SodaStream Pure Soda Maker
The SodaStream Pure Soda Maker lets you create your very own sparkling water or soda easily and quickly without the hassles of bottles.
Ease of Use/Performance: 24/25
Convenience/Storage 24/25
Appearance/Design 25/25
How much I enjoy 23/25
Total: 96/100
The SodaStream Pure is a home soda making machine that allows you to make your own seltzer or sparkling water or soda. The Pure is a higher end SodaStream machine that comes in a few different versions with the basic machine and a bottle with a carbonator up to a full set with several bottles and soda mixes.
Soda is expensive, there is no hiding the fact that it has gone up in price, in 2000 a two liter of Coke or Pepsi costs $1 but it has doubled in ten years. Buying soda boils down to which brand and what type of container but the cheapest I could find for even off brand soda like Walmart's still costs at least a dollar for a two liter.
Other bottles cost even more when you get smaller and the worst price is getting cans or bottles in the 12 ounce size. Soda can cost as much as $1 a liter while making your own can cost as low as 67 cents for a liter and you don't have to fuss with the empties.
I did some comparison shopping and locally I can purchase the bottles of soda mix for about $5 and a new carbonator cylinder for $15 when you return an empty one. Flavored sparkling water at Wal-Mart costs 68 cents which makes it the same price for making my own as using the SodaStream machine and mixes.
Even with the price being the same not having to deal with lugging bottles from Wal-Mart just makes sense to me, going to Wal-Mart and loading up on liter bottles was not fun. The biggest thing with buying soda, flavored water or just plain sparkling water is lugging those plastic bottles home and dealing with the empties.
I have a garage full of cardboard from products and bags of plastic bottles that need dragging to the recycling center but the bottles have now been reduced a lot. No more lugging plastic bottles in the cart, making sure I had those cloth bags and checking out with half a cart load of Wal-Mart's bottled waters.
Now with SodaStream I can simply make my own soda or sparkling water at about the same price as buying my own, the flavor is very good for most of the soda's and the empties are not a problem. Now I actually have to buy a few at Wal-mart or elsewhere so I can have an empty bottle for taking with, my wife doesn't want to take the SodaStream bottles to work.
SodaStream is a great product taking the concept of seltzer dispensers like those used in bars and restaurants to your home, it is actually the same company. Guy Gilbey of the London Gin distillers fame created the first carbonator and the company behind the current home soda maker.
A SodaStream maker consists of a cylinder of CO2(carbon dioxide) in the body of the maker and a bottle that fits on the maker. The cylinders are a commercial grade gas cylinder that is only refilled through SodaStream but you can purchase fittings to use more common cylinders from another website.
The SodaStream maker is an easy way to make soda or sparkling water at home, you can start with your own sparkling water and add flavorings without sweetener or a soda mix. To start using your SodaStream Pure you push the button on the maker and turn the top 1/4 turn to open it up, then you screw the CO2 bottle onto the fitting in the top.
Replacing the top with the cylinder and turning it back on get things ready to go to start making your soda, now you just need water in your plastic bottle and your ready to go. You simply screw the plastic bottle onto the maker at an angle and the weight of the bottle with water will put it in position to start.
Pull the lever, the Pure uses a lever on the front while others use a pump button, to get the bottle of water infused with carbonator. The machine will squirt CO2 into the water through the nozzle that sits in the water of your bottle that's screwed into place.
The machine has a pressure release for safety so you cannot over pressure your bottle and this is also used to get the right amount of fizz in your water. The buzz tells you enough pressure has been built up and there is a maximum amount of carbonator infused in your water and in the space above your water.
To get the recommended amount of fizz in your soda you can pull the handle a couple more times, the instructions recommend three pulls. Once you have filled the bottle with carbonator you unscrew the bottle and fill with soda mix or flavor.
This can be the fun part of making your own soda, once carbonation has been added to water adding anything else can bring the fizz suddenly out of the water and bottle. If you just dump the cap full of mix into the water you will have a quarter bottle of carbonated water all over your counter.
Compare this to adding the same cap full of mix carefully to the water while you hold the water bottle at an angle so that the mix gently pours into the water between the bottle and water. This allows the mix to enter the water gently and no explosion of carbonation out the bottle, but this is not the worst you can do.
If you try adding mix or flavoring, or anything, to the water and then add the carbonation you can have half of the bottle all over the place. I tried this twice just to see how things would work, I added a soda mix and a flavoring to the water before adding CO2.
Both times I had a half bottle of water all over the counter and did not try this again, you can only mix stuff into the water after you have carbonated it. Adding the mix is easy and once you have the correct method down pat it is very easy and becomes second nature when making your own soda.
The SodaStream makers all have a large mouthed bottle that also is made of thicker plastic and has some larger threads than normal soda bottles. This makes using the carbonator safer and easier when you're constantly threading it on the machine.
The bottles also have an expiration date printed on it when you purchase the bottles so you only have a few years to use them before you should recycle them for safety concerns. Continuing to subject the same plastic bottle to the pressure of carbonating will eventually wear out the threads or weaken the integrity of the bottle so you should buy new ones eventually.
Just continued use, normal wear and tear will probably have you buying new ones every once and a while so this is not a real concern at all. I have used the bottles that came with my machine for more than a month and cannot detect any wear but eventually with continued threading and unthreading they will eventually wear some.
The Pure soda machine comes with the machine itself and a bottle but accessories are available on the SodaStream website and stores where you can buy supplies for SodaStream as well. Creative Kitchen is a large chain of kitchen product stores that sells cylinders as well as mixes and bottles for a handy local place to exchange the cylinders.
I have been using the SodaStream almost every day since receiving it and have really enjoyed using it a lot, my wife drinks diet Mountain Dew a lot. She wants to have a bottle of soda when she is at work even if she does not drink all of it.
We used to drink a lot of the Wal-Mart brand of sparkling flavored water until we received the SodaStream, this was the reason I was looking into the soda maker. Lugging sodas from Wal-Mart, dealing with the empties and having a dozen or more in the downstairs fridge is now a thing of the past.
The SodaStream Pure is an easy way to make soda at home and works so very well, is low cost and dismisses the empties hassle. The SodaStream Pure is easy to use, simply screw a water filled SodaStream bottle on the maker, pull three times and gently pour in the mix.
You have the special bottles for the SodaStream that are a heavy duty version of the common plastic soda bottles that make great take along bottles wherever your going. You can buy the SodaStream makers and 1/2 liter or liter bottles as well as mixes and cylinders at the SodaStream website or some stores locally.
The SodaStream website has locations for purchasing the mixes, cylinders and makers at their website as well as showing the maker in action. You can enjoy the plain sparkling seltzer water, mildly flavored waters without any sweeteners or soda mixes in a variety of sugar free and sugared mixes.
The SodaStream can give you the freedom to make soda at home at the same price as inexpensive off brand soda's that taste pretty good. The taste of the SodaStream brands of mixes are pretty good but you can purchase your own favorites from online sites but these are usually large quantities.
Sam's Club offers some popular choices like 7-Up and Dr. Pepper in these bag in box syrups that will probably last you a long time, they are 25 or 50 gallons. If you don't want to go the $100 route of popular name brand syrups for your soda the SodaStream brands are great in my opinion.
I enjoy root beer and a few other sodas like the Dr. Pepper substitute and the cola tastes pretty good but they are not the Pepsi or Coke tastes. They are an off brand taste but if you want your brand names you can checkout local restaurant supply stores or beverage companies.
Many beverage suppliers will sell to home consumers if they purchase at their office and you can find out locally yourself. The SodaStream Pure soda maker is a great way to get homemade soda without any hassles or with empty plastic bottles.
I highly recommend checking out the SodaStream makers for your very own home soda machine that is fun and very convenient.