Ditch your overpriced Sodastream cannisters in favor of refillable CO2 tanks

[nickpheas]

I was going to ask that very question. Coming up on 20 years diving, never come across a use for CO2.

[jerwin]

He means “high partial pressure.” Geez!

[shaddack]

@jerwin

He means “high partial pressure.” Geez!

Related concepts, somewhat.

High partial pressure at atmospheric pressure will somewhat work.

High absolute pressure of nearly pure CO2 will work way better.

[FunkDaddy]

@AcerPlatanoides

There are no ‘food grade procedures’ for air. It’s air, not Polonium.

I would like to know your source for food grade Polonium for a recipe I wish to serve a dear friend. Uh, No. It’s uh for a friend, not me, I meant to say. I mean to say…uh…uh…Wrong Number! Stop Calling Here!

[L_Mariachi]

Underwater paintball.

[Tetsuro_Shigematsu]

Hey Ben, nice Tiki tap! BTW. if by “in Canada” you happen to mean Vancouver, I’d love to know which welding supply shop you used. I’m looking for a place to refill a CO2 tank. Thanks!

[Purplecat]

@japhroaig

I found two dozen or so latents, but not the one I’m thinking of.

Here’s the original widget patent. If it was related to that , it should come up in the cross-referencing links.

[L_Mariachi]

@ben_ehlers

The food-grade thing is bollocks, by the way. The whole point of selling stuff like compressed gasses is to get it as pure as possible, anyway.

Not quite. Nitrous oxide that isn’t labeled food-grade (ETA or medical-grade,) e.g. for automotive racing applications, has sulfur dioxide added to discourage recreational use. Similarly, CNG and propane have odorous additives so leaks can be smelled. (TIL commercial propane is usually only 60-90% propane, the rest being other hydrocarbons and odorant.)

[L_Mariachi]

I’m very surprised that you can’t find a Manhattan Special analogue in Japan. Asian grocery stores here have all sorts of strange little cold canned coffee beverages, are none of them carbonated? (N.b. I lived near the Manhattan Special plant for a few years.)

[shaddack]

@L_Mariachi

Nitrous oxide that isn’t labeled food-grade, e.g. for automotive racing applications, has sulfur dioxide added to discourage recreational use.

So because of some politicos that insist that we cannot have nice things we get stuff that is unnecessarily corrosive, and that has to be cleaned by bubbling it through an alkaline sorbent solution and then drying the gas. (Would a column with solid but wetted sodium hydroxide pellets/drain cleaner work? Would reduce the carryover of aerosolized solution.)

[StVincent]

@L_Mariachi

Nitrous oxide that isn’t labeled food-grade (ETA or medical-grade,) e.g. for automotive racing applications, has sulfur dioxide added to discourage recreational use. Similarly, CNG and propane have odorous additives so leaks can be smelled. (TIL commercial propane is usually only 60-90% propane, the rest being other hydrocarbons and odorant.)

Fair enough, but there is a difference between a well-documented and clearly labeled additive and ambiguous hand-waving over possible impurities.

[Israel_B]

In the last few years, Suntory & Asahi have both tried to market a carbonated coffee drink and in both cases they were just horrid. Neither came close to the super carbonated, super sweet taste of Manhattan Special.

[ejconrad]

@omems

I’m a fan of edible experiments. Always gets me in trouble in when working with mice

Good idea.

- YouTube

[AlexG55]

I’ve read that the particular odorant added to natural gas (ethyl mercaptan, also emitted by rotting animal carcasses) is used partly because it attracts vultures, so pipeline leaks can be found by looking for the vultures.

[SteampunkBanana]

Trees called, they were all “I say the same thing about O2!”

[anon26940528]

@nathanmarius

The whole “factory in the Occupied Territories” thing was a difficult issue.

@micah

Yeah, the politics are complicated,

@Abiatha_Swelter

I have to (mildly) defend Sodastream.

Scared to step on some toes? I’m not. It’s a violation of international law, it’s at least as exploitative as other labor practices we all condemn here on BoingBoing on the regular. Hiring ~75 workers and then systematically exploiting them and engaging in pointless shenanigans over whether they can bring food on site to observe religious beliefs is hardly benevolent. If they wanted to engage in ethical production, they could have stayed out of the occupied territories (again, a small matter of international law, which hasn’t stopped egregious and fraudulent labeling as “Made in Israel”) and produced in Israel. By this standard we should praise all shitty minimum wage labor in this country since it does technically keep people from being destitute. Yes, people in those jobs don’t want to lose them if they don’t have better options, but it’s not complicated: The economics of the West Bank are heavily attributable to the occupation. If the Israelis and their companies want to be the good guys, then they can stop occupying that land.

In other words, just because you already bought a SodaStream, doesn’t mean the issue gets murky so you don’t have to feel bad about it.

[anon26940528]

@shaddack

What about using a pressure vessel with a wide mouth and refill it with pieces of dry ice, then screw it closed? Dry ice may be more available at some places than a liquid CO2 refill. Then it will be usable as a conventionally filled CO2 vessel. (Beware of the metallurgy used for the vessel - low temperatures may make some alloys brittle and prone to fail.)

I’m probably going to forget before my next grocery trip, but I’m trying this. Maybe an aluminum coke bottle will provide a suitable vessel: Already designed for high pressure, aluminum fairs well at low temperatures, and if it fails, it’ll probably just burst a seam rather than send high-velocity shards everywhere.

[ChickieD]

I been on Long Island now for 9 years and even though the Egg Cream is a local delicacy, I just can’t bring myself to try it. It sounds super GROSS.

[TobinL]

Oh I am totally with you on that. Seltzer+Milk, nothanksiwillpass. MrsTobinL loves them though so I know how to make them.

[anon33466019]

Wait, is it just seltzer and milk, or is there also egg in it? Also, sugar, or is it savory?