HSN Deal - SodaStream Home Soda Maker for $15Follow

You have until today for that offer :3

Any one actually have one of these and is it really as nice as people make them out to be?

Goddamn spammers, they're even hacking account now.

I'd only use it for seltzer, in general. Any idea how it would stand up in price there?

Redners Wholesale Foods sells 5 1 liter bottles seltzer for $4.

Can you not carbonate other liquids? That was what I would do if I had one.

That sounds terrible.

Also, you're supposed to carbonate just water (then add syrup after). Presumably so you don't risk gunking up the carbonator?

Comparing your costs to the costs of a manufacturer isn't really accurate. It's about what you're spending on soda stream vs what you would otherwise be spending on sodas. It's not like you're going to be selling the drinks after you make them.

The main issue is that most of the cost is actually in start-up costs. The system + the bottles + initial CO2 canister were about $150 for us. Actual continual costs are only the syrups ($4-8/bottle, which makes up to 50L of soda), and swapping out the CO2 canisters ($25-30 to replace; each canister is also good for about 50L if I had to make a conservative guess, depending on how carbonated you like your drinks). If you think on the high end, $40 for 50 L of soda still comes out to $0.80 / L, which is still much better than you can get in the stores. It's just a matter of how long it will take to recoup the start-up costs.

Edited, Jul 1st 2013 9:08am by Vataro

Well, yeah. Point being that Coca-Cola can provide you with soda for the same price or less than you'd be spending on ingredients. Scanning Peapod, a 2 ltr bottle of soda is $1.00 to $1.60 so 50¢ to 80¢ a liter depending on how brand conscious you are. Probably get it cheaper by not shopping on Peapod but whatever.

I'm not against someone owning a soda machine (that would be weird), I'm just saying that it's like home brewing or a bread machine or something -- you do it for enjoyment and potentially a fresher/better product, not because you're going broke buying $1.09 loaves of Wonder bread.

Edited, Jul 1st 2013 9:55am by Jophiel

Not that it matters, but Peapod is an internet grocery delivery service. It was just an easy way to see what a 2ltr bottle of soda runs for these days.

Nothing like a freshly made bowl of soda and cereal to start you off right for the day.

Actually that's a US-thing. Bread here is ridiculously expensive, even for the cheapest garbage bread. When we were actively making bread, the ex and I saved quite a lot. Up here, your average loaf runs 2 bucks and up, and it's about 4 if you don't want bread that tastes like they left the flour on a bare concrete floor collecting dust for a month before usage.

Haha politics.

Canadian food standards, as much of a running joke as Canada being taken serious by the US is.