Soda Stream - frugal or frivolous?!?

[mentaltodolist]

A little background: I drink waaaaay too many diet cokes.
I need to stop this year. I'm worried it's
a) ruining my health b) stupidly expensive.
Since Jan 1st I've been buying big 2l bottles of fizzy water and popping lemon juice in. It's kind of working, but then I have loads of those big bottles to recycle in a small kitchen and it's not really that much cheaper.

So I got to thinking 'Soda Stream'!!! Bottles are re-used so less clutter and after the initial outlay it 'may' be cheaper. However friends have suggested that the gas canister thingies will be expensive.
So what say you? Frugal or Frivolous??

I got one last august and love it. I was worried about the amount of plastic bottles I was using for sparkling water. It’s about a tenner for a canister and I get about 6 weeks out of one, using At least 5 times a week to make a bottle. I love mine!

We've had a SS for about 10 years. I love it and use it constantly.

The canisters are expensive, so it probably isn't cheaper than supermarket value fizzy water. Much more convenient and better for the environment though.

Don't buy the syrups, they're gross. Quality cordials taste great with fizzy water though. Or make your own. I do homemade lemonade in mine occasionally, it's amazing.

They have stopped selling the syrups in the UK. You can only now buy flavoured water syrups. No more Highland Fizz, Cola etc. Stocks are fast depleting.
Oh and the plastic bottles it comes with have a shelf life and need replacing so if you do go for one, go for one with the glass bottles.
Mine has now been in the cupboard for a year.

Love it so much. We bought one a few months ago. Trying to give up sweet fizzy drinks so this has been ideal as I hate plain tap water which would have been the only thing for me to drink as I equally dislike tea or coffee lol

We have one and it's great. We have it purely for the environmental impact of all the plastic bottles and transport/recycling of them. You can get generic gas cannisters which are about half the price of the sodastream ones and you can use it for tap water.

Heston Blumenthal experiment with Blue Nun in a sodastream

I only ever use tap water. Unless you live in an area where it isn't drinkable, why wouldn't you?! If you are buying bottled still water to put in it, you may as well just buy fizzy water...

Ours proved a gimmicky waste of money. Did use it for a year or two but it's a bit of a hassle, the drinks dont get/stay particularly fizzy and the flavors they sell aren't particularly nice

We had one as kids- loved the cola or raspberry flavoured ones! Frivolous but great! Totally bad for your teeth but I'd still get one if you can afford and will use it.

We love ours have had it for about eight years and used most days , tend not to buy the syrups now as most have sweetners but add cordial instead

I love mine! My DH bought me it as a gift as I love fizzy water so much. I don’t know about the flavoured drinks but for fizzy water I find it better because;

1. Less waste. I would buy big bottles of fizzy water but if I didn’t drink them quick enough they would go flat and get chucked. Smaller bottles was a lot of plastic to Chuck away.

1. Always on hand so you don’t have to remember to buy it from the supermarket.

1. No lugging heavy bottles home.

Only downside for me is the bottle isn’t dishwasher proof. I have seen that they do a glass one tho

I did these calculations a while ago.

Initial outlay aside: cylinder costs £11.99 (assuming you return an empty) and makes up to 60 litres, so minumum cost is 20p/litre. Asda smart price water is 17p/2 litres, so you are not saving any money if you buy value water. This doesn't factor in cost of tap water if you are on a meter.

However, I still bought a SodaStream because:

• I am trying to reduce waste and this massively reduces plastic waste
• Transport and manufacture of bottled water also has a negative environmental impact
• buying and storing two litre bottles of fizzy water is a massive pain (they are heavy and take up lots of space)

For me the convenience and environmental factors outweigh the extra costs involved. If money is the only factor for you, keep buying the 2 litre bottles.

TLDR: SodaStream is not cheaper than value fizzy water, but you might want one for other reasons.

Only downside for me is the bottle isn’t dishwasher proof. I have seen that they do a glass one tho

There is a new dishwasher safe bottle.

sodastream.co.uk/products/1l-black-dishwasher-safe-bottle

The 2 litre bottles also go flat very quickly in my experience and end up being poured half away so a false economy

The most frequently used appliance in my house, more than a kettle or Toaster! It's not frivolous, it saves money and helps the environment. We can't recycle our way of of the problems we create.

Anyone got an aarke one?