Soda stream opinions

[Tofflee]

The arrival of nice weather made me think of buying a soda stream, just for a quick readily available option and I do love a highly carbonated drink. After reading reviews on Amazon I’m no longer convinced it’s worth the money. What’s the verdict of fellow mumsnetters? What’s the best option here?

We've had ours for a few years now, and I love it. I got it so that we could cut right down on the amount of plastic we were buying - we were going through at least 4 x 2 litre bottles of fizzy water a week, sometimes double that, if it was hot.

I bought the Crystal option , which comes with glass bottles. I bought 4 extra bottles, so in our fridge we always have 6 x 600ml bottles of fizzy water.

If I was buying again, though, I'd buy one from aarke as they're so much more stylish. (The sodastream is one of the few things we actually have out on our worktop, and it isn't the most beautiful thing to look at!)

I don't buy the SodaStream flavours, we just add ordinary cordials to the water when we pour.

We have stopped buying fizzy drinks a couple of years ago to cut down on plastic, apart from an odd bottle here and there so it sounded like a great alternative.
I love the aarke one but it’s probably a bit out of my budget. Great to here you’re pleased with your sodastream @BIWI. Think I just wanted to hear some positive experiences before buying one.

TBH @Tofflee, the Sodastream ones can cost just as much as the aarke ones.

We have an aarke because it looked nicer but also because it does not use power. Some soda stream models need a power supply I believe. Don't know why. Our 1980s model whilst growing up didn't.

The Soda stream bottles fit the aarke BTW which slightly brings down some of the cost.

Love my sodastream. I like fizzy water but don't mind if it's Eau de Thames and I object to the cult of bottled water which, happily, seems to be declining

I bought one a year ago as my dh was drinking up to 6 x 2l bottles of fizzy water a week and I was fed up with the excessive plastic. He thought I was mad - but now loves it. We wouldn’t be without ours We have a cylinder replacement subscription. Overall, it’s probably as cost effective as buying mid priced fizzy water if you bought a 4 pack of 2l bottles every week. However, there’s literally zero plastic waste, apart from the cordial we buy to flavour the water. (I like the posh Robinsons ones).

We have a soda stream.

Don't like any of the flavours that you can buy specifically for it, but I do like it with lime cordial.

We use ours a lot (when it has gas!)

I think, TBH, that if you were looking for it as a way to cut down on expenditure, it's probably not that great. The gas cylinders, even on a 'buy one/replace one' deal, aren't cheap. But I wouldn't be without ours - apart from the lack of plastic, it's also so much easier to have than to have to store those 2 litre bottles of fizzy water!

All good points. Thank you all! I’m off to a local shop to see what they have in stock, if anything.

It doesn't save money but does save hugely on plastic waste so for that reason it is worth it for me.

We got ours just to save on plastic and we only use it for fizzy water - but it still gets a lot of use! We just have the cheapest model and it is fine.

Heston Blumenthal said, if you put Chardonnay in it, it's like champagne! Which is fizzy Chardonnay although more complicated than that I'm sure

I'm sure I read something about people being told not to put wine in their SS - although I never could understand why!

We must try that!

Like others - we just use ours for sparkling water, but we're really pleased we bought it (had it 2 years now and still use it as much) as we were going through about 8 2l bottles of sparkling water a week... which not only is a lot of plastic, but it's a lot to store in our not so huge kitchen! I'm not sure it's necessarily a huge money-saver, what with having to buy the replacement cannisters and you also need to buy new bottles every two years.

I recently bought one for £30 on Facebook marketplace and a gas cylinder from Sainsbury’s. Even more cost effective!

The range is the best place for gas - £10 if you take your old one back

We’ve had ours for 10 years , it’s used every day and we just buy replacement bottles once in a while

I’ve just been using mine for fizzy water, but would like to branch out. Can anyone recommend any cordials or syrups for tonic water or ginger beer?

Ours is used a lot. I’m not keen on still water but love sparkling so buying a Sodastream was a way of cutting down on plastic and to drink more water.

I’ve never tried any of the syrups but sometimes add a little lemon squash.

More expensive than cheap bottled water but ours is used daily and we bought it to save plastic so I love it. We mix it with any old squash.

It doesn't work out any cheaper than buying it , but it does cut down on the plastic, which is mainly why I bought one. Also, I make a bottle at a time and it stays fizzy whereas it would take me longer to drink 2l and it would start to go flat.

I bought the classic hydration kit f0r £80, so it came with 2 large bottles, 2 small bottles, and 2 flavours and 1 gas cylinder.

I just mix it with squash, or elderflower cordial. I have never bought their flavours as they are far too expensive, although it did come with a lemonade one which was nice.

I have never bought one that uses power, but I presume that you don't need to buy the gas cylinders so that would save money.

The gas is the biggest cost for me, I order 2 at a time to save postage, but it means spending nearly £50 in one go , although I did recently discover that the local sainsburys will exchange them, so that would only be £12.99 as long as I return one at the same time.

If you use it a lot though or more than 1 of you, there is a monthly gas plan, which makes it a lot cheaper.

Inherited one off my mum just use it for fizzy water add normal orange or blackcurrant to it if you want .

@fakeplantsdontlookreal sadly the electric ones still need a gas cylinder, from what I could see!

We love ours. My husband drinks loads of fizzy water but now just keeps water in the fridge, fizzes it up and pours in to a chilly style bottle so it stays cold all day. Kids now also drink a lot more water during the day as it feels like they are having pop rather than just squash!

We have an aarke. It’s literally been the best purchase we have made in a long time.

It’s well built and feels much better quality than the soda streams we tried. We only make sparkling water in ours and then add any regular cordials ie into glass and add the water like you would if you bought bottled sparkling water. I love half apple juice, half sparkling water, but we drink just the water plain most the time.

It save slots of empty bottles and saves filling car up and lugging heavy bottles in, especially in summer

Omg I never knew about the aarke- I think I'm in love with a carbonator if that's possible!