I've had my Sparkel machine for a short time but I love it already. Within just a minute or two I have fresh bubbly water any time I want. The packets are easy to use and the results are great. I am mostly using mine on a setting of 3 and find that to be the right amount of bubbles for my liking. I have even tried a lime and strawberry blend and that was fantastic. Great machine. I'm using it daily.

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!

One of the best products that have been tried and benefited from...effective, easy, elegant, and completely different from devices that use cylinders.I highly recommend it.

The best way to get hydrated👍🏻

I have updated my original review about a year after my purchase (see below). First, my original review (from April 2022):----------------------------------This is my first soda maker--I bought it since I drink a lot of sparkling water and hated the number of plastic and glass bottles that piled up in my recycling bin every week. Such a waste of natural resources (even if recycled). The Sparkel caught my eyes since since doesn't requires a CO₂ cartridge, using a mix of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid to make the required bubbles.So far it's worked well. It takes longer to carbonize a bottle with the Sparkel than with a soda stream, but for the average consumer that would not be an issue. Given the fact that carbonation doesn't require the insertion of any parts of the machine, drinks can be flavored prior to carbonation (which is not recommended for conventional soda streams). It's definitely a good idea to get a pack of replacement bottles right away since one bottle won't et you very far (and you might want to have another cold and ready in the fridge when the other one is empty). Sealed bottles seem to hold their carbonation very well (I have kept unopened bottles for several days without noticing any decrease in carbonation. A pressure valve on top of each bottle allows to retain pressure inside while making is easier to open the bottles.My one big complaint about the Sparkel system related to the fact that the powders that are required to make CO₂ gas come in little individual plastic sachets, which creates additional plastic waste--annoying if you if you bought this machine out of concerns for the environment (and the price for each double pack, between .5 - 1 $ depending on the number of packs you order, is considerable ). The manufacturer warns against the use of generic replacements, but in the end they are identified on each pack as sodium-bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid--both of which can be bought as bulk (you can weigh it out for yourself--13 grams in each pack, and there are YouTube channels that can guide you on how to do it). I have mixed my own powders with no ill effect to the soda maker and no difference in taste. If Sparkel wants to tout environmental friendliness it needs to come up with a better packing system--may be by offering bulk packages with tailored measuring cups.But that's my only complaint (or suggestion for improvement). So far, this acquisition has been quite a success. My favorite carbonized drink (aside from just sparkling water) is carbonized cold hibiscus tea--not only tasty but also looking great with its bubbles and red color.----------------------------------update (March 9, 2023):I have now had my Sparkel for almost a year, so it seems timely to update my review.All in all the unit continues to work fine. I have had few problems with it--occasionally I had leakages from bottles when the seal was not properly inserted within either top or bottom lid. But those are problems that are easily fixable.Maintenance has not been much of an issue. The fallout mix of the two powders will build up a crust if spilled. It's a good idea to wipe the unit down thoroughly with a wet cloth (vinegar also helps with the with the removal of the build-up) but otherwise there hasn't been much a need for cleaning procedures.No issues with taste either --it has remained crisp and clean (more qualifying comments about this below s.v. "mix your own carbonator")- positives: the advantages that I hoped for a year ago have essentially held up:• cost: a little math here. The unit itself and four extra bottles cost me CAD 271.17. The combined cost of the two powders for each bottle amount to 21 cent. The cheapest bottles of generic non-brand 750 ml sparkling water that I can currently spot in any supermarket amounts to about 75 cent. Mathematically, to recuperate the cost of the unit and ingredients (excluding electricity and water), I had to fill 542 bottles of home sparkling water. With an average consumption of about two bottles per day I broke even after 271 days. After a year, I will have saved CAD 127. Next year (assuming no costs other than the two powders) will be CAD 383. Not as dramatic as I had thought but still noticeable.• bulk/trash: this is the most noticeable effect. Thinking of the weight of a box of sparking, and the amount of trash that it creates in glass or plastic bottles. over a year I easily would have added 700 - 750 empty bottles to landfulls. Instead, I have been filling the same five bottles for over a year. My pile of weekly recyclables has shrunk considerably. While Sparkel may get a modest plus on cost saving it gets a qualified big plus on avoiding wasteful packaging (but see below).- negative:• sachets: my one big criticism of Sparkel is its propagation of the powder sachets for carbonation. They are not cheap even if bought in bulk (I didn't do the math again there is almost no real saving over buying bottled water if you use them). But more to the point, these empty little sachets are plastic scraps that will just end up on landfills and add to the garbage problems that we already have. And totally unnecessarily so--you can very easily order both powders in bulk and mix your own carbonator as needed, thus saving a lot of money and even more wasteful packaging.- Suggestion:• mix your own carbonator: it's easy. You can find instructions on Youtube how to do it, but they are almost not necessary. The ingredients are sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid. You can order them bulk on Amazon or get them elsewhere. Although you won't be ingesting them directly it's best to buy both of them food grade (I use Yogti's products, available on Amazon, but there is quite a bit of choice). Sodium bicarbonate tends to be finer in grain than citric acid (which looks but definitely doesn't taste like refined sugar), so I wouldn't go by tradition kitchen measures like "one spoonful of each." It's better to weigh them out on a kitchen scale--13 grams of each. Important: it is a good idea to mix them thoroughly before you pour them into the machine (I had a few bad experiences when I poured them in separately--I think that the water first interacted with the citric acid, which created a very sour taste in the end product). But don't store them as a mix-- the two powders, once mixed, will react with whatever humidity they are exposed to and become lumpy. Keep them separate and mix as needed.• April 18, 2023: I just red through the warnings on Sparkel's website against mixing your own carbonator. Had I read those first I might never have tried it myself since they make it sound as if the world (or at least the machine) were to come apart if you use your own mix. But I didn't, it's been a year and ... well, nothing terrible has happened. I understand that the company has to wash its hands off any liability caused by home-made mixes, given that they can't control what people are putting into those. But let's be honest: mixing carbonator isn't exactly rocket science. The labels on the sachets sold by Sparkel state that they contain sodium bicarbonate and citric acid--and nothing else. The comparison of the way in which household sodium bicarbonate and their own "special" version pour down a surface looks dramatic but ultimately proves nothing. Let's face it--if very minute details in the mixture were to severely impact the function and lifetime of the machine then the would be all the more reason to weigh out the ingredients on a digital scale before pouring them in into the carbonation chamber, as opposed to pouring them out of sachet (with God-know-how many grains of powder remaining in each one of them).But I think that it's fair, given Sparkel's "void warranty" warnings when using home-made carbonators, to add a "try this at your own risk" warning to my recommendation.

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.

- comes with a free convertor changing 120 V to 220 V- easy to operate : open sachets and drop content in reservoir.- safe- no handling of CO2 bottles- not limited to just water. Easy to experiment with any syrup or tea or even pieces of fruit in the bottle.- 5 different levels of CO2. For everyone's liking.- No noise : very quite appliance. visual attractive to see bubble forming.