Hack Your SodaStream for Cheaper, Better Tasting Bubbles

Early in the pandemic, as people were desperately searching for toilet paper, I was whining about a far less critical asset: SodaStream canisters. They’d become impossible to source, and the bubbly liquid I’d become addicted to was replaced by sad tap water.

Turns out, you don’t really need the replacement canisters, you just need what’s in them: carbon dioxide. You need liquid CO₂, specifically, and there are cheaper, more sustainable ways to get it.

While some have found ways to refill those canisters through a convoluted process involving paintball, there’s a really simple solution: Get a real CO₂ canister.

Enter: Airgas

It doesn’t take up as much space as you think. Photo: Amanda Blum

You can get CO₂ tanks in all kinds of sizes, but most people will want to start small with a 20-gallon tank. It takes up more space than your Sodastream alone, but you can tuck it into a cabinet, under a table, or behind a door. I have mine docked under my tea and drink station, and yes, I can hear you judging me for having a drink station, through the internet.

Getting your hands on a tank is as easy as calling Airgas, rolling up with your car, and purchasing it. You’ll be buying the tank itself, and the CO₂ in it. In the future, you’ll just bring the tank back and get it refilled which is, as it turns out, inexpensive.

How inexpensive? The tank itself cost me about $170, and included the first batch of CO₂. Three years later, it hasn’t needed a refill, but refilling it will cost about $40. You toss it in your car and roll up to the door. The whole process takes about twenty minutes.

Sure, the tank is expensive, but amortize that. I was going through a new SodaStream canister every six weeks. Even with the swap out price of $15, that’s still $360 over three years, versus $170.

Connecting Your New Tank

You’ll need to purchase a kit to connect your SodaStream to your new tank, and while it’s possible to hack this together on your own, you don’t need to. You can buy the hose adapter off Amazon from a slew of vendors for under $40.

To set it up, remove the canister from your Sodastream, screw in one side of the adapter and attach the other to your new tank.

From now on, when you place a water bottle in your SodaStream, you’ll open the valve on the tank for a second or two as you push down on the SodaStream to create bubbles, then retighten it. To get a very bubbly water, you only need a quick, two-second pop of CO₂.

The water will taste slightly brighter and cleaner, and most people report preferring it. I certainly do.

You could also go to the next logical step, which is skipping the SodaStream altogether and just getting the CO₂ directly from the tank. You can order ten gallon bags of Diet Coke syrup, put in some barstools, and hire a temperamental waiter who is constantly looking for someone to pick up his shifts so he can go on call backs. Really commit.

Or, you know, just make your SodaStream a little more efficient and call it a day.