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Comment by Spivak | Hacker News Reader

Nothing is missing, it's just a bit of an upfront cost if you want soda that doesn't taste terrible. All of the consumer products are cheaply made, weak, and ridiculously overpriced even for the terrible quality you get.

If you want something that tastes as good as a restaurant then you pretty much need to buy the same equipment and it'll set you back at least $1k^, a weekend projects worth of installation time, and the cost of a CO2 tank and bulk syrup.

^ You can probably get under $1k if all you want is a soda-gun without the fancy dispenser.

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Oddly enough I seriously investigated this path when I was drinking 1600oz (47 liters) per week of Diet Dr. Pepper. It was possible, through careful shopping, to buy it between 2 and 3 cents per ounce. Trying to buy it as bulk syrup was something like 4 cents per ounce (of soda) not counting the cost of the CO2 and filter system for the water.

Jesus no offense but I also hope you shopped for a good healthcare provider along the way also.

No offense taken. In this particular sample of one there have not been any deleterious effects from that level of consumption. The only medical anomaly detected has been a lower than expected cholesterol level given age/weight models. When I decided to give it up in February of this year there was about a 3 day caffeine withdrawal experience followed by dealing with the habituated 'sweet drink' habit (I've replaced my Diet Dr. Pepper consumption with water which doesn't satisfy a drink something sweet habit well). My expectation is that by next February that habit will also stop impinging on me.

Take care about drinking too much water also it’s very good at flushing micro nutrients from your system including calcium, and that won’t show in most blood work.

Do restaurants serve better coke than comes from the factory?

I always thought one of the great things with America was that the richest billionaire and the poorest bum drank the same quality of Coca Cola.

Yeah, I’m confused by this too. My experience and perception has always been the factory bottled stuff is way better than the fountain stuff you get in a restaurant.

You mean well, well under $1k... like $65 and some craiglisting. You can have a soda machine that will be somewhere between $0.08 and $0.15 cents a liter to operate.

If you can find a commercial soda machine/gun kit for $65 I would by it on the spot. The operation costs are super cheap, which is the point, but I haven't found the equipment anywhere cheaper than around $800.

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