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/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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20379398 No.20379398 [Reply] [Original]

are carbonation machines really worth it? my parents had one, but they gave it away because they claimed the CO2 is expensive. not sure why that is, since we apparently have an environmental crisis related to high amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. are companies locking their devices from using generic CO2 capsules?

>> No.20379408

if you got a real carbonation machine, like one fast food restaurants use you could get co2 canisters that are cheap
the vendor locked ones are much more expensive

Still a carbonator is more convenient since you dont have to haul liters of soda from the grocery store

>> No.20379415

>>20379408
i'm wondering more about the smaller scale ones for carbonating water. i want to mess around with making my own soda, but the only carbonated water i have is san pellegrino which is not neutral. would be good to have a cheap machine just for the temporary hobby

>> No.20379435

Those small scale things are far too sloppy. Whatever you save in packaging you'll lose to leakage in those cheap plastic wastes of space. In order to carbonate water, pressure is needed, and when pressure meets cheap Chinese plastic waste, the result is massive inefficiency.

>> No.20379436

>>20379415
well buy a sodastream and get some sort of 3rd party adapter so you can use regular, much cheaper, canisters to either use it directly or fill up a sodastream can

>> No.20379437

>>20379436
>3rd party adapter
thanks, didn't know they existed

>> No.20379442

>>20379398
Parents are seltzer addicts and got one. Haven't bought a case of seltzer in over two years. Free CO2 refills at the grocery store. I'd say it was worth it.

>> No.20379447

>>20379442
interesting, i will have to see if any stores around me have a CO2 machine. maybe they would also sell the a device that uses canisters compatible with the refill machine

>> No.20379543

Vice grip+dry ice. Costs me like $15 to fill 5 of them

>> No.20379882

>>20379398
the at-home machines are overpriced, cheaper just to buy soda water and flavor it.
if you can get it modded or something and manually refill it, it's significantly cheaper.

>> No.20379892

>>20379543
i always wondered, shouldn't it be possible to just put syrup+water and the right amount of dry ice in a bottle to carbonate things?

>> No.20379898

>>20379892
i will have to research this. my immediate thoughts are that you need to be quick to not freeze your drink

>> No.20379904

>>20379898
just wait for it to melt before opening, problem solved
better yet, if it was room temp from the start, the dry ice would help get it to drinking temp faster

>> No.20379912

>>20379904
i suppose dropping a little pebble into the bottle and sealing it would be just right

>> No.20379917

>>20379912
best to measure it, i have no idea how little dry ice it would take to get it appropriately pressurized
report back with results

>> No.20379927

Sodastream is a hard-core evil company don't give those shameful baby killers a cent!

>> No.20379946

>>20379917
it seems pretty legit, i would use a much smaller piece than he did since it looks like the bottle is about to pop https://youtu.be/LT3iQ3YFmNU

>> No.20379959

>>20379398
Worth it, just get an actual external tank kit, or make one. You can get 5lb of beverage CO2 at welding shops for 20 bucks. I bought my ss at good will for ten dollars, the kit and tank were 200, but I was a spindrift addict, so it's paid for itself ten times over by now.

>> No.20380014

>>20379415
I have the cheapest version of a sodastream, it works just fine and the CO2 bottles are cheap enough. It seems like a pretty standard connector, you could probably rig it to a commercial bottle for even cheaper use.

>> No.20380020

>>20379927
The war must be fucking their economy over hard if they're having to shill their soda maker here.

>> No.20380313

>>20379436
>regular, much cheaper, canisters
Lol canisters made for paintball and bb guns are not food safe, some even have residual oil in them.

>> No.20380348

>>20379398
I bought a sodastream like 8 years ago and the thing barely carbonated anything. I also use to paintball a lot so I thought the co2 refills would be like $2 but they tried to charge me $30 for a refill. I was like "lol nope" and just returned it.

They are a waste of money.

>> No.20380361

>>20379398
Dollar for dollar, nope. It's convience, that's all.

>> No.20380425

>>20379398
>environmental crisis
>too much co2
you do realize plants need co2 like we need oxygen right?

>> No.20381400

>>20379398
Had one. Used it a lot at first, then it collected dust. Tossed it.

>> No.20381492
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20381492

The bottling plants carbonate using pressures you can't achieve with either a seltzer bottle or the shitty plastic soda streams. Neither produce good carbonation unfortunately. If you want something decent you're going to have to buy one of the big CO2 tanks with a regulator and rig something up yourself. They also sell premade kits for homebrew people on Amazon, but I have no idea how well they work.

>> No.20381726

>>20379415
Look into a beer kegging kit. Costs around 150. 5 gallons of carbonated water easy. Costs around 25 cents or less per 5 gallons.

>> No.20381728

>>20381492
Did not notice your post. OP get this.

>> No.20381729

>>20379398
have you tried attaching a rubber hose to the stream tip and cramming it
don't write them off until you have

>> No.20381813

>>20381729
Don't do that. It creates mustard gas.

>> No.20381985

>>20381492
Something like this?
https://jeffreymorgenthaler.com/how-to-build-your-own-carbonation-rig/

>> No.20382030
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20382030

>>20381985
I would skip the bottle adapter and just get a kegs. you can get mini kegs on Amazon that are a little more space friendly.

to get a really good sparkle ( better than anything you can buy in any bottle, in fact) you need something like 50psi.

I have a kegarator set up now that holds 2 5 gallon kegs and have run at least 250 gallons of sparkling mineral water through it. and before anyone wonders what kind of sick fuck would go through 250 gallons of knock off Pelligrino, this unit resides in a bar-like clubhouse type environment.

currently working on a mini set up to take to outdoor events. duel 1.6 gallon mini kegs and a 2.5lb co2 canister mounted in a vintage style metal cooler with a 2 tap tower. as a side bonus the kegs are small enough to take the whole works out of the mobile cooler and set it up in my garage fridge. these kegs are a little bigger than a gallon of milk, for reference.

>> No.20382074

>>20379398
You can home brew soda using yeast and sugar. It's not instant like a soda machine, it takes a day or two, but you can make some great flavors for super cheap. Lemonade, iced tea, fruit punch. They will be slightly alcoholic (1%).

>> No.20382195

Since I'm assuming that most of you have one of these, what are your favorite homemade sodas or crazy drink that ended up tasting good even though it sounds gross to be carbonated?
I am considering one too but honestly I don't drink that much soda so creativity is really the main deciding factor

>> No.20382209

Depends on what you're after. I personally only use them for sparkling water because i don't like sugary drinks. Drinkmate has a pretty good deal where you can just mail them the empty canisters and get new ones.

>> No.20382218

My local health food store sells carbon tanks for 10$ when you trade in a tank

>>20381492

This is overkill. If you like to diy or if its significantly cheaper, do this. Im biased because my jewstream was a gift but its probably cheaper to diy, if you can be bothered to

>> No.20382232

>>20379398
i carbonated a jar of pasta sauce and now my spaghetti and meatballs are extra sipcy! wowee!

>> No.20382258

>>20382232
I went full retard in college and put bacon, sour cream, vodka, beer and tomato sauce in a blender and then carbonated it. I had to go to the hospital the next day. Worth it.

>> No.20382335

>>20382258
>I had to go to the hospital the next day
what went wrong?

>> No.20382358

>>20382335
I guess i fucked up my kidneys from drinking the bacon. Nothing serious, it passed in a few hours.

>> No.20383816

>>20379398
Get a scuba tank adapter and get bulk CO2