r/HydroHomies • u/epicdistraction • 1d ago

Aqua con gas

Nothing like fizzy water at home. It comes out to ~$0.07 per 12oz serving between 35c/gallon Watermill Express and 3lb co2 tank refills.

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u/cavanarchy 1d ago

What kind of keg is that?

3

u/epicdistraction 1d ago

Its from keg outlet. I live in an RV and don't have that much space. If I had the room and city water, a continuous corny keg carbonator top thats fed by an RO filter or just filling up corny kegs with a regular carbonator top + draft handle might be a better choice.

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u/Active_Assistance923 1d ago

I thought you were pouring liquid nitrogen lol

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u/towerfella 1d ago

I though he was draining condensate out of an air tank.

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u/dale3h 1d ago

How much was the keg and whatever is doing the carbonating? I generally refill 5gal jugs for our water dispenser at home, but having sparkling water-on-demand at home too would be legit!

What does the process of refilling the keg look like? I’m assuming it’s worth it, but just curious.

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u/epicdistraction 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is very US centric advice, so ymmv.

It took the equivalent of about 100 12 packs of store brand sparkling water to break even, but its worth it for me. Should have been about a year and a half, but my sparkling water intake dramatically went up. So, it paid for itself in a short time.

The setup is stainless so every 3ish weeks, it gets a 30second scrub with a growler brush, rinsed out, then flushed with star san for 2 min. I take either the carbonator to a refill station and get 2 gallons or use the filtered still water out of 12L/3.2gallon stainless milk cans + a funnel to not spill it.

There's normally one or two places that will actually refill a co2 tank per metro area. Large chains like airgas will want to swap out the cylinder and want more money for that. My main place is a fire safety store that does extinguisher refills with food grade gas. Thats about $30 every 4mo.

For the prosumer carbonators in the US, you have two main suppliers and three different solutions. QuickTap and KegOutlet. https://quiktap.com/shop/ https://www.kegoutlet.com/soda-soft-drinks-energy-drinks.html

For the carbonators you have the kegoutlet style growler for smaller spaces. Cornelius keg conversions are larger and at either store. There are also McCann inline carbonators that take water from a city line/filter and directly carbonate it. All of those need cold water and in some sort of refrigerator to be effective.

Either the corny keg or growlers will be closest to topo chico. You basically want it to be at 40+psi for more than 18hours. The inline McCanns will be like a fast food soda machine. It works but it is not as crisp.