Soda Club - A MomGadget Review
Recently the whole gadget family received a Soda Club Home Soda Maker from Soda-Club 
to review. Of course having the house full of teens, we were instantly intrigued with the idea of making our own soda pop right here at home. Visions of old fashioned soda shops began dancing in my head - I could hardly wait for our mini home fountain to arrive.
The day it arrived the husband couldn’t bring himself to wait until the kids arrived home from school so we both jumped in an began testing out the newest member of our little gadget family.
At first glance it looks like it’s going to be complicated and a real pain in the butt - but looks truly are deceiving. This is the easiest gadget ever! It’s as simple as following a three step instruction process. Just be certain the bottle is attached to the fountain properly or you’ll have a mess splashed all over your kitchen. Believe me! I know!
The kids absolutely love the product! They’ve tried the orange, root beer, cola and lemon lime so far and have yet to find one they don’t like. As for me and the husband, had someone told us beforehand to get all expectations of a Pepsi, Coke or Dr. Pepper out of our minds and anticipate an different taste to the soda, we would have likely appreciated the "different" taste more. At first it was different enough that I wasn’t sure it would grow on me - so I purposely drank the soda the kids kept making more and more. After a few times of tasting a couple of my regular favorites, it does grow on you a bit.
The benefits of The Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker is:
Reduces Packaging: Reusable Bottles and Concentrated Sodamix
- No bottles or cans to recycle or throw away
- Saves thousands of containers for a family of four in a year
- Carbonating bottles last for three years
- Highly concentrated sodamix minimizes packaging
Saves Energy: No Electricity, No Batteries, No Transport Miles
- No batteries or electricity
- Reduces energy used to manufacture bottles and cans
- Reduces gas and pollution from shipping packaged beverages
- Eliminates pollution from batteries
It’s Cost Effective:
Starting at just $3.99 (as low as 33 cents per liter), each economy-sized bottle of sodamix makes 12 liters of fresh soda (equivalent to 1 1/2 cases!) Save on lugging, storage and recycling of store-bought cans and bottles.
It’s Healthier:
Soda-Club’s regular flavors contain 2/3 less sugar than regular store-bought soda. Soda-Club’s diet flavors are sweetened with Splenda® — no sugar, no aspartame. And all flavors are lower in sodium than store-bought soda.
The starter kit for making soda starts at $99.99, and includes a lot of the flavorings that you’ll want to try and is available directly from Soda-Club.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Home Center, MomGadget Reviews
14 opinions for Soda Club - A MomGadget Review
jennifer bowen
Mar 12, 2008 at 1:16 am
boy i would love to have one and well just maybe your right it may save you some money
job
Mar 12, 2008 at 2:56 pm
it would be great if I could have one and I do agree that it may save you some money
Green
Mar 12, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Beyond the health benefits doing it this way has great ecological benefits as well. Don’t forget in addition to just the cost savings there are huge environmental savings.
Laura Spencer
Mar 12, 2008 at 7:07 pm
This is a truly interesting product Gayla! I had no idea that something like this even existed.
johnrobin
Mar 18, 2008 at 5:55 pm
i wish such this product can replace any other conventional products that waste our resources.. save lots of things for our children…
L. Phipps
Apr 6, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Looks like a great product.
Aaron Dalton
Jul 4, 2008 at 10:47 pm
If you’d like another perspective, I just posted a review on Soda-Club on my site - http://1GreenProduct.com.
My conclusion is that if you drink lots of soda (which I don’t), the Soda-Club probably makes sense from both a financial and ecological perspective.
- Aaron Dalton, 1GreenProduct.com
stavos williams
Jul 31, 2008 at 3:38 am
Despite claims of being cheaper it isn’t. Even if you ignore the cost of the device, there is the costs of the carbonator refill, currently $10.80 per 60 Liters and it would take $24.95 for the syrup to make 60 Liters of soda, not counting the shipping/handling/tax for these items. It would cost approximately $44.00 for enough carbonation and syrup for 60 Liters (equivalent to 30 two Liters). 30 two Liters from most grocery stores cost $1.00 per two Liter so figure $32.00 for name brand Pepsi, Coke, etc. Ohh, I also didn’t mention that like so many other claims by other manufacturers, I would question if the carbonator and syrup will actually provide 60 Liters, because, like most marketed make-it-yourself beverages (tea, lemonade, etc) the amount of doses is usually a fraction of what it actually requires to make the drink palatable and satisfactory. So you could see an even higher cost for each Liter of soda from Soda Club…
If you understand that syrup is very cheap and restaurants make a huge markup then you realize that Soda Club is overcharging for their syrup since they are charging more for something that grocery stores charge for two Liters that involve filling the two Liter bottles, labeling, transporting, tracking, etc, and they and the manufacturer/distributor are making a profit on these bottled products - so imagine how much you’re being overcharged by Soda Club for their syrup/carbonation products that their cost to you is even more than what you pay at the grocery store for the filled product and all it’s expenses to put it on a store’s shelves.
There are of course nice pluses of not having soda going flat, not dealing with recycling, deposits and reduced sugar content but it’s unlikely Soda Clubs prices will go down but increase so your already high cost for their 60 Liters (equal to 30 two Liters) will only continue to decrease while name brand soda continues to have sales as they try to gain market share from their competitors.
I like the concept of Soda Club - I don’t like their high cost - and that’s not even including the high cost for the device nor the need to get new bottles every couple of years not to mention the question of reliability of the device.
stavos williams
Jul 31, 2008 at 3:46 am
ooops, in the next to last paragraph of my earlier comment, I mis-typed and mistakenly related that Soda Club prices would continue to “decrease” - this obviously is not the case and I meant to re-iterate that their costs would continue to “INCREASE”.
stavos williams
Jul 31, 2008 at 3:50 am
In my post above about the costs, in the next to last paragraph I mis-typed where I reiterated that Soda Clubs prices “will only continue to decrease”. Obviously, I meant “INCREASE”.
Please excuse my failure to proof read before posting it.
stavos williams
Jul 31, 2008 at 3:54 am
In the above post, in the next to last paragraph, I mistyped that Soda Club’s prices “will only continue to decrease” where as I obviously meant to say “INCREASE”.
Please excuse my failure to proof read it before posting.
Julian
Aug 3, 2008 at 12:40 pm
This type of product is for a family, not for a single like me.
stavos williams
Aug 4, 2008 at 2:32 am
Hi Julian,
Hmmm, frankly, if you look at the per Liter cost using this device it’s not for singles or families.
Apart from the high cost per Liter cost though, I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t be just as usable by single people…I mean, it’s like saying a blender or food processor is only good for a family which isn’t the case.
Steve Smith
Oct 28, 2008 at 1:14 am
Stavos is right about the claimed capacity of the canisters. I purchased a kit because I drink a ton of seltzer. The seltzer it produces is good and the convenience of not running to the store to return empties is great. But they only allow you to purchase the smaller “60 liter” canisters in the kit, so right away you can’t get the lowest production cost. And if you call customer service, they cannot explain the $.18 per liter cost they claim on their website. Worse yet, the “60 liter” canister only yielded 45 liters of seltzer (I tried three canisters) even using modest (and recommended) carbonation. Customer Service will not respond to my questions about the discrepancy in cost claims.
This could be an excellent product if the claims were accurate and you use alot of seltzer. But with the cost of the machine and replacement supplies, it takes alot of seltzer to start to see a savings and you will NEVER achieve the claimed costs.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: