Thursday, November 17, 2011

Our Hacked Sodastream

Picture sparkling water....."Perrier anyone?"...  as the guests arrive at your awesome dinner party. Could I interest you in a Scotch and soda, or perhaps a Tom Collins?   Until you have to refill Sodastreams' crazy monopolized CO2 bottles. $19.00 for a refill or $39.00 CA  for a new bottle. Well we came up with our own solution. Their Genesis machine is made of plastic cheapness...but it looks nice enough to sit on the beverage counter.




I was afraid it would be knocked over as it seemed to be quite top heavy. Our solution (expensive but a rebel against a company monopoly). We looked on-line and found CO2 Doctor. Make sure you buy pressure rated parts. Compressed gasses can be very dangerous. The parts are very pricey but the service is awesome. We bought a 20 pound CO2 tank from a local supplier.


Because hubby and son are avid paintballers, we had an abundance of 20 ounce CO2 tanks for paintball guns. We ran a hose from our Sodastream machine, through the countertop, to a paintball canister.



We cut a corner out of the shelf. The CO2 container has to be upright and not on its side. This was an easy fix. A new hole was drilled for the shelf support too.






We had to modify our cupboard and drill 2 holes into our concrete countertop.



OOOHHH I smell another blog idea coming. Anyways, as this wasn't one of our best countertops that we created, we felt it was OK to do a little digging. Yikes. The first hole is for the hose. This hole goes right through the countertop to the cupboard below. The second hole was for a bolt. It is only drilled halfway through the countertop. The bolt was epoxied in, and a hole drilled through the base of the sodastram drip tray.


A dremel tool was used to grind away the ribs to make room for the nut.



I hardly lost any cupboard space.


Now it sits firmly on the counter top with little fear of cheap plastic shards all over the floor.





I can remove it with a socket if I have to (what....CLEAN????) 

I love our new setup. Also some of our family members have purchased the Sodastream, so everyone wins (except Sodastream.)
Have a Great Day
Oonga
Sisterkins

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