We long ago used these
https://www.nisbets.com.au/
One soda thingie (bomb) did a one litre Soda Siphon.
Even more expensive.
Are you referring to the â40Lâ or â60Lâ gas bottle?
Crystals of what??? Less CO2 will dissolve in 20C water vs 5C water, potentially increasing the CO2 burping waste as pressure in the plastic bottle will increase more quickly, so they can sell more gas.
We always use cold water, and have never had any blockages, over decades of use.
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This seems very odd to me. CO2 is much more soluble in cold water which greatly improves the efficiency of absorption. What crystals are talking about, ice or CO2? I am guessing it was ice, formed as the CO2 expands and cools. It seems unlikely this would block the tube or persist very long if it did.
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Greatest expansion is after it leaves the confined space of the needle, so itâs extremely unlikely ice would form inside the needle, which only contains CO2 gas anyway, and no liquid water from which ice could form.
Many thanks for the additional helpful info. Are they on special very often and where? Also is the special for an exchange refilled cylinder or for a new one? I now have 2 gas cylinders, so I if I managed their use well, I would be able to, and would, take advantage of a special offer on exchange refills.
Unfortunately there seems to be no way of predicting when theyâre on sale. I always exchange cylinders itâs far cheaper. I get them at both Kmart and at Coles supermarkets (not all Coles have them as they used to). Sometimes if I know that kmart are offering them cheaper than when Coles quotes me their price they will price match if I aks.
Thatâs a pity. I suggest that you use the tips in my initial posting because they seem to be working with the cylinder I have in our modern machine.
I am not using that machine currently while I evaluate the old one, with a part used gas cylinder, we were given. However, so far we have made 35 bottles of soda water (30 litres) and not used much of the CO2 (determined by the difference in weight between the cylinder when full and now). So I think we are on track to at least equal the 138 bottles (116 litres) of soda water produced by the previous cylinder. .
Funnily I was not overly interested in cost per Li. Drink a large volume of soda water and was more interested in taste. Found that injecting the CO2 into very cold water the best option - for at least 2 - 3 x 4 seconds, or until it growls. I like to believe that the âgrowlingâ is the CO2 freezing to dry-ice at the tip of the injector and then dumping the dry-ice into the water - certainly, creates a frothy âbrewâ. PLUS, I like to imagine that not dumping at least a dozen plastic bottles each week into the troposphere may in some minute way help with global warming problems.
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I think it is the gaseous CO2 bubbles collapsing. Similarly if you dissolve gaseous ammonia in water it screams. Really! I am rather dubious about solid CO2 forming.
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I think it is actually the overpressure valve releasing CO2 into the air, so that the plastic bottle doesnât burst in a catastrophic explosion of fizzy wetness onto all surfaces in the kitchen. Itâs what Iâve been referring to as burping in earlier posts.
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Makes sense because our old Crystal model makes a noise after the lever has been pressed 3 times and this is mentioned on the SodaStream website. See attached pic.
Also, the instructions for our modern cheap Jet machine says to press the button until you hear a buzz . However, so far it has not produced a buzz that I could hear even after pressing the button 5 times.
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Specifically to your issue with the gas dispensing lever: we had exactly the same problem in a mid-range model at just under 1 year as well. The machine was replaced and we havenât had an issue since. We noticed that the instructions were slightly different with the replacement machine, so perhaps it was a known issue.
The only other issue weâve had recently was the valve of the gas bottle getting stuck open in some way - I wasnât home at the time, but I think the remaining contents of the bottle had to be discharged in some way to be able to remove the water bottle, and then it was very difficult to remove the gas bottle. Perhaps it had been screwed on a bit tight?
Thanks for the tips to get the most out of the gas bottles - will try waiting between pumps and before removing the bottle from the machine. I think we currently get somewhere around 30-35 water bottle refills per gas bottle.
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I was just looking at a sodastream myself online. I saw, several advertised. I would prefer make it myself to. They seem to have a basic version and other types. Just not sure if i canout my own home made syrup in. Just let me know what you think.
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If you do it in the provided bottles, I canât see any reason why it wouldnât work⊠maybe the only issue is if the syrup mixture causes rapid release of CO2 when depressurised⊠but this could be checked by using a low CO2 injection for the first batch made.
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O only ask as syrups are commonly sold on bottles thats all i mean. In reference to making say lemonade. Using fresh lemons and a small. Amount of. Sigar instead of a higher amount of sugar.
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You can add what flavours, juices, sweeteners you like. Just ensure you add them after carbonation and not before. I like lime juice with NatVia, my wife likes lemon juice no sweeteners.
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I only have soda with scotch, and I drink so little of that, these days, its hardly worth bothering to keep my soda stream, I think Iâll probably give it aways and free up some bench space. (I donât drink flavoured soda so its just not really economical for me anymore.) And I never did get the hang of the newere design, could never get the bottle in place safely (it would fall out) and so went back to the old design in which you screw the bottle in
As mentioned above, only add it after carbonation, if you add it before you gas it up, there will be an eruption of sweet liquid as you remove the bottle. I did try it once!
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Itâs fun cleaning up afterwardsâŠNOT 
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