Soda Siphon vs Twist 'n Sparkle

[gettinthere]

We're looking at carbonated beverage alternatives. We don't want the Soda Stream.

We're considering:
TwistNSparkle Twist 'n Sparkle
or Soda siphon Amazon.com: iSi 2248 Soda Siphon, Brushed Aluminum: Kitchen & Dining

The Twist takes a little less space in the frig and is plastic.

Siphon would seem to maybe keep carbonation longer per charge.

We're thinking we would make various soft drinks and cocktails by the glass from the carbonated water, not by mixing a whole bottle of one type of drink.
It appears both use the same cartridge so cost after initial purchase will be similar.

Anyone familiar with both of these units?
Any advantage of the siphon over the Twist?

I have a sense that the siphon will keep the carbonation fresh longer but no real evidence for that. Just a hunch...

Thnx

[osirissail]

Assuming you are going to use these devices on a cruising boat since this is a cruising forum - where are you going to get the replacement cartridges from? Once you are outside your home country, access to such things varies from non-existent to horribly expensive.
I have the German soda stream system that makes a liter of carbonated water at a time, but I had to modify the boat to contain a carbonic tank. Once the tank is empty it cannot be refilled until I return to the home country.
I love carbonated water as an alternative to commercial soda - but - IMHO, if you are going to actually go cruising you will find the life of the unit very short.

[gettinthere]

The cartridges are rather generic vs the soda stream. The soda stream requires you buy from them, with some sort of special delivery; not so with the alternatives we are considering. We can buy the cartridges online.

[osirissail]

Getting them on-line is not the problem - it is shipping them to you - they are "compressed gas" which means surface shipping only. Slow but reliable. But if you keep track of how many per month you use, you could probably get enough to last for quite a while. One way to store such things on-board is to get a Food-saver Vac-u-pack unit and vacuum pack the cartridges for storage in the bilge or where ever. Corrosion and rust is a constant enemy of anything metallic.
- - And the Food-saver vac-u-pak (or something similar) also works great to vacuum pack spare parts like alternators, engine parts and hundreds of other consumables you need to take with you. They last for years and when the vacuum package is opened the part, etc. is just like when you purchased it. The reason for taking as much as possible is that the prices are 2X to 4X more expensive outside your home country for boat parts.

[gettinthere]

Amazon.com: 100 ea Leland Soda Chargers Seltzer Chargers CO2: Everything Else

It appears I can order them from Amazon pretty easily.

If I were going to 3rd world countries for any length of time, I'd stock up prior, perhaps with a few cases, plus syrups, etc. Sealing anything metal is definitely a good idea. We do have a Food Saver aboard.

[Trox]

Those both look like good choices. sorry, I don,t have experience with them. I would be interested to hear from someone that has used either one.

[Entlie]

You have probably made your decision by now, but I'll chime in.
1. I have no experience with the Twist N Sparkle, but it looks good, and we have an ISI brand whipped cream maker which we dearly love. Have had it for 10 or 15 years. So I would say this is a reliable brand.
2. We have an older version of the Soda Stream (Soda Club) on board our boat for six month cruises, and also at home. It takes the larger cylinders, and three cylinders does us for six months. I think the newer Soda Streams can use either the large cylinders like we have, or a smaller one. We use ours on almost a daily basis. It sits on the galley counter when we are at anchor, and I move it to a safer spot when we are underway - just so it won't fall over. Makes terrific Club Soda.

Entlie
Sailing Catamaran Sunspot Baby

[donradcliffe]

We have the soda stream, and the cylinders take the American Standard cga320 fitting (alas with slightly different thread than the rest of the world). I bought a 5 lb cylinder of CO2 and had a hose mad up with cga320 fittings on each end, and refill the soda stream cylinders from that. I have also seen installations where the soda stream is just plumbed to a large cylinder.

[gettinthere]

Santa brought me a twist n sparkle last night!

Works very well. We now have an unlimited variety of sparkling drinks to create and we can buy the carton of 100 cartridges to carry with us. We'll keep the 1 liter bottle in the frig and create whatever we like at the time. We also carry a 2 litre britta pitcher in the frig that will supply clean cold water for the sparkler.

[Safari38LH]

Originally Posted by gettinthere

We're looking at carbonated beverage alternatives. We don't want the Soda Stream.

We're considering:
TwistNSparkle Twist 'n Sparkle
or Soda siphon Amazon.com: iSi 2248 Soda Siphon, Brushed Aluminum: Kitchen & Dining

The Twist takes a little less space in the frig and is plastic.

Siphon would seem to maybe keep carbonation longer per charge.

We're thinking we would make various soft drinks and cocktails by the glass from the carbonated water, not by mixing a whole bottle of one type of drink.
It appears both use the same cartridge so cost after initial purchase will be similar.

Anyone familiar with both of these units?
Any advantage of the siphon over the Twist?

I have a sense that the siphon will keep the carbonation fresh longer but no real evidence for that. Just a hunch...

Thnx

I have been using the isi for three years. I bought two of them so one is always chilled before carbonating. The secret is to make sure that water is cold before using. I use the cheap refills available at Amazon in lots of 100. They are just as good as the isi ones. If you drink mojitos as much as I do you need these!

[Roy M]

donradcliffe : I love my Sodastream, but I'm into the last of about 8 bottles of gas. I like the idea of self-filling rather than paying more for ordering direct. Any suggestions?

[osirissail]

I converted my machine with a rube-goldberg assortment of hoses and fittings to utilize a large tank of carbonic gas which I fitted and secured into a locker in the boat. I can get a year or two out of it. Refilling a standard carbonic tank is a lot easier than trying to find small specialized bottles.

[hellosailor]

I used to enjoy them when the CO2 carts were a dime. Stopped when they went to a quarter, because I can buy bottled soda for that. At 40c each I'd be just as happy to lug bottles that cost less and don't consume the potable water supply.

I still like the idea, I just find they've gone to "luxury pricing" now.

There are supposed to be some new systems that use the larger CO2 bottles from paintball guns, which supposedly aren't oil contaminated any more, much more reasonably. And there are some mini-soda-fountains that use much larger CO bottles, that should be refillable anyplace where there are diners and soda fountains getting similar refills.

Osiris, what did you wind up with? What do they hit you for the refills?

[Trox]

I like that you no longer need to carry those flimsy and thin cans and bottles.

[Roy M]

I went ahead and purchased the refill adaptor. The total cost for the professional version was $125. I took one of my yacht club's non-siphon CO2 tanks (from the bar), turned it upside down, and followed the instructions on the supplied unit. I filled all 9 of my empty cylinders in about an hour. They work flawlessly, I don't have to pay a refill station, and I now have enough gas cylinders for a one year cruise before refills. I love my Sodastream, and I especially love being able to cut out the middleman on the refills. Very, very cool. Here's the YouTube on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ldYDo1X4s