It''s a nice machine, works as advertised, and I find the Diet Cola is very close in taste to Diet Coke. The other flavors are variable in quality and in how closely they replicate the flavor of the market leaders.
However, you will not save money. I''ve put all the math below. For startup costs I''ve assumed you''ll want at least two additional bottles, and two additional canisters. This is probably conservative, since the whole point is to save trips to the supermarket, and the bottles will definitely wear out over time. I''ve amortized these startup costs over 3 years, with four family members each drinking 45 gallons per year of soda. The Diet Cola flavor sells for $8.32 here on Amazon as of today, and refills on the canisters cost $15 each.
Put all this together, and it comes to $1.04 per liter. Average retail on Diet Coke is $0.70. So you won''t save money.
What you will save is your time, your gas, your back and your fridge space. It''s nice to be able to whip up soda any time without having to lug big slabs of cans or heavy bags of bottles in from the supermarket. It''s nice not to have to fill up a whole shelf in the fridge with soda. That''s the real benefit to this. I think they have actually priced this out accordingly, so the slight premium you pay per liter offsets the hassle factor of buying soda the regular way.
Here are the calculations. (No, I didn''t factor in cost-of-capital. I''m keeping this simple.)
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Consumption
Per Person 45 Gallons per year
People per family 4 People
Total Consumptom per year 180 Gallons per yaer
684 Liters per year
Startup Costs
Sodastream Startup Kit $129
Additional Bottles (2) $18
Additional Canisters (2) $60
Total Fixed Costs $207
Amortized over 3 years $69.00 $/yr
Amortized per liter soda $0.10 $/liter
Ongoing Costs Unit Cost Liters per unit Cost per liter
Canister refills $15 60 $0.25
Flavor $8.33 12 $0.69
Plus Startup costs $0.10
Total cost per liter $1.04
This is a good product sold by a company that has sleazy business practices. Their practices should be known before committing to buy anything from them, because you are locked into dealing with them (and only them) forever.
The company is misrepresenting the exchange situation in an almost criminal manner. They told me that if I bought 2 more spare bottles for 100 dollars, I would have free shipping for life as long as I ordered two exchange bottles at a time.
Not too long after, they reneged on that, and started charging me for shipping.
In addition, their site says, "Exchange locally to avoid shipping charges". That was true for me when I bought it. It did not last long. Fewer and fewer places have exchange bottles, and some have really high prices. Today, a local exchange for my (formerly) standard size 130 liter bottle is not possible in 99% of the US. Only the smaller 60 liter bottle is available in my state, as well as several neighboring states. I suspect this is a scheme to force me to convert to the smaller bottle, which will increase my costs and their profits considerably.
To add insult to injury, their site trumpets "Now available at thousands of retail locations." A quick check reveals that there are a couple hundred retail locations that will sell you the equipment, but far fewer who will exchange your small bottles, and about three nationwide that will exchange the large 130 liter bottle.
It would seem that they are far, far more interested in sales than service. This is particularly onerous, since their product requires constant refill service, and it is only available through them, at whatever price they charge, both for the refill and the shipping.
It is also worth noting that a 130 liter carbonator will not come near making 130 liters of decently carbonated water. The only way we can get 130 liters out of a refill is to make the carbonation so weak that the bottle goes flat before half of the water is consumed. This, of course, defeats the purpose of making one''s own carbonated water. You are at their mercy when it comes to how much CO2 they put in a refill, how much they charge you for it, and how much they charge you for shipping. And, that includes constant increases in their charges.
So, do your homework before you commit to this company. The deal will change.
I recently placed and order for refills, and they took a week to even get them from their facility to UPS, so plan on ordering well in advance.
The have built a booby trap into their bottles so they cannot be refilled by anyone but them, so local refilling at reasonable prices is not an option for me.
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I initially bought the Penguin version of this soda maker (same maker, and also sold on Amazon), and it has quickly become the most used appliance in my kitchen next to the microwave. It makes flawless carbonated water and does so in a matter of seconds, from cold tap water without the use of any electricity. The carbonated water it produces lasts far longer in my fridge, in terms of bubbles and fizz, than any carbonated water I''ve gotten from the store, including Pellegrino.
I use my Penguin soda maker with a PUR 2-Stage water filter PUR DS-1800Z 2-Stage Water Dispenser, which sits in my fridge and dispenses cold water that can go right into the soda maker carafe/bottle.
I was skeptical before buying the soda maker as I could not fathom how such a small product could produce carbonated water almost instantly without electricity. But it surpassed all expectations and continues to amaze me every time I use it, which is basically every day.
I have not used any syrups with the soda maker but typically mix the sparkling water with natural juice, about 20% juice to 80% water, and it tastes amazing and is healthy too.
I saw this classic SodaStream version of the soda maker at a friend''s house and he raved about it, so I just purchased it for a friend. It seems to work like the Penguin except that you screw the bottle in at the top to attach it to the machine, rather than slip a carafe into a holder like you do with the Penguin. I think the Penguin design is slightly less cumbersome but I thought the look on this one was more elegant and simple.
In any event, I highly recommend this product or the Penguin, without reservations. There is simply nothing wrong with it it''s perfect in every way and pretty darn ingenious (for me, anyway!).
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While the general idea of this product is solid, consumers should understand that they are grossly overpaying for SodaStream carbon dioxide refills. In fact, the prices charged are sixteen times (16x) wholesale costs or many, many times more expensive than the prices a restaurant would pay. In Europe, frugal consumers are aware of such markups and actually purchase their own restaurant-sized CO2 refills. In the US, we aren''t so frugal.
Other than the outrageous costs for the CO2 refills, there are other issues with the SodaStream Fountain Jet. One is the construction quality is quite low with very thin molded plastic and little weight. Additionally, the taste of generic soda flavors do not match that of the brand name products.
Below is the calculated cost per two liter for the output of SodaStream soda. This includes the cost of the consumables AND the equipment costs. I have used very generous assumptions, including a low discount rate (i.e. cost of money).
Transportation costs were not factored because 1) purchases of typical groceries should more or less overlap with soft drink purchases 2) grocery delivery has long been available in many areas 3) most people live closer to a grocery store than to a home furnishings store (I walk 100 ft. for groceries and drive one mile for BB&B) 4) the reverse logistics for the CO2 refills is an extra expense for the retailer that has to be factored into their profit margin and will ultimately be borne by the consumer.
One of the reasons Bed Bath & Beyond, Macy''s and Crate and Barrel choose to carry SodaStream is that they want the consumer to make MORE FREQUENT trips to their establishments for consumables. Instead of going to such establishments once every 3 to 6 months, customers will now visit once every 1 to 2 months. That makes an enormous difference for generating impulse purchases at such retailers. One could argue then that transportation costs could increase for the individual consumer.
Total Costs = $1.73 per Two Liter -More Expensive Than Retail
*Concentrate
Flavor cost bottle of concentrate $4.99
Liters of product per container 12
Flavor/l $0.42
*Carbonator
Volume of CO2 130
Cost of CO2 per refill (130 liters) 29.99
CO2 cost per liter $0.23
*Sodastream Equipment Costs Amortization Per Liter
Equipment cost $89.00
Equipment life (years) 5
Discount rate (cost of money) 8%
Liters per month 10.00
Monthly amortized cost $1.80
Cost of equipment per liter $0.18
*Water Cost with Brita Filtration
Municipal water costs per liter in US $0.0004
Brita filter three pack (454 liters of water output) $16.95
Brita cost per liter $0.0373
Water and filter costs per liter $0.0377
(assumes you already own Brita Pitcher so no equipment costs, just incremental filtration)
***TOTAL COSTS PER TWO LITER = (Flavor + CO2 + Equipment + Filtered Water) * 2
SodaStream Total Cost Per Two Liter = $1.73
Without filtered water:
SodaStream Total Cost Per Two Liter = $1.65
THE MATH BELOW IS WHAT SODASTREAM DOESN''T WANT THE CONSUMER TO KNOW
*Restaurant Carbonation (note distributor prices, so there is still a distributor profit)
weight of CO2 contents of large restaurant CO2 tank: 50 lbs
weight in grams: 22,680 grams of CO2
cost to refill Summer 2011: $35
CO2 grams/liter of carbonated water: 7 grams
*Efficiency of Restaurant CO2 Carbonation
losses: 10%
available CO2 in tank (residual is required for pressure): 85%
net accessible CO2 of total: 77%
usable grams of CO2: 17,350 grams
*Output
carbonated liters of water: 2,479
cost per liter in USD$: $0.014
*SodaStream Output
SodaStream Refill: 130 liters (quoted end product)
Cost per refill: $30.00
cost per SodaStream carbonated water: $0.231
*SodaStream Markup Economics
ratio of SodaStream to Restaurant prices: 16.3x
SodaStream inflation price over restaurant pricing: 1534%
math: [y/x-x] to give increase over base case restaurant pricing
This is an incredible 1500% markup
Pros
Saves plastic
Allows flexible mixture of flavors
Cons
Grossly inflated CO2 refill costs
Another store trip required for refills separate from grocery store visit
***Disclaimer: I am an investor who has used the product multiple times. At the time of this review, I did NOT have an investment in SodaStream either short or long. In the past, I have both owned the stock and shorted it (bet against it). I may be on either side of the trade by the time you read this -I am not very sentimental.
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After growing up with something similar in the late 80''s (which was discontinued do to shipping co2 through the regular mail, I believe) I knew I had to have this soda machine as soon as I saw it in skymall magazine. After doing some research on ways to retrofit this device to use a regular 20lb co2 tank and purchasing an adapter which makes the sodastream easily connect to said tank we ordered this machine. The Chrome/Stainless finish was the best looking design IMO when we ordered this machine in March 2011. There might be more attractive options available now but no matter the finish it still has a relatively small footprint on the countertop. I love club soda and drink it regularly. Since the water in Las Vegas has a mineral taste, having the added carbonation is enough to mask that taste and make drinking local tap water enjoyable again.
We ran through the included TINY tanks of co2 pretty fast but then hooked it up to our large tank through a hole we drilled in the countertop. Keep in mind that by forcing you to use their "proprietary" co2 mail ordering service the manufacturers of this product are forcing you to pay well over retail for co2 gas and it kind of seems like extortion. We have our 20lb tank filled at a local hydroponic gardening store for around ten bucks and we have only had to fill it once so far (we''ve had it about 10 mos.) I use the machine about 2-3 times a day (make 2-3 full bottles of carbonated water) and then just dump it into a nalgene bottle and mix in some raspberry ice crystal light powder (which tastes like jello). So far all of the crystal light flavors are pretty good carbonated *except ice tea which is TERRIBLE*. I tried the sodastream brand of diet rootbeer (i think all of their syrups are diet) and was pretty disappointed as it just tasted like diet coke. We have used the sodastream brand "energy drink" which tastes and smells pretty much exactly like diet redbull/ rockstar. I sometimes also mix mine with fruit juice which is light and refreshing.
My husband uses it 1-2 times a day and mixes his with Coke brand syrup which we purchase at our local business Costco and pour into pump bottles my dad found which fit perfectly into the door of our fridge. My parents didn''t have the space underneath their counter for the large co2 tank so my dad opted for a different retrofit option where he fills the smaller bottles himself with a large tank he keeps in his garage. His solution is slightly more annoying but not as annoying as mailing them across the country and paying exorbitant amounts for CARBON DIOXIDE which is readily available everywhere! After the purchase of the machine, adapter, syrup, tank and gas we have invested around $300 on this but I''m pretty sure we''ve already saved close to that amount or more by not purchasing drinks when we eat out nor 2 liter bottles/canned soda at the grocery store. Not to mention the environmental impact of all of that plastic from the 2 liters we have avoided!
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