Soda Club

[bobfnbw]

Roy I too got a soda stream from boaters world prior to them going under.
I have not tried their syrups yet, but find that splenda and I don't agree so I use Monin syrups and have excellent results.
Coffee Syrups Section: Offers coffee syrups, monin, monin syrup, flavored syrup, sugar free syrup, syrup, Almond Roca , Amaretto, Caffioco, caramel syrup, da vinci syrup, autocrat coffee syrup, ipecac syrup, coffee, coffee, and more</title><meta name

Excellent product.

[cabo_sailor]

It's only for ginger ale but I recently watched Food Network's Alton Brown show how to make ginger ale using fermentation, ginger, water and sugar. Seems kind of neat.

Ginger Ale Recipe : Alton Brown : Food Network

Rich

[lucrece]

Hello,
I recently purchased an adapter from sodaclubrefill.com and want to share the terrible experience that I had there.
I ordered their valve on May 20 and it was reported as back-ordered several weeks later. I recently received a valve that I thought would allow me to refill my existing Soda Club tanks with a standard co2 station. However, I found that this was not possible and I would need another $50 adapter from sodaclubrefill.com. I checked the website and found that the text describing the product I had ordered had been updated to clarify this since then, but that text was not their when I ordered. Furthermore, the product was incorrectly linked to a different product that is actually $60 more and would allow refill through standard tanks.
I politely pointed this out to the website contact and asked for a refund. He was extremely rude and insulting but said that he would still issue a refund when he received the returned item. Thus, I returned the item. Now, the merchant has suddenly changed his mind and, in a slew of insults, told me that he will not issue the refund because I am an "illiterate idiot" and a "punk" for telling people about my problems with the valve on review sites. Please keep in mind that my tone was always professional and I never insulted anyone. His insults came as a complete surprise.
I would suggest that if anyone considers doing business with this website, please pm me for details and I can send you copies of the incredibly rude emails sent to me.

[Roy M]

Lucrece, This is a disturbing note, as I was considering buying their product for myself. Would you please contact me with a private message so that I might read the communications between you and them? That they would resort to such treatment would be a fatal marketing error on their part. This forum has such widespread readership that this episode could provide global notoriety in a very short time. No sane business would ask that upon themselves, but then, again, perhaps that defines the situation. Thank you for sharing, and, perhaps, saving others from similar mistreatment.

On another, happier note, I have now tried the rootbeer and the caffeine-free diet cola. Both are excellent - no "chemical" flavor, very smooth and satisfying, and a good value compared to bottled or canned options.

[Janice]

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had a friend that has had cartridges refilled, and he states: "There is one fellow in the eastern Caribbean that I know of who can refill the carbonators. That is why I bought so many of them. His name is Tony and he is with the industrial gas company by the airport in St. Martin (the French side). "

I really like the idea of the adapter and agree with Roy M that many orders would have streamed in if the product was as advertised.

[First Mate]

friends of ours set themselves up with the soda club system by purchasing from EBAY for the initial equipment - may save yourself a few pennies that way.

[zombie]

Ok, not to sound dense, but there's no difference between the CO2 the welders use or the CO2 cartridges for air pistols and the CO2 that comes in the canister for the soda club?

A food quality CO2 per se?

[redcobra]

I have had nothing but good service from Soda club for a number of years. Stateside only.

[People Watcher]

Originally Posted by Roy M

Lucrece, This is a disturbing note, as I was considering buying their product for myself. Would you please contact me with a private message so that I might read the communications between you and them? That they would resort to such treatment would be a fatal marketing error on their part. This forum has such widespread readership that this episode could provide global notoriety in a very short time. No sane business would ask that upon themselves, but then, again, perhaps that defines the situation. Thank you for sharing, and, perhaps, saving others from similar mistreatment.

Roy,

Sorry but I had to jump in here and drop my two cents worth. So far there is only one individual (someone named lucrece) who wrote about an experience with this refill website.

Everyone else seems to want to just jump in and state how they won't do business with them and how unprofessional they are. Americans have developed such an insatiable need to destroy each other in recent years. Jumping in and dropping f-bombs and name calling is only the begining.

What is interesting is that not unlike the street corner, all of the opinions here (except lucrece's which may or may not be the complete story) are based on some interpretation of allegations made only by an on-screen name and avatar. Everyone else is just repeating hearsay.

Folks, the internet is a very informative and public place, it also provides some degree of anonymity. I suspect that in the real three dimensional world, none of you know anything first hand about the website/business in question, or the owner(s), or any facts associated with them. I would also venture to say that in the real 3D world, none of you would out of courtesy or humanity, dare say these things for fear of being wrong or hurting an innocent person or business.

Search your souls for one brief instance and analyze these writings. Isn't it really that the safety of anonymity has encouraged the nay sayers to write their hateful comments? What happened to civility? Benefit of the doubt? How about just simple silence if you have nothing factual or constructive to add?

I don't know if this lucrece individual is telling the truth, do you? Have any of you been in business? I have, and I can tell you that I have bitten several inches off my tongue when dealing with customers that just cannot be satisfied. I work as a store manager for a major nationwide retailer.

Believe me when I tell you there are thousands of horror stories and things some customers pull on us every day. Some cannot be satisfied at any cost, some will defraud you, lie, and cheat you out of any profits. Some I would rather never enter our store because I know they will cost us money.

Guess what, in the end, it is all of us that pay.

All I am saying is that civility and decorum are at a great risk of being lost in this cyberspace medium unless we start being more human to each other. Hearsay should not be the guiding word.

My two cents. Flame me if you must, it only serves to prove my points.

[tomperanteau]

This post begs the question: Can you carbonate Scotch?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by People Watcher

... Folks, the internet is a very informative and public place, it also provides some degree of anonymity. I suspect that in the real three dimensional world, none of you know anything first hand about the website/business in question, or the owner(s), or any facts associated with them. I would also venture to say that in the real 3D world, none of you would out of courtesy or humanity, dare say these things for fear of being wrong or hurting an innocent person or business...

... All I am saying is that civility and decorum are at a great risk of being lost in this cyberspace medium unless we start being more human to each other. Hearsay should not be the guiding word...

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, People Watcher.

I daresay, you may be (at least, partly) right.

Roy M seems to be doing the prudent thing, in seeking more information & documentation.

[dheaslip]

I do not wish to "flame" anyone in this posting, I'm only reporting my experience in the hope that others may find it useful!! I made an earlier posting stating that I'd bought the set up from Soda Club and would comment on it once I had it up and running.

I ordered parts that would allow me to attach a regular CO2 bottle to the Soda Stream set up. The guy at Soda Club was extremely difficult to work with. He will not talk to you on the phone and will only communicate by email. This means that if you have a question you just can't resolve it simply - it takes days of going backwards and forwards. Apparently his reasoning is that he doesn't want the liability of talking with people.

While I did get my installation to work, I eventually found out that two expensive parts he'd sold me were surplus to requirements (but obviously there's no refund!!).

Once the installation was done I found out why he's concerned about liability. The hose from the CO2 bottle joins to the soda stream unit with a connector. One time we connected the hose and turned on the bottle and all of a sudden it seemed as if the galley had exploded. The connector had come off the back of the Soda Stream unit and we had three feet of metal hose with a brass connector on the end flailing around the galley. My wife freaked (quite reasonably) and I had to dive in there and try to get hold of the hose. I was pretty severely injured as the hose was flying all around - it hit me several times in the face and body and gave me one extremely severe hit on the neck that just about tore my Adam’s apple out! There was also extensive damage to the galley sole, cabinets and counter. I had to get hold of the hose before I could get to the bottle to turn off the gas supply.

THIS PRODUCT CAN BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!! Luckily I was in a marina where medical attention would have been available if necessary. If this happened on a passage it could be a real problem. Now I know why Soda Club is worried about liability.

The end of the story is that the guy at Soda Club was hostile, rude and unhelpful. Do business with him if you wish, but be ready to receive insulting emails and poor service.

Again, not trying to flame anyone here - just reporting the facts as they happened to me!!

Finally, I have also found that getting the CO2 bottle refilled can be a hassle. I use a 10lb bottle. All the gas stores I've found while cruising do bottle exchanges - they can't refill. Last month I had to go and beg for a refill at the local Pepsi plant.

[dheaslip]

Originally Posted by tomperanteau

This post begs the question: Can you carbonate Scotch?

Sadly, the answer to this is no. Carbonating anything other than water is something you try only once, because it just takes too long to clean up the mess.

Also, it may be worth pointing out to some cruisers that the water needs to be cold to carbonate it effectively. The warmer the water the less CO2 it will hold (which is why our warming oceans are releasing CO2 back into the atmospshere!!) So if you don't have refrigeration you may be better sticking to cans/bottles of soda.

[_Oxygen_]

OK So going back to the Sodaclub website they say on 60L Carbonator will do 60L of soda bottles are $25 outright. Drink mixes at $5 each and they make 12L each bottle. The startup price is $100. Soo.. according to my spreadsheet.. So.. according to the website you'd need to go ahead and order 3 more mixes. That being said you "should be able to drink 1.2L a week for a year for only $115 + shipping. That's like one can of coke every other day for a year at $.68 each.

For my family of 4 I'm thinking we'd need to add a bit more to that..
1 starter Kit, 3 Spares, 18 Extra Mixes (20 total) comes out to $265 + shipping

That'd make us about 2, 12oz cans per day fior a year.. or 1 can a day for 2 years @ $.40 each..

Sure seems to beat a traditional Soda Gun, regular, bottle, syrup scenario..


Oxy

[whiskey]

Sorry if I am covering previously discussed ground here.

I am very new to the idea of this soda mixing problem, but would it not be simpler to add a standard soda mixing device? I have seen entire "Wunder Bar" kits on ebay for not too terribly much money, and all of the components are remote mountable for custom installation work.

If some of the cruisers here have already mounted the larger CO2 canisters, the mixing tank and pumps are not that much more gear.

You can buy complete and ready to install soda fill tap kits on ebay. Here is a current listing of two heads, syrup pumps, and mixer tanks. The gear is large, no doubt, but could it not be made to fit into small, under floor or small cabinet spaces? The syrup comes in 5 gallon jugs and is available from your local soda distributor for far less than is advertised on the internet and I would figure long-term costs should equal out for equipment versus supplies.

Has anyone here mounted these restaurant style kits on boats before? Does this seem to be a horribly bad idea?