Spärkel Beverage System | White Sparkling Water Maker | No CO2 Tank Needed | Carbonated Water Machine that Uses Fresh, Natural Ingredients | Soda Streaming Machine | 5 Unique Carbonation Levels

My boyfriend and I love our sparkel. It’s easy to use and does everything we need. I also like that I can infuse the water with fruits or veggies overnight before carbonating, since this machine allows flavorings and other additions in the bottle when adding the fizz. We have been using it multiple times a day since late October and haven’t had any issues.Longer review:When we both started to work from home in March 2020, my boyfriend and I noticed we were going through a lot of cans of sparkling water, and started to feel pretty bad about all of the cans we were recycling each week. I researched sparkling water machines, and was hoping to find a solution without CO2 cartridges. I’m so happy I found Sparkel.We started out with one machine and 2 bottles, and ended up upgrading to get 4 additional bottles. We keep all of the bottles filled with water chilling in the fridge (both pre and post carbonation). Sometimes we carbonate all 6 bottles and sometimes we carbonate on demand, it just depends on the day.Our tips:* Buy powders in bulk: I wasn’t a fan of throwing away the empty plastic sachets that were used to hold the powders each time I carbonated a bottle, so based on other reviews I switched to bulk bags of baking powder and citric acid. For ease of access I keep a mason jar filled with each by our machine. (See photo)* 2 tsp (10 ml) each: I measured one of each sachet that came with my initial order, and it came out to roughly 2.5 tsp of each one. However, Based on the waste water coming out after the carbonation, it looked like I might be able to reduce the amount and now use 2 tsp of each and haven’t noticed a difference. (Note: I live at 5,400 ft above sea level and use setting 4). I ended up buying a 10 ml coffee scoop from Amazon (shown in photo) which is super convenient. Now I just do a single scoop each of baking soda and citric acid. (Part of the reason I switched to 2 tsp instead of 2.5 was because I could only find a 2 tsp scoop and I only wanted to do one scoop of each powder)* funnel: I had a little metal funnel I got for refilling spice jars that fits the sparkel machine very nicely (also shown in my photo). After a few weeks I had noticed that it was hard to pour the powders exactly in the hole, and if there was any residual moisture from recent carbonation then I would get build up of crystallized powder around the opening (which is a little annoying to remove, but does dissolve with water and scrubbing). I prefer to use the funnel which greatly reduces buildup (especially since other household members are perhaps a little messy at adding powder !) I still get some buildup on the funnel but find that it’s so easy to clean by just running some hot water over it for a few seconds.* setting 4: My boyfriend and I both like pretty fizzy water, so we started out using setting 5. I don’t know how much is due to our elevation (5,400 ft above sea level) but we had to carefully release pressure from the top valve for quite awhile before opening a bottle, otherwise it would explode everywhere. We eventually realized that setting 4 was more convenient and still hits the spot. I can typically do just one quick tap of the release valve and then the bottle is ready to open. (Occasionally, depending on the mix-ins, I need to do a slightly longer release, but it’s still way better than setting 5).* If the “waste water” leftover from carbonation drips when you’re emptying the reservoir (or overflows because you forgot to check and empty it after making several bottles) my water usually has some excess baking soda or citric acid which will leave behind a white residue if you don’t wipe it up right away. Just something to be aware of when you decide where to plug-in your machine. It’s not hard to clean the residue if it does build up.Favorite mix-ins:* My go to is four slices of cucumber per bottle. If I’m feeling fancy, I might also add in ginger and or mint leaves that I crush/rub right before I put them in. It’s much better if they have a chance to sit for a few hours... if I put the slices in right before carbonation and drink it right away the taste is very faint. Overnight works well, but even a few hours is fine.* I also had great success with a jug of apple cider we got from a local farm this fall. I carbonated a few bottles over thanksgiving, and it felt like Martinellis :)On a final note, if you add fruits, veggies or herbs I think the carbonation process looks pretty cool. The backlighting makes it look almost like a lava lamp with food swirling around inside, lol.

I've only had the Sparkel for a month but I'm am enjoying it tremendously. I've been in the market for an at home soda maker and naturally assumed it would be a Soda Stream. But I knew I would not like the whole CO2 refill thing. I have no idea where I can get a refill in my city and to buy a new one every time looked to get pricey. Not to mention it would be inconvenient if I was really wanting soda and I suddenly ran out of CO2. While browsing online, the Sparkel was suggested to me. I blew it off at first because it was so different compared to Soda Stream and it's competitors. When I finally decided I did not want to deal with the CO2 refill bottle situation, I decided to give Sparkel a look. I liked the idea of how it made it's own CO2 gas on demand mixing the two harmless powders. I liked how I have control of the number of bottles of soda I can make - as long as I have chemicals, I can make soda. No guessing how much CO2 I have left in a bottle. There's some other cool things Sparkel can do that the other soda makers can't like infuse fruit. So I got the Sparkel and am very impressed and happy so far.Two things I will address that I saw in some of the other reviews:Bubbles not like the Soda Stream models: This may be true. But is not an issue for me. I don't like huge bubbles like in regular soda so the highest level I've gone on Sparkel is 3. I've notice the soda has a nice foamy "head" like champagne. There are decent size bubbles that are just right for my taste and doesn't cause a big sting going down the throat like bigger bubbles. I would imagine the higher levels 4 & 5 probably would generate larger bubbles for those desiring it.Leaking out the bottom - In the short month I had Sparkel, I experienced the leaking one day. My heart sank as I thought my homemade soda experiment ended as quickly as it started. Not wanting to give up so quickly, I went to Sparkel's troubleshooting page. It was more helpful then I expected. It turnout to be the little o-ring on the bottom. On my machine, it somehow got out of place. Sparkel offers to send a replacement if the o-ring is broken. Mine was just off a little and I was able to gentle coax it back in place with a butter knife. I ran the machine again and there was no problem. It's been leak free ever since. I now always check that o-ring before placing the bottle in the machine.Happy soda making!