A five pound co2 tank will push ~200 gallons of carbonated liquid at 8-12 psi at 46f (I seem to recall). It will force carbonate 50-60 gallons. A refill at your local airgas (which really is an exchange, not a refill, so donât give them your nice new shiny canister) costs like a nickel.
I would be concerned about Benzine and other chemicals that might be used in the tanks at a paint ball place.
Where as home brew places and the soda stream use âfood gradeâ procedures in filling the tanks.
that smell at the paint ball place is fish oil. Not benzene.
There are no âfood grade proceduresâ for air. Itâs air, not Polonium.
And I canât even imagine how anyone even begins to worry about lead in their compressed CO2. Thatâs unpossible,.
a nice guy at the local Airgas who knows where you should go.
That is true. The folks at airgas know their business. But if you need artisanal CO2, stick with the sodastream folks.
Eh, I think there is. Maybe not for the big bulk tanks. I think those you order are same whether itâs for your paintball tanks or the your Coke machine.
But the small 12 grams I know come in different grades. The small ones you use for something you are going to ingest is pure C02. The stuff from like Crossman for pellet guns or paintball guns have an oily lubricant.
Holy hell how much soda water can you drink? Itâs 69c a liter or 69c for two liters. If thatâs busting the budget, youâre going to swell up into a balloon and float away!
Maybe dumb question: why would a SCUBA shop sell CO2? Isnât that something you generally want to avoid in air mixtures?
I have to (mildly) defend Sodastream. On the occupied territories issue, I heard an interview at the time with some of their Palestinian employees who were happy to have jobs there. And on the âonly we can refill the tanksâ issue, Iâm even more sympatheticâif one of those was overfilled or damaged in refilling and it caused injury, the headlines would be âSodastream blows upâ and that would be the end of the company. I used to have a TwistânâSparkle from Isi, and it was recalled http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/06/isi-twist-n-sparkle-recall_n_1654399.html and I feel pretty confident in saying that it was probably from people misusing it (overfilling, probably with something other than water). I love my Sodastream Penguin, and Iâm going to keep getting the refill bottles from themâŚ(I did see an adapter configuration to attach it to a huge tank which tempted me, but I donât think my wife will go for a 20 lb propane-size CO2 tank on the counter).
I drink a few glasses a day so does my husband. Itâs just easier to have a soda stream and make it on demand and not have to move bottles from the store to the recycle bin. One canister for 15 dollars makes 60 liters of soda.
So thatâs 41 dollars.
Actually we get a little bit less than that because I tend to make it extra bubbly.
Has anyone carbonated milk? Hersheyâs syrup? Soup? Coffee? House paint? Liquor? Can every liquid be carbonated? Mercury? Gasoline? Things to youtube laterâŚ
We bought an adapter plus a 20lb tank, which you trade out at a liquor store. The tank can be filled once a year.
Tank gets secured inside a cabinet, and a 1/4 hole was drilled in the cabinetry between the cabinet and the fridge for the gas line.
Milk + soda stream is⌠Messy.
Have you never heard of an Egg Cream? Admittedly it isnât carbonated milk but it is a fizzy chocolate milk drink.
Glasses? We drink on average 2L a day. And thatâs not counting the water I drink at the office (where I also have a soda stream).
Word to the wise; Donât exchange your empties at Williams & Sonoma they charge as much for an exchange as other places charge for an extra cannister. I was so offended I demanded my empties back! LOL
The whole âfactory in the Occupied Territoriesâ thing was a difficult issue.
On the one hand, you had a few hundred Palestinians gainfully employed with far better working conditions and wages than any other job in the area, all of whom lost their jobs when Sodastreamâs West Bank plant was forced to close by the boycott. The factory also promoted day-to-day interactions between Israelis and West Bank Palestinians, which are desperately needed if the two sides are ever to recognize each other as fellow human beings who can live together in peace.
On the other hand, itâs a pretty clear violation of international law for an occupying power to build civilian factories in occupied territory, and Sodastreamâs motivation for locating their factory where they did wasnât to promote peace and goodwill between Israelis and Palestinians, but to make more money thanks to (right-wing sponsored) government incentives and lower labor costs. In other words, itâs about as clear an example as exists of profiting from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and while Iâm generally against BDS (boycott/divestment/sanctions) when it comes to Israel, itâs hard for me to say that the boycott of Sodastream was unjust, even if it did ultimately hurt the Palestinian workers the most.
There certainly are. The big concern is that only food-grade lubricants are used in the compressor.
Buy your CO2 at a brew shop.
My brother is a homebrewer, and he uses big CO2 tanks to add some additional carbonation to the beer he brews. He also has one set up to carbonate plain water, which is very nice when youâre looking for something to mix with your ScotchâŚ
Or carbonate the scotch directly, no need to water it down 
(Heresy, I imagineâŚ)
Food grade is actually a lesser standard for CO2; welders are more sensitive to impurities.
Youâd be surprised. My wife insists on drinking only carbonated beverages. (Outside of milk and wine, but she tends to add soda to her white wine too.) Itâs ridiculous how it adds upâwith just one person in the house drinking that way. Aside from the cost thereâs also the general nuisance of having to lug around the cans and bottles AND the subsequent recycling of cans and bottles.
