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Comment by iamben | Hacker News Reader

Ignoring some of the obvious ones, something that made a big difference to me was an Aarke water carbonator.

Looks pretty, works really well, no more lugging heavy sparkling water bottles, and taking away the (many!) plastic bottles I used to go through makes me feel less like an eco-terrorist.

I get my CO2 via subscription in swappable/replaceable bottles. Excellent.

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It may require a top-level comment, and I actually got mine 4 years ago, but I'll also plug Sparkel which is the "can-less" carbonator: https://sparkel.com/products/sparkel-beverage-system ($150 for the system). It is unquestionably slower than actual CO2 bottles (a "level 3" strength carbonation takes 2 minutes), but for me it more than makes up for the bazillions of minutes I don't have to spend driving to the store to exchange CO2 bottles. Your mileage may literally vary :)

This being HN one can also "void the warranty" by just making the recharge packets yourself with 10ml of baking soda and 10ml of citric acid, both of which one can get in multi-pound containers for ease of assembly. I use something akin to this[1] to keep moisture out of the charge until I need them, and I make them in batches of 30 which takes me 7 minutes for all 30, using any 10ml sized scoops[2]

1: https://www.amazon.com/Goeielewe-Graduated-Transparent-Measu... but with the advantage that I got mine at the $1 store

2: e.g. https://www.amazon.com/GSHLLO-Stainless-Measuring-Ingredient...

Interesting. I have a subscription service where I put the 2 CO2 canisters in the provided prepaid box and drop it in the mail, then get 2 full ones back. Rinse and repeat.

That's the process that I thought I understood from your comment, but for me personally it bothers me spending precious USPS/UPS resources mailing aluminium bottles of gas around the country. For absolute clarity: I'm not shipping-shaming, I'm just saying that's why _I_ would not choose that process

That said, I bet my girlfriend has no such qualms :-D so I'll be sure to look into that further for her. Thanks for making me aware of it o/

yeah, it's a fair point; I should probably check if there's an in person exchange facility nearby

Isn't drinking too much carbonated water bad for your teeth? For that reason I try to limit the amount of sparkling water I drink, even though I like it. I know I'd be drinking it daily if I had such a machine on hand at home.

I'm merely one datum (and here's a reminder not to take advice from the Internet) but I've been drinking sparking water almost exclusively since college (25 years now) and my teeth are still intact and pass inspection every 6 months

I switched because I find that still water not "satisfying" to drink, probably because I grew up damn near addicted to Coca-cola. So, if the choice is between drinking something other than water, because drinking still water drives me crazy, or drinking sparkling water and rolling the dice about my teeth, I chose the latter and so far so good :fingers_crossed:

Related to my sibling comment, I donated my Sodastream to my girlfriend and have tried repeatedly to get https://www.amazon.com/Machine-Cylinder-Adapter-Canister-Sta... to work with a tank of CO2 from the local brew store, but it always only fills the bottle up about 50% which is a huge pain

My current theory is to try and involve a vacuum pump to create a vacuum in the bottle to force more CO2 in but I'm waiting on vacuum oil for my pump to try that out

Anyway, if anyone has positive experiences loading sodastream bottles locally using a CO2 tank, I'd welcome that experience

I'm aware there are hoses that run directly from the CO2 tank into the sodastream but I am not yet on board with its failure cases

Once you have a CO2 tank and regulator the only thing the sodastream is providing is the interface from tank to water bottle.

Direct into the bottle is the way. You can buy carbonator caps for different bottles from a homebrew store. This is a routine maneuver for homebrewers and the risks are small & well understood if you approach it using their gear, knowledge, and technique.

Once your current sodastream bottles expire you can replace them with something else entirely. Getting the tank and regulator is like 80% of breaking free of their stuff entirely, just finish the process.

I've only done some research, but if you have the space, you can skip the soda stream and carbonate in a corny keg in large batches. The lid of the keg has an input for co2 and an outlet for liquid. You should probably have enough space in the fridge for the large keg. There are smaller keg sizes but I'm not familiar enough to name them.

You can also find continuous carbonation lids but there are constraints on the water pressure being higher than the co2 pressure. My well water is 30 to 40 and the recommended co2 pressure is about 60.

On the whip (cylinder to cylinder filling tool) you linked, you can only ever equalize the pressure between the two cylinders. Most gas cylinders I've seen start around 2000 or 2200 psi if they were professionally filled (as in by a gas supplier like airgas). If your home brew store used a whip to fill your cylinder, it's going to be below their starting cylinder pressure. Each fill is going to lower the source pressure and generate a lower pressure in the filled cylinder. Vacuuming the cylinder should get more CO2 out of the source, but won't fill the small cylinder more. If I understand correctly, because you're pulling the remaining co2 out, you'll get lower pressure in both cylinders at the end because more gas has to leave the source to equalize the pressure.

Tbh, I'm more scared of the whip than a regulator and a hose after it. If you don't have a regulator on your source cylinder, whatever comes next has to handle the full cylinder pressure. In your case, all parts of the whip are at cylinder pressure. Regulators can handle full tank pressure and make it a safe level for the hoses so that in the event of hose failure, you're only leaking 60 psi (or whatever the regulator is set to).

I used to work with tanked oxygen for torch work (not professionally), but I think the above is correct. If not, please correct me.

I use regular soda bottles. If I buy a seltzer or soda while I'm out I save the bottle and reuse it with a carbonator cap https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Carbonation-Pressure-Barb%E... Works great, and if I take a bottle to-go when leaving the house, I can toss it in the recycling instead of schlepping it home.

Seconded. Don't get any of those other crappy carbonators made with plastic parts that break (like Sodastream).

Aarke is a bit more expensive, but it's built to last. https://aarke.com/

I also got Luckymoose stainless steel bottles for it because I don't like keeping water in plastic bottles. https://luckymoose.de/

Careful here - GP said Aarke Carbonator Pro, but luckymoose bottles do not fit the Pro. They fit the Carbonator 2 and 3.

EDIT: Actually they didn't say that, I presumed they did because the Pro model AFAIK is the only one that comes with glass bottles insted of PET. But still, make sure you check that these bottles work with your machine :-) They dont work with mine!

Mine is plastic; been using it frequently for 4 years now. No issues.

Same here (Drinkmate brand, using SodaSense for swapping the bottles), about 3-4 years ago. Even though by my calculations it's close to the same cost as buying the canned flavored soda (i.e., LaCroix at Costco), there's a lot less waste. Actually, I did the comparison years ago so I wouldn't be surprised if now it's cheaper than buying the cans.

I flavor it myself by squeezing a bit of lemon or lime (sometimes other fruit) it in.

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