Soda Stream Adaptor

[Hoops]

After a bit of running around I too swapped 5 old steel cylinders for 5 new shiny aluminium ones. Woolworths certainly don't seem to have a problem swapping them.
Even if you're filling them yourself I'm leaning towards the Aly ones as they hold more and are in brand new condition.

There are 2 soda stream adaptors remaining.

Hoops

 

[Plastic Man]

Hoops

The new ones don't seem to have the "purge" valve that the old steel ones do. Is this a problem if you want to fill them yourself. I'm holding onto an old steel one for thsi reason just in case I want to start filling them later - but if it's no advantage having this I'll try and trade it in.

Cheers - Richard

PS - adaptor works great !! Thanks !!

 

[Hoops]

I don't think it would be a problem, if you want more gas just cool the cylinder down so there's a lower pressure and it will "suck" more gas in.

 

[Tony M]

I put my ally cylinders in the freezer for 1/2hr. and my big bottle in the sun for a while that way I get about 250 grams CO2 into the little one and thats enough.

 

[Hoops]

If you wanted to get more in you could put them back in the freezer and then top them up again.
But really 250g is enough anyway.

 

[Tim]

Hoops, Tony M,
If possible can one of you guys write an article on refilling the soda stream bottles? and how you guys do it and what bits of kit you have fabricated to allow safe transfer?
thanks
Tim

 

[Plastic Man]

I'd also love to see a detailed description if you guys have the time to detail it.

Photo's would be nice - though I know I'm pushing the friendship !!!

cheers - Richard.

 

[Tony M]

This is the gadget I made up out of bits in the junk box. I will find loading the foto more difficult than making the kludge shewn.
Going from left to right we have

1. !/2" BSP nipple.
2. 1/2" to 1/4" reducing bush.
3. 1/4 to1/2 thingo
4. A bit cut off a 3/8" bolt
5. Another 1/2" nipple
6. Not in the foto but you need sealing washers betweenthe gas bottles at each end. Those blue (orange) polyurethane washers that go between the garden tap and the hose are a good source except the the head gardener gets shitty 'cause her tap leaks.
The bit of cut off bolt is the only tricky bit as you must grind one end to a taper and hacksaw a screwdriver slot in the other then use your hacksaw to cut a shallow groove down the long axis to give the gas a route thru the thread.
The final step before assembly is to run a 3/8" tap thru the 1/4 to 1/2" reducing thingo.
Assembly.
Screw 4 into 3 then 3 into 5. The pointy end of 4 should be flush with the end of 3.
Fit a seal into 5 and screw firmly onto soda stream (A tad more than fingertite should be enough)
Get a screwdriver and screw 4 into the bottle until the gas starts to escape and back off a turn
Remove the assy and put the turn back then assemble the lot
Dont forget the seal at (1). I found I had to cut a few mil of (1) to get the seal to seat.
Its not rocket science and you can buy all the bits including the tap for $20.00.
One other thing. A 3/8 bolt (9.5mm) is as big as you can go with this configuration as 10mm.(the metric equivalent) does not leave enough meat in the skinny end of item (3)

One other thing. This suits my supply bottle. There are other threads out there so you must check your bottle

 

[dreamboat]

Nice info Tony.

Full credit.




dreamboat

 

[Plastic Man]

Yeah - thanks Tony. Much appreciated. A fair bit of time and effort went into that one, (and the pic download !!)

A few questions if anyones keen the answer:

In terms of filling it - I take it from the posts above that you try and get the soda stream bottle as cold as possible, in freezer, connect to large bottle, and the pressure between the two equalises and you disconnect. As the temp of the soda stream comes up the gas expands and you get more pressure than if the tank was the "warm" ???

Im assuming the large gas bottle is kept upright so you are just filling with gas from the headspace ?? as opposed to the liquid CO2

Is this the reason why you see a lot of people who use soda streams seem to have them lying flat because there is no liquid in the bottle just gas ?? so therefore no liquid to flow into the reg ??

If it is just gas and no liquid then is the small bottle just used for keeping serving pressure rather than carbonation say at partys ??

Or am I totally off track???

Thanks Richard.

 

[Batz]

No
You want to invert the supply bottle , you want liquid ( well as much as possiable ) not gas in you recieving bottle.
Otherwise the volume of CO2 you put in the bottle will be pittance

Batz

 

[ausdb]

I don't want to sound like I am trying to teach people to suck eggs but If you are refilling cylinders of CO2 then you should be doing it by weight as CO2 is filled as a liquid as Batz has pointed out. If you put more liquid CO2 in the cylinder than it is designed for then you will decrease the headspace in the cylinder and the hydrostatic pressure in the cylinder is going to rise as the ambient temp increases. If it gets too high then things could get ugly real quickly!

This page explains it pretty well
http://www.catalinacylinders.com/co2pbofill.html

Cheers
Ausdb

 

[Tim]

Tony,
I already have a soda stream adapter, can i just put a 1/2" BSP nipple on the end of the adaptor?

 

[Plastic Man]

After reading AUSDB's post I'm beiinning to think that the $11 K-Mart fill is cheap insurance.

 

[GMK]

PM

I am with you on the K-Mart fill cheap insurance option.
Specially when u have kids around - never know what might happen.

 

[Tony M]

Tony,
I already have a soda stream adapter, can i just put a 1/2" BSP nipple on the end of the adaptor?

[post="49254"][/post]​

Tim,
I cant answer this. The supply bottle I use accepts a 1/2" BSP nipple but I know there other threads out there. I know that the thread on a CIG bottle is different (same pitch but 0.8mm bigger dia.).

 

[Tim]

Thanks Tony,
I might just stick with Richard and use the $11 Kmart option.
I have a Air Liquide 6kg bottle anyway, just like having the Soda stream for bbq's etc.
Cheers

 

[Ross]

6 party kegs dispensed for $11 total - You gotta dispense a lot of party kegs to make it worth while refilling yourself...

Good luck to those that do, but IMHO it ain't worth the bother...

 

[Hoops]

Sorry for the delay in replying, still haven't got the internet at home and it takes about 30min to load a page up at work :angry:

Good info on the filling of the bottles. For interest sake if you don't invert the "donor bottle" when filling you get around 60g into the SS bottle. You can then put it in the freezer and top up with another 60g but obviously you will need to do that 5-6 times to fill a bottle so inverting the bottle to fill with liquid is the way to go.

The 5 sodastream adaptors are all spoken for but I will put up a post when I get more done in a week or two.

Hoops

 

[tonydav]

Hoops, when you've got more adapters made up I'd be intersted in one. Sick of lugging the 10kg bottle to the Jinabyne each new year!

tony