Bubbly water. We drink lots of it. We love it, from Pellegrino to Perrier and all of them in between.
But we didn't love the idea of drinking water that traveled a long way to get to us. Lugging the bottles home on our bike was not great either. Not to mention having to deal with the recycling for something we drink all the time.
We decided to go the soda siphon route and make our own seltzer from tap water. First step: Get a siphon and cartridges at...
Sam's. The siphon we purchased (shown above) is a one liter size and cost $45. The cartridges are around .50 each, in packages of 10.
We got home, filled up the siphon with water, used the cartridge, shook it up and voila! Homemade bubbly water. The whole process takes under 30 seconds.
We've made a bottle or two every day for the last two months or so and are really happy with our purchase. The seltzer is SUPER bubbly (just the way we like it). We keep the siphon in the door to our fridge, very convenient and the metal interior of the siphon keeps the beverage nice and cold.
We've been buying the cartridges at Sam's a few (very small) boxes at a time (MUCH easier to cart home than ten bottles of water), but have seen lower prices on bigger purchases of cartridges online. We're committed (and addicted) enough to the soda siphon now, so we think were going to jump in and put in an order.
While not a perfect green solution (the cartridges need to be recycled), it still feels much more efficient and earth friendly. It saves us time and money too.
Once again, an old-fashioned, supposedly "outdated" product ends up coming back because it simply makes sense.
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Wonderful! I've been thinking about this for a while now. Nice to see you have it in action. Sounds like a good addition to any kitchen...
view pinkuschi's profile
It's great. We used to go through a number of plastic bottles a week. Found a used siphon on craigslist for $20.00. The cartridges are cheaper in bulk, and easy to get online.
view josie's profile
I have been using my soda siphon for a couple of years now and love it.
view Devyn's profile
That Aqua Maestro site is cool!
view Kathryn's profile
I use Soda Club (sodaclub.com), and I love it. The cartridges are huge (up to 100 liters per cartridge), and they're refillable. I think it's considerably cheaper than the small cartridges too. (If you search the AT archives you'll find lots more info on them -- I found out about them through an earlier AT post).
view olga*orange's profile
For the soda syphon - does a cartridge get used up each time you make a liter of water? I'm trying to balance the smaller footprint and (start-up) cost of the syphon with the soda-club item just posted. I like the smaller item, but, wow we'd go through cartridges fast.
view kmriley's profile
I have one Soda-Club for home and another for office, because I drink two liters of bubbly water a day. It sure is nice not having to lug those big bottles home from Jewel any more.
view Mr Downtown's profile
I have trouble seeing how the disposable cartridges are greener than the recyclable plastic bottles.
The countertop footprint of the Soda Club is pretty minimal. I got one for my birthday, and I must drink 1-2 liters of water a day. I'm still on my first large cartridge, and my birthday was in July.
view CJL's profile