back to Soda Club for refill. Use of the machine is so easy that it''s trivial -screw on a bottle filled with water, press the button, wait for a buzzing noise from the relief valve. It doesn''t get any simpler than that. No electricity required and no mess to clean up. In short the hardware is a 100% win.Now we get to the software (or maybe I ought to call it "softdrinkware"). In order to make soda / pop / "soft drinks", you need to use syrup which the company calls "soda mix". The company sells a variety of soda mixes in both regular and diet forms. As many people have noted, the regular mixes are actually hybrid mixes with 2/3 artificial sweetener and 1/3 real sugar. That''s a real shame as choice has been taken away from the consumer in favor of a perceived health benefit by those who think they know better than you. My initial order contain five regular mixes: Cola, Orange, Grape, Root Beer, and Pete''s Choice. Let''s walk through them from best to worst.
Pete''s Choice and Root Beer were both excellent. Pete''s choice tastes like Dr. Pepper. Both of these mixes tasted as good or better than store-bought soda. There was no annoying aftertaste from the artificial sweetener. I''d highly recommend them and I expect that most of my refills are going to be these two flavors.
Orange and grape .... not so much. Fruit flavors demand a certain sweetness to taste right, and it just isn''t there. The annoying artifical sweetener aftertaste is prominant among these two flavors although it''s tolerable. They also don''t taste that orange-ish or that grape-ish. I might try mixing the syrup in at double the amount next time to see if I can raise the sweetness and strength of flavor while hopefully not ramping up the aftertaste. I''m skeptical.
And then there''s the cola mix. This has to be one of the foulest concoctions I have ever had the misfortune of drinking. It doesn''t taste like regular cola. It doesn''t taste like diet cola. The artificial sweetener aftertaste is overwhelming. It kind of tastes like the old diet sodas that would spoil after sitting on the shelf for 5 years. If I didn''t know better, I''d think they''d mixed in some of that chemical is in cough syrup that makes you gag when you put it in your mouth.
In summary, I really like the machine itself. I''d have given it 5 stars were it not for the flavors. The cola flavor was so bad that it deserved taking two stars off my review. The orange and grape flavors were mediocre and between the two of them it deserved the loss of another star. The bottom line is that this is a product that you''ll be drinking and it needs to taste good.
Updated (2/17/2010) I''ve had a chance to try out a few more flavors and I''ve found that I really like the ''Fountain Mist'' and ''Lemon Lime''. The ''Energy Drink'' tastes quite similar to red bull. I''ve bumped up my review an extra star to cover the new flavors that I actually enjoy! Still can''t stand that cola flavor though, which is rather unfortunate. I''m on my third CO2 cylinder now, and have given the machine a lot of use. It''s holding up well.
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I love this thing! I bought it originally in order to stop throwing away so many plastic bottles (we''re seltzer maniacs here).Features:
* You can control the water source and filter it.
* You can control the fizziness (we''re getting up to a level that boils in our blood for at least an hour after drinking it, but you can have a light Euro-water-style fizz as well).
* It''s entertaining to use.
* It''s better for the environment.
* The sound makes the dog get all wiggy, which is fun to watch. It sounds like a big raspberry when you fizz up a bottle of water.
* You''ll probably be the only one on your block with a seltzer maker it definitely spanks a bread machine.
I still haven''t had to return the CO2 bottle, so I don''t know how easy that''s going to be. Delivery was slow but entertaining: about 3 weeks after we ordered, an actual Soda-Club delivery woman showed up at our door toting our new Soda-Club.
One caveat: the syrups are pretty revolting...at least the ones we tried. Plus, they all contain artificial sweeteners, even the non-diet ones. But we just add some lemon or orange essence (available in the spice section at your store) to pep it up a bit.
Also, if you go through fizzy water pretty fast, be sure to order two extra bottles. You have to chill the water before you fizz it up, so it''s good to have a few in rotation.
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