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The cheap soda streams are Ok. Very simple design these days. But way too expensive to operate. You can buy adapters to use paint ball gun CO2 canisters with them which can be refilled wherever you might get that done. Still expensive.
Afaik BOC won’t supply to residential customers. But your local ‘specialist’ hydroponic supplier will probably have big CO2 bottles to rent to you.
The Swedish sodastream looks fancy but has the same CO2 price problem.
Zipp taps are about £4,000 for the bubbly one. And take a fairly small tank @£50 a go.
Quooker is about £2,300 for a tap that does sparkling. And about 30p/L for sparkling running costs.
Best thing is a few old plastic fizzy drinks bottles, a fridge, some pipe, a couple of carbonation caps, a regulator, and a big tank of CO2. Super fizzy. Fairly cheap to run. https://classbarmag.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/124/A_guide_to_carbonation.html
Edit. Well, the best thing unless you can get a post-mix bar gun set up.
Zipp taps are about £4,000 for the bubbly one
Annoyed with my brother for this - he worked for Zipp in Australia and never 'borrowed' whilst he was there.
Best thing is a few old plastic fizzy drinks bottles, a fridge, some pipe, a couple of carbonation caps, a regulator, and a big tank of CO2. Super fizzy. Fairly cheap to run.
This is the route im going down - home brew co2 is cheap and plentiful and the added element of danger is a huge plus.
Just as an aside, does anyone else find the amount of people complaining about poor economy that probably use disposable CO2 bulbs for inflating tyres amusing or is it just me?
For those using industrial CO2 I assume fire extinguishers are food safe. I know the gas is all the same (we use the same gas in the reactors as goes to the breweries) but it's in case there were any greasy bits or such? I can't think of any other reason not to tbh and I know plenty of folk use them for aquariums and recharging paintball/air rifle tanks.
@chrisl I learned that same lesson! See also adding the syrup before the gas.
Just as an aside, does anyone else find the amount of people complaining about poor economy that probably use disposable CO2 bulbs for inflating tyres amusing or is it just me?
A lot of assumption there - it's exactly why I've got an Airshot and carry a Topeak Morph. I still have the bag of CO2 bulbs I was given 5 years+ ago unused. IME if a tyre's knackered enough that you can't solve it with anchovies and a pump CO2 isn't likely to solve the problem
A lot of assumption there – it’s exactly why I’ve got an Airshot and carry a Topeak Morph. I still have the bag of CO2 bulbs I was given 5 years+ ago unused. IME if a tyre’s knackered enough that you can’t solve it with anchovies and a pump CO2 isn’t likely to solve the problem
same here - airshot, although I rarely have to use it; and a lezyne pump.
As well as the wastefullness of a one hit and done implement, I am also worried that I would try to use it and fail. My normal puncture repair procedure is to swirl the sealant over the hole, pump up, if that fails, try the plug; if that fails, second plug; if that fails, tube.
I'd need like 4-5 cannisters to be sure enough to leave my pump at home (I get like 2 or 3 punctures a year).
Modern tyres stay on the rim even at 0 psi, so the near instant fill is only necessary in a self supported race type situation.
IME if a tyre’s knackered enough that you can’t solve it with anchovies and a pump CO2 isn’t likely to solve the problem
I have similar opinions of spare tubes and no puncture repair.
Had a discussion with a pal who has a SS the other day, and it's sat in a cupboard hardly used. Said it was crap, hardly made the tap water fizzy and what fizz it had didn't last long, and that the fizzy tap water was nothing like sparkly water from the shop. Wasn't happy with the number of co2 cartridges he had to use too, which are a real pain to get where we live.
Call me evil, but I'll stick with having to buy it and actually enjoy it.