Anyone own a soda siphon?

I've been trying to avoid drinking pop, so sometimes I'll mix Pellegrino with juice. I would prefer for the Pellegrino to have more fizz, and to make matters worse, I can never finish a bottle within a reasonable time before it's completely flat. I was thinking about getting a soda siphon. Anyone here own one? What's your experience? Does it get really fizzy? Do you use a new cartridge each time you fill it up? How long can you keep the carbonated water in there w/o going flat?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/10fizz.html

maybe this will help?

We use Soda Club and find it to be a great deal. Initially expensive but in the long run cheap. We've had our unit for about three years and still going strong.

Hmm. I'm intrigued by Soda Club. How does the cola flavor stack up against Coke? I don't like that they list the sweetener as "sugar and / or high fructose corn syrup" though.

-ramon

Consumer Reports wrote:We set out to determine if soda makers and seltzer siphons are really worth it....

Factoring out the initial cost of the devices, all of the soda makers and siphons produced serviceable seltzer and soda for less money than the nationwide average ready-made soda price of 80 cents per liter. But unless you're a gadgethead or enjoy funky flavors, stick with the store-bought stuff.

For what it's worth, Perrier has more fizz than Pellegrino.

Pucca wrote:...I was thinking about getting a soda siphon. Anyone here own one?

Yes. I have two soda siphons, an iSi and a nice old chain mail-wrapped glass one from eBay.

Pucca wrote:...What's your experience? ...Does it get really fizzy?

I've never compared their resulting fizzwaters head to head so I can't offer more than generic praise but I like both of mine. Each produces fizzwater that is suitably refreshing and bubbly and they're equally easy to use. FWIW, I haven't noticed a difference in bubble size, bubble content or taste. YMMV.

Pucca wrote:...Do you use a new cartridge each time you fill it up?

Yes. I've read that you can get super-fizzy fizzwater by using two cartridges per refill but I haven't tried it. I don't know if doing so is actually dangerous or if it will over-stress the seal but I can tell you that a new siphon will come with instructions saying not to use more than one cartridge.

The cheapest price I've found for a 10-pack of cartridges for $5. There used to be a seller at Amazon that had them at that price but I didn't find them the last time I checked. I did find them at eBay for that price though.

Pucca wrote:...How long can you keep the carbonated water in there w/o going flat?

I find that both of my siphons maintain their fizz for quite a long time. I've charged them and left them for weeks at a time and still gotten fizzwater out of them when I pulled them from the fridge. It may help that I pre-chill the filled siphon before charging it and I leave it in the fridge after it's charged. It's my understanding that a cold liquid more readily absorbs and maintains carbonation. Regardless, I would say that the taste and carbonation remains roughly the same a few weeks later as it does from a freshly-charged siphon but I rarely drink the fizzwater straight so I may simply have overlooked any changes or "staleness" due to the additional ingredients.

I have heard that some people find that the iSi siphons to produce a metallic-tasting fizzwater over time but I've had mine for a couple-two-t'ree years and haven't found this to be true. Again, YMMV.

Whatever you do, don't buy a siphon sight-unseen without being sure that you are getting a cartridge holder as part of the deal. I would even recommend opening up the box if you're buying a brand new one in person. The cartridge holder is the thing that you use to bring the cartridge into contact with the siphon where the end of the cartridge is then pierced and the CO2 is released into the siphon. Without one of these the siphon is useless and, unfortunately I learned this the hard way. Moreover, neither of the two cartridge holders that came with my second and third siphon purchases fits my first siphon. Apparently this is not a standardized item in the soda siphon biz.

[Just to be clear, all of my siphons use the same standardized CO2 cartridges; it's the part of the cartridge holder where it threads onto the siphon that varies in size.]

Kurt

I am also investigating purchasing a Soda Club model. I showed it to my husband on line last week because we do go through a lot of pop in our house, and we both enjoy drinking soda. Coincidentally, he walked into the kitchen of friends yesterday and saw a Soda Club machine on their kitchen counter. When he asked about it, they were very enthusiastic. They have owned it for about six months now, and were happy to pour my husband a glass of the diet soda (we're big Diet Coke fans). He said it compared favorably to Diet Rite, which we also like. The son of our friends is partial to the diet grapefruit soda, which he says is like a cross between Fresca and Squirt.

Our friends say it saves a lot of money, plus they never worry about running out of pop or soda water at home. I think we will be purchasing one towards the end of the month.

Suzy

Update: I ordered our SodaClub machine yesterday. We expect it to arrive on Christmas Eve. I will be happy to report back and let people know what we think of their products, although I admit I only ordered diet soda flavors. I should have a few "regular" samples in my package that I will invite some friends to try.

Suzy

Well, the SodaClub machine arrived yesterday. I had to work late, so my husband and the girls tore into it and had a couple of bottles of pop ready and waiting in the fridge by the time I got home last night.

I think it's going to work out very well for our family. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it tastes exactly like the name brand stuff, but it's very close. I think the flavors can be adjusted by the amount of syrup you put in the bottles -- my younger daughter demonstrated how easy it is for me last night and made a bottle of ginger ale. It was better this morning after sitting in the fridge overnight -- the directions do say that most people like to start out with a bottle of already refrigerated water. However, my husband and I agreed it needed just a little more syrup to really bring the taste out.

Each SodaClub bottle of flavoring is supposed to be enough for 12 1-litre bottles, so we will have to see if this is as cost-effective as it could be. It doesn't take up much space on my counter and I still need to figure out where I'm going to stash all the supplies, but it looks like a keeper product. I'm looking forward to drinking more seltzer water with meals myself.

Suzy

sdritz wrote:Well, the SodaClub machine arrived yesterday. I had to work late, so my husband and the girls tore into it and had a couple of bottles of pop ready and waiting in the fridge by the time I got home last night.

I think it's going to work out very well for our family. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it tastes exactly like the name brand stuff, but it's very close. I think the flavors can be adjusted by the amount of syrup you put in the bottles -- my younger daughter demonstrated how easy it is for me last night and made a bottle of ginger ale. It was better this morning after sitting in the fridge overnight -- the directions do say that most people like to start out with a bottle of already refrigerated water. However, my husband and I agreed it needed just a little more syrup to really bring the taste out.

Each SodaClub bottle of flavoring is supposed to be enough for 12 1-litre bottles, so we will have to see if this is as cost-effective as it could be. It doesn't take up much space on my counter and I still need to figure out where I'm going to stash all the supplies, but it looks like a keeper product. I'm looking forward to drinking more seltzer water with meals myself.

Suzy

Thanks for sharing. I think I will have to have this in my next place b/c my kitchen counter space is very limited right now.

How well do these things work when you only need to carbonate 4-6 oz. at a time?