My roommates and I love Pepsi, but we hate spending money. We’ve been musing about getting a soda fountain so we don’t have to buy canned soda; since we go through it like popcorn, I figure it might be cheaper to make it ourselves. But we don’t know how to go about it, or even how much we would have to drink to offset the cost.
How much do these things cost? Can they be bought or only rented?
What about the syrup and CO[sub]2[/sub]? How much do they cost and how many gallons are they good for?
Are there models that don’t require drilling through the counter?
I know this isn’t very helpful, but my friend’s dad found a soda machine at a junkyard, so it didn’t cost him much at all. He did have to drill his countertop, but he’s really glad he did it. CO2 + coke syrup <<<<< buying coke.
The fountain is the biggest expense, from what I remember.
Like the poster before me, I too had a childhood friend who’s father set up a soda fountain in his basement. He bought the thing at a garage sale.
Considering how frugal this guy was with everything else in his life (They lived in a mansion, I might add. Very odd, but true) I can’t imagine he paid much for it.
The supplies themselves are dirt cheap. It’s something like a penny per serving for the syrup and a nickle at most for the Co2. You need to go to the supplier direct, as opposed to having them come out and service it for you, however. But if you have one near you, you’re in luck.
Anyrate, since the supplies were so cheap, from what I remember, the big deal was the dispensor.
I’d check the local paper or e-bay for a cheap fountain and make sure my local botteler (sp?) is willing to fill single units. If it all checks out, you got yourself some cheapo soda.
I checked on google. It looks like you have to call your local Pepsi distributor.
It should be inexpensive because I stayed at a really crappy place that had a machine. They only had two flavors though, Diet 7UP and some wierd “mystery” flavor(I think it was Fresca.)
Maybe it might be easier to go to Costco or a (wholesale discount warehouse) and buy a pallat of Pepsi. It would cost you like a hundred bucks but it is only $5 per case(24 cans). But then you would lose the mystique of the fountain. If you do get a machine you should try to get the one like they have at Taco Time. They have the bomb ice.
I do love the Internet. First I checked Google for “soda fountain”, which brought up nothing but hits for antique soda fountains. Then I asked the Better Half, who is sitting here in the dining room drinking coffee, “What are those things called that you get your pop out of at Burger King? If it’s not a soda fountain, then what is it?” He promptly said, “Drinks dispensers.”
So I looked up “drinks dispensers” and got a lot of hits for office coffee machines and homemade gadgets that fit over the top of a 2-liter pop bottle. My increasing frustration slowly penetrated the other side of the dining room. “What do you want to know for?” was the curious question. I told him, “Somebody in GQ wants one.”
He said, “All he has to do is call his local Pepsi distributor and get one, costs about $5,000. Look it up in the phone book.” I said, “What if you don’t want Pepsi? I know you can get those little bar units for your home.” He said, “No, I think you have to go through a distributor. There’s no market, for one thing.”
But I persevered in the face of scorn and contumely (“it’s just a trivia question on the Internet, you know”), and ultimately “soda dispenser” proved to be the magic words.
I think I heard something about the 5 gallon syrup kegs being replaced by heavy cardboard boxes with plastic bladders, don’t know if they’ll be backwards compatible.
You don’t need a whole soda fountain, you just need a soda siphon. You know those bottle spritzers most commonly seen shooting a stream of soda into someone’s face in old slapstick comedies like the Three Stooges? That’s a soda siphon. Here’s a good example: http://www.123espresso.com/classodsip08.html
You can put any liquid into a soda siphon, when you insert the CO2 cartridge it pressurizes and the liquid becomes carbonated. Even water will become soda water. I have a siphon, my favorite is sparkling apple juice.