Excellent video. If you fill a warm cartridge, the CO2 liquid will change to gas immediately and expand in the sodastream tank, reducing the amount that you can transfer. If you freeze your empty sodastream cartridge for 3-4 hours before filling, you'll get a much higher yield as the liquid CO2 will remain liquid inside the sodastream cartridge.
Echoing some of the other comments, freezing the cartridge helps a lot. Also, I used to just fill until I couldn't hear the gas running any more, but it turns out that the cartridge is still filling at that point, just much more slowly. Put your cartridge on the scale and keep it on the scale while you're filling (it can get a little tricky, since the adapter can exert pressure depending on how the hose is running), and keep the value open until the weight stops going up. I've only tried this once so far, but with the combination of that and pre-freezing, I got all the way up to 410g.
They make a hanging scale that probabaly works a lot better. Trying to keep the cylinder vertical on a scale while connected is nearly impossible. I usually put my smaller cylinder (I use a paintball gun cylinder) in the fridge for a few hours then fill it, then repeat. I've been able to get my small cylinder full this way.
Thanks for the insight. I struggled with filling but your advice to not open the large tank completely fixed this. I was able to get 1044g. Another tip I suggest, bleed your tank upside down into the hose before attaching the small cylinder so that you are filling the hose with liquid CO2 and avoiding pushing all of that volume of air or gas from the hose into the small tank before any liquid is able to pass.
I liked that yours didn't fill fully as others out there seemed to get theirs to without any explanation of how they managed it. As with you, I'm happy with a trade-off of some refill capability for a simpler process.
an alternative to pre-freezing the tank, just vent off some of your 200g fill. That will chill the tank from the inside. It costs you co2, but it will increase the quantity of CO2 you're able to get in the tank with subsequent fills! (IE, while the tank is cold, refill the vented and now chilled tank) Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the video. However, after doing this for years, even filling up the 1lbs with dry ice, I have found that without a doubt, the easiest way to do this is not filling up the small tanks. Connect your big tank directly to the sodastream, you can drill a hole if you want, or just leave the back off if you do not care how it looks. Then just tighten things up and make sure there are not leaks, and I recommend only turning on the gas until you are about to carbonate some water, and then close the valve when you are done. Very easy to set up, safer, takes far less time. Only downside is it looks bad, I just fill up 3 bottles at a time in my basement. But still, nice video.
I understand your concept. I don't care about looks either. I'm more about saving time and safety. What type of connection do you use and where did you purchase it?
@@johncollins3952 I bought the hose from Amazon. Search soda stream adapter. The guy that sells them on there makes them specifically for sodastream and has different types based on your model. He uses food grade hoses like you would find in bars or restaurants. I then purchased an empty 5lb co2 cylinder (cheaper that way). Then I went online and found a company called Airgas that sells certified food and beverage grade CO2. It costs about $5 more than normal CO2, I know people debate whether this is necessary but considering its only $5 more, and I drink a lot of seltzer and serve it to guesses, I think it's worth it. I wanted to use the company we used at my work, but they only supplied to businesses in large quantities. So you can Google Airgas or any homebrew store will have it, also some liquor stores sell food grade as well. All in all, I spend about $28.99 every 5 months.
Thank you for uploading this!! 💜 My partner was eager to fill these things himself after seeing them increase the price by 33% and I didn't think this would work but it did! Also I s2g the one he filled is heavier than the ones we buy in store (even tho he weighed it and said it's less) so I think they're lying about how much they fill these now, in addition to jacking up the price from $30 to $40 😤🤬
The fixture you use to connect and do the refill, is advertised at 3000 psi and is only 600 psi. The pressure in cylinders and connecting hose is only 800psi because that is the limit for Co2 before it gets liquid. Some people might try to use them at higher pressure... You can get away with 800 psi but you are close to danger
Great job on the video. I can't get mine filled all the way either but that may be the proprietary valve SodaStream is now using. I have heard of folks replacing them with paint ball CO2 canisters but not sure what soda maker machines they'll fit. Again, thanks for making the instructional
Very nice presentation However, many people just Eliminate the "Sodastream" bottle alltogether and connect the 5 or 10lb bottle (w/ proper fittings) to the unit.
I want to pick your brains a bit, I am going to get one of these adapters, but can you tell me the thread size of the flexipie and screw on connectors, I want to try and use the adapter without the flexipipe and join the two pieces together with quick connectors so I don't lose as much gas when opening the vent valve.
anton you don't happen to be in northern cali area? i want to do this but i'm kind of scared...i wish there was a class we could take...i hate giving soda stream my money for basically air.
I bought the brass fitting that screws onto the C02 tank and the soda stream tank screws into the fitting. Seems I was supposed to get the threaded post that screws into the threaded hole inside the fitting which is there to depress the small button valve on the end of the Soda Stream fitting. I wish someone could tell me where to find that threaded post / peg.
Thanks for sharing this video. I git the setup, and followed your instructions to open the valve slowly and only halfway or so, but still the SodaStream can is nor filling... nothing is going into it. Maybe somehow the "lock" mechanism was locked. Does that mean I cannot attempt to fill this particular tank? Any way to release the lock?
Probably guy's tank had a siphon tube. It's a brass tube which goes from valve to very bottom of the tank. It allows to get liquid from the bottom of the tank. If he didn't have a siphon tube in his tank, he still could fill his soda stream cartridge, it just would not be a good fill, as cartridge would be filled with gas CO2 (as opposed to a liquid one). I hope it helps.
@@JimmyBamis Under atmospheric pressure CO2 cannot exist in liquid form - only as gas or solid. (hence the name - dry ice). So the moment your liquid CO2 leaves a pressurized tank it turns into gas and gives you fizzy drink.
"Make sure everything is closed, then make sure everything is closed, check to make sure everything is closed, and then make sure everything is closed........"😳
