Hacking Your SodaStream With a Paintball Canister Can Save You Piles of Money
Friday, March 4, 2016
We drink a lot of carbonated water in my household. Enough, in fact, that we’ve owned a trusty SodaStream Fountain Jet (the company’s entry-level carbonator) for years. Even with the sunk costs of the machine itself and the purchase of a pair of tanks, we know it paid for itself long ago.
The per-bottle cost is roughly 25 cents per liter of carbonated water. It’s much cheaper than supermarket seltzer, and it involves less worry about the environmental costs of making plastic and glass bottles and shipping them around the world. I like that.
When I refill my two new tanks, it costs $10 instead of $45, and I’ve got some nice, cheap fizz on tap. The thing I don’t like is that the small SodaStream tank refills cost about $15, each one making roughly 60 liters of carbonated water. Technically, you’re really paying for 410 grams of CO2, part of the very air you’ve been breathing for free all of your life.
Could I find a better way? Find out in my story in WIRED.
