Is It Cheaper to Make Your Own Sparkling Water? (surprising answer)

Find out the cheapest way to consume sparkling water as we compare the prices of buying it in the store vs making it yourself with a soda water maker like SodaStream, Soda Sense, or DrinkMate. While carbonated brands like La Croix and Bubbly are well known, it turns out that store brands are much cheaper, but are they cheaper than the DIY option?

#lacroix #bubbly #sodastream #sodasense #drinkmate #sparklingwater

[Dr.Terpenes]

Also $30 is for when you buy replacement canisters. If you recycle them and send them back or just take them to the store they are $15 for a refilled canister

[Smair]

Good, but very inaccurate. If you hand in your used CO2 cylinder, the cost of the new one is half price, so about 15 USD. So only the first cylinder will cost you 30 USD, and the rest is 15 USD. Add to the equation that when you buy canned sparkling water, you have to spend time buying it, carrying it, and storing it.

[HarryOsirian]

Thank you for this video, Tony. I'm an avid sparkling water drinker and was considering the purchase of a Sodastream. I found it odd that there were so many "reviews" advocating for it's purchase but none broke down the actual costs involved like you did. I'm sticking to my weekly purchase of sparkling water.

[sastrelocity]

I know it’s cheaper to buy it in stores but I kinda felt guilty of how many cans I was throwing away. I just recently bought a SodaStream E Terra and I love it!

[DalePatch]

I got my soda stream for a $1 from goodwill, so I think it will be cheaper for me. heh heh

[markkeohane]

Yeah; I did the sums too and came up with about 600 litres as my break even point. Prolly about two years. But I can't abide seeing the recycling bin fill up with the 500ml single use plastic bottles we buy the stuff in here in the UK. So I'm waiting for my sparkling water machine and will feel much better about making my own in the reusable bottles that come with it.

[CherylRives]

This video is great, but we actually bought a Terra SodaStream, and it has saved us money. The main reason we got it, was because we learned the store bought cans have a lining in them that contains BPA. Also, we wanted to cut down on our single use recyclables.

[johntang]

This should not be surprised that it is cheaper to buy can/bottle of soda or sparkling water from grocery stores because they are manufactured in the factories. Anyone thinks it is cheaper made by yourself is not smart. The real reasons doing it yourself are it’s environmentally friendly and fun to make it yourself with all kinds of fluids 😊

[lewiskent]

What about the hassle and associated costs of transporting the bulky and heavy drinks to your house and dealing with the garbage? A top benefit for me is the water (difficult to transport) is automatically available at your house. The other consumables (CO2 and flavoring) are easy to transport, and the process creates way less garbage to deal with.

[KayoMichiels]

30$ for a Sodastream Canister? It's 12, 99€ here in Belgium, and if you bring the empty canister back to the store, you get 12€ back for the canister, meaning that filling it is only 0, 99€

[christophermackin]

Someone may have already commented, but you also can buy dry ice or carbon dioxide ice at many local grocery stores and measure out the required amount and place it inside the canister. You just screw off the top and put the dry ice inside the canister and that cuts your canister cost down to about two or three dollars per canister instead of 15 with the exchange price.

[ednet]

I've been doing the Aldi option for about 2+ years now and I have no complaints. This is way better than soda. For me, it all started with Covid lock-downs and you are right, this is the cheapest alternative. Now, I got used to it and I just get my 12-packs every time I shop at Aldi. Thank you for your video!

[DuaineM]

Sorry for the late reply and comments but I’m dealing with this issue right at this moment. One point I will make is it appears one can make sparkling water without buying a machine like SodaStream. Instead of thinking about water as the fluid to carbonate, think beer instead.

Beer has been carbonated for hundreds of years. For the first several hundred years beer was only carbonated with the CO2 created by the fermentation process. No additional CO2 could be added so it was consumed as it came out of the keg.

Towards the end of the US Civil War, refrigeration was catching on in companies that processed food. Beer producers now had a way to cool the beer and that resulted in the liquid beer to hold more carbonation than when it came to out of the keg. So now they could capture the by product of fermentation, CO2 filter it through carbon filters, compress it and put it into tanks for storage and transportation. So, draft beer from kegs could be shipped all over the country and world along with CO2. The beer was injected with CO2 at the point of sale so you now had fresh, cool, bubbly beer available anywhere.

Moving to modern times we can carbonate water in our home. The magic is you don’t need a $100 machine to do it. We treat the water like beer. We buy CO2 in bulk defined as tanks of 5, 10, 15 or 20 pounds of CO2 at a time. You get a tank that holds the previously mentioned number of pounds of CO2. The tanks can be new, made of steel or aluminum (aluminum is lighter) new or used & recertified. Then add a pressure regulator for the CO2 tank and the vessel you will inject with water and CO2 such as a 2 liter soda bottle. The you need 10 to 20 feet of pressure hose and a few other pieces of hardware. Set up cost $75 to $175 for a CO2 tank, $55 to $85 for the regulator set, then $10 for hose and $40 for miscellaneous. A fresh tank of CO2 runs $20 to $40 a refill.

A 20 pound tank of CO2 is equivalent of about 60 SodaStream canisters of CO2.

If you own a SodaStream just buy an adapter put it on the rubber hose and lock the adapter in place of a SodaStream canister. Everything functions like it did except you spend money to fill your tank. My math says the tank refills is paid by saving the cost of about 4, CO2 canisters. CO2 is easy to get from taprooms, breweries, welding supply companies and companies similar to AirGas, Inc.

[oscarfelix]

I just bought a SodaStream Terra 1 month ago for $106 including tax. Price included one CO2 cylinder. I was spending $30/month in the store for 40 liters of seltzer water. The first cylinder of CO2 only lasted me 2 weeks. So, 4 weeks will cost me $30 (2 refills @ $15 each). I have NOT found that 1 cylinder will make 60 liters!!! I have to use 5 pumps to get the same amount of fizz that I got with the store bought. That's only 20 liters, not 60 as they claim. So, I'm paying the exact same amount, $30. Then there's the initial cost of $100 for the machine that will only last for 2 years, as I've heard reported. However, I spent an additional $15 for a warranty that lasts for 2 years beyond manufacturer warranty of 2 years. So, if all goes well, I should get replacements at no cost to me. I really do like that I don't have to lug around 10 liters back and forth to the store every week and it's better for environment. But I agree with you that I'm not saving any money at the end of the day. Seems I'm just breaking even.

[Scotty_in_Ohio]

Those numbers "bump up" when your mate downs 3-4 laCroix a day and you're willing to get a 20lb CO2 tank and refill the soda stream 1lb tanks yourself. You can also find lots of soda stream machines used for cheap or "starter" sets at places like Sams Club on-line for around the $60 mark with a bottle, machine and a 1lb CO2 tank. I'm under no illusion that there's a longer than a year (or so) break even point but provided that I go the 5 or 20lb refill tank route that's probably good for about 18 - 24 months at current rates ;-)

[rivec]

Costs me $41 to fill my 20ib co2 tank to refill my sodastream cylinders and get about 21 to 22 refills per tank. So pay about $1.95 roughly per co2 refill in the sodastream.

[BL-suwt]

The added waste is definitely a significant issue with the store bought products. I think it’s shortsighted to merely consider cost per ounce. In addition…..as noted by others, the cost of sodastream CO2 canisters is not the same when you exchange. Furthermore, there are better and way cheaper systems available than sodastream that you did not even consider at all in your comparison. So, in truth, not a good comparison

[neeni]

The biggest up-side is the vast reduction in single use plastic bottles. I figure over a year or 4 that’s a LOT.

[apuz]

One other factor is waste. If you are buying your sparkling water in plastic bottles it is a huge price on the environment.

[TimeIdle]

Did you calculate the price of the recycle cans? Cashier adds at least 5 cents per can/bottle when you check out. Unless you go to the recycle center regularly and get your money back (which most people don't), those costs should be added to your calculation. Also, there's no electricity involved when you use a typical seltzer maker at home. I live in a New York rental apartment, so the water is free. But your video does bring up good points. The key is to put a Soda Stream on your wish/gift list. And if you get it for free (like I did), then the savings start right away.