The Soda Stream Soda Maker

Who: Soda Stream; Cherry Hill, NJ

What: Fountain Jet Soda Maker

Where: Soda Stream – $129.95 w/free shipping & $10 off with coupon code SODABLOG

Why: Ever since we found our vintage iSi soda maker we have been complete converts. No more lugging home soda bottles, no more overflowing recycling bins and we make a mean seltzer water. The only downfall is occasionally we get a wee bit lazy and filling up a bottle of water can be far too taxing (yes, it’s a hard life…….), so we were a bit envious when we tried out our in-laws Fountain Jet. Which has four benefits over our beloved iSi:

1) The carbonator cartridges can make up to 110 one liter bottles whereas the albeit much smaller cartridges for the iSi are single-use. The iSi cartridges can simply be recycled but the Soda Stream cartridges must be mailed in in exchange for new ones much like a propane tank for your grill. In the long run this might be even more eco-friendly because they are being reused instead of recycled saving resources and energy. This also makes this more appealing for larger households, with the iSi one bottle goes fast among groups bigger than four.

2) You can make more than one flavor at once, so if you like seltzer but your roommate likes cola, you can have a bottle of each in the refrigerator. So instead of having a refrigerator full of 2 liter soda bottles you can conserve space with these smaller bottles. And it’s easy to cater to guests who have a preference for a soda you don’t normally drink. If you purchase the flavor packs, you’ll always have it on hand. We personally on seltzer drinkers and wouldn’t recommend the flavor packets, a lime does just fine without that fake sugar taste.

3) You can control the level of fizz. We tested this out with our nieces and they really liked pressing the fizz button, so we had a super ‘spicy’ as they call it, first batch. But it is nice to be able to control the amount of fizz.

4) Cost savings, Soda Stream claims the cost per liter works out to about $0.20 compared to iSi with is closer to $0.70/liter.

All that being said we still love the iSi, but have plenty of room in our hearts for multiple Soda Makers and all the environmental benefits of making your own soda: reducing waste, saving energy in manufacturing and transport and overall reducing our carbon footprint.