<p>Does anyone have one of these?</p>
<p>If so, do you like it? Do you use it regularly? </p>
<p>I’m thinking of asking for one for Christmas but I would love some opinions from CCers first.</p>
<p>We’ve had one for a couple of years now. Don’t make flavored soda with it, just seltzer. We love it. Use it all the time. Probably drink more water because of having it.</p>
<p>I used a machine like this in the UK about 27 years ago when it was all the rage there apparently. It’s weird it’s taken so long to be noticeable over here.</p>
<p>It worked fine. This is really pretty low tech - mix syrup and water and then gas it - just like they did at soda fountains during my parents’ generation.</p>
<p>How do you buy the CO2? Is it little cartridges like a whip cream maker? Or someting more reasonable sized?</p>
<p>I don’t know, Somemom. Hopefully someone here can shed some light on how it’s used.</p>
<p>We have one! </p>
<p>Very easy to use. Very simple design so seems unlikely to break down.
It comes with a special bottle that you fill with tap water, easily attach to the machine (it screws onto it), then you pull the handle down and it releases gas into the water. </p>
<p>When we bought it, we got several free syrups, and we purchased two plastic containers to go with it, and two cylinders of gas. The cylinders are longer and more narrow than a whipping cream can. They last reasonable time but we have an extra because if one runs out we have another. They recycle the cans so you bring them into the store when you buy a new one. </p>
<p>We tried the syrup but really just use it for seltzer water nowadays. But sometimes we’'ll mix the seltzer with juice, soda, or crystal light. We definitely drink more water since we bought it. </p>
<p>Had it about a year and really like it a lot. Don’t use it as much as in the first few months but it still gets regular use (which to me is critical as you don’t need another appliance whose novelty wears off cluttering up your kitchen!). We always have a bottle of seltzer water in the fridge.</p>
<p>I received mine as a gift and was skeptical but I use it every day. I have never added flavors. I get the gas refills at Bed Bath and Beyond and use discount coupons.</p>
<p>saw the demo @ costco yesterday, very impressive. however, it costs @125… That is a lot of soda I can buy… I don’t drink soda anyway.</p>
<p>^Yeah we did a cost comparison. We don’t drink much soda but we do like carbonated water. You can choose different levels of carbonation I should add. </p>
<p>Anyways, it wasn’t a big savings for us, but we figured we were at least using fewer containers and was more convenient.</p>
<p>Each gas cartridge (at least for the model we have) is supposed to carbonate 60 liters of seltzer. So they last a reasonable amount of time. Good to have several spare gas cartridges. We’ve started exchanging them at BB&B, too.</p>
<p>One thing to note about Sodastream is that their main production facilities are located in the industrial zone of Ma’aleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement built illegally in the occupied Palestinian territories. This information can be found in Sodastream’s own annual report to Nasdaq. The settlements are deemed illegal according to international law (the Fourth Geneva Conventions forbid occupying powers to transfer their civilian populations to occupied areas, and the 2004 International Court of Justice ruling declared the Palestinian territories as occupied). So if you buy the Sodastream brand, that’s what you’ll be supporting with your money, aside from adding to the economic incentive to maintain the Israeli occupation. There are other brands if you can’t do without your own home carbonation system. </p>
<p>For more info Sodastream, see the detailed report: “SodaStream - A Case Study for Corporate Activity in Illegal Israeli Settlements” by the Coalition of Women for Peace - Israel</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information about the product. I appreciate it!</p>