35 litre Sodastream cylinders - discontinuing.

[motco]

Question from a New Boy but one who has been home brewing since before Ted Heath was Prime Minister! I am reliably informed by the makers that the above cylinders are to be discontinued soon. I am sure there are others who, like me, use an adapter on these cylinders to inject CO2 into their kegs. There is a 60 Litre alternative but with a different thread - they're variously called '5 thread' and '3 thread' I gather. Does anyone know if any manufacturer is planning to make and offer an adapter for this replacement for the old faithful Sodastream cylinder? I consulted a homebrew supplier on this and they could only suggest the 8 gram bulbs (Sparklets?) but I find these a poor substitute and the Sodastream used to have the huge advantage of being sold on most high streets.

[Kev888]

Hi,
If you just want to inject the odd burst of CO2 manually now and again, maybe the S30 cyliners would be be an alternative. I don't think they'll be compatible with your existing valve, but depending upon the design of your keg/barrel it may be possible to swap the existing valve for an s-30 thread. Certainly If its a traditional plastic pressure barrel with either a 4" or 2" screw cap you can definately get replacement caps with an s30 valve already fitted.

I'm not very clued up on the more automatic/constant type of CO2 systems, but if thats what you're after you could look at the widget world range to see if they're compatible or have any adaptors (sadly I've no direct experience with these though, so cant't say either way.

Cheers
Kev

[boingy]

There have been rumours of those cylinders being discontinued for years. Have you asked SodaStream UK directly?

http://www.sodastream.co.uk still list the 35l cylinder refills

If they are being discontinued then just buy up a few and they will last ages. I still have 6 full ones in my garage that I use for portable corny dispensing.

[motco]

There have been rumours of those cylinders being discontinued for years. Have you asked SodaStream UK directly?

http://www.sodastream.co.uk still list the 35l cylinder refills

If they are being discontinued then just buy up a few and they will last ages. I still have 6 full ones in my garage that I use for portable corny dispensing.

I have been in direct contact with Sodastream - see their reply:

The 35 litre cylinders are going to be discontinued. We have changed the thread of the cylinder to one, which is compatible with machines sold and used throughout the rest of Europe. The decision to make this switch over is driven by our concerns about waste and the environment. We have found that over the years that the unique thread that was used in the UK has caused wastage of large quantities of machines due to obsolete stocks, consumer mobility and many other reasons. The unification of the UK market with the rest of the European standard goes a long way to eliminating that waste.



Unfortunately there are no stockists of these in the Beaconsfield area. You can purchase these direct from us, please visit http://www.sodastream.co.uk for details.



As a valued SodaStream customer we would like to offer you an upgrade on your drinksmaker to one of our latest modern designs with a choice of 2 colours for a special price of £15.00.







This offer does not include gas cylinders or carbonating bottles, these can be purchased separately.



The new 3 thread 60 Litre cylinders are £18.99 each this includes £8.99 for the gas plus £10 for the User Licence fee, which is refundable when exchanging.



You can exchange your existing cylinders for the new type and receive a full or partial refund of the User Licence Fee. The refund amount depends on the type of cylinder you have.



Refunds are only applicable when exchanging cylinders. Should you wish to return unwanted cylinders for recycling no refunds are due.



The cylinders will be delivered direct to your door by courier. Using the same packing your full ones arrived in and the pre-paid label provided, send your empties back to us via your local Post Office FREE of charge (always get proof of postage). Once received back the cylinders any refunds owing to you will be credited back to the card you originally paid with.



This type of cylinder is available from Lakelands stores and Independent stores. Please call our customer care line or visit http://www.sodastream.co.uk for your nearest stockist.



Delivery Charges are –

Upto £30.00 +£3.99P&P

Over £30.00 +£2.99P&P

Over £45.00 free of charge



If you wish to upgrade please telephone the number below.

I don't know anything about S30 cylinders - I'll look into it, thanks.

[Kev888]

Yes, the S30 ones could be worth a look - I'm not necessarily saying they would be the best for you, but personally I've been using them for quite a while with my plastic pressure barrels and am very happy. I get along with them much better than the small 8g soda syphon bulbs. I only give my barrels a brief squirt of CO2 whenever the pressure starts to drop and on that basis they last me for months.

I partly use them because my local home brew shop stocks them so its easy for me - hamilton bard s30 cylinders are about £22 new but you essentially get about £16 off the next one by taking back the empty (as an equivalent to a re-fill).

You can also buy the S30 valve (for a barrel cap) for about £9. You can get 2" and 4" replacement barrel caps with the S30 valve already in for a few pounds more, though not sure how cross-brand compatible dirrerent makes of caps would be with other makes of barrel.

Cheers
kev

[Dr. Dextrin]

I can see why Sodastream would want to discontinue a cylinder that's specific to the UK, but it looks to me as if they don't actually dare do it while there are still lots of old machines in use. Hence their ploy of just saying they are going to be discontinued and hoping that'll encourage people to swap machines. Given that the machines actually last quite a long time, however, I wouldn't be surprised if the old cylinders are around for a while too.

I've just picked up a refill at Tesco and it's the same as my original cylinder which was years old. Being able to get them at Tesco for under 4 quid is quite a big advantage, so I'm planning on using them while I still can. Maybe if they keep on selling, they'll keep on getting them in? If I am forced to use a new style, I'll be looking for an adapter. Even if I have to get it specially made I reckon it'll still be cheaper buying at Tesco than paying all those delivery charges on S30 cylinders.

[boingy]

£4 is the Tesco exchange price so you are supposed to return an empty one. However, I found the Tesco staff delightfully ignorant of this fact so if you are prepared to bend the rules a little you can get yourself a few new cylinders for £4 each. There are two barcodes on the cylinder. I think one is the "yes, he returned one" barcode. In practice the checkout bod just keeps scanning both until it works, especially if you say "have you tried that barcode instead?"

Note that not all Tesco's stock the cylinders. The Peterborough Extra store definitely did last time I was in, about a year ago. They were located near the lime cordial and similar stuff.

[motco]

The Tesco in Didcot were selling off full cylinders for £1 each last week I'm told, and mine here have none at all - a sure sign that they're not carrying them anymore.
Luckily I have a half dozen anyway but I foresee a drought of gas when they run out. Because the bottles are so heavy mail order is a non-starter.

[gti1x]

And I've just acquired (through freegle) two barrels with sodastream adapters - typical.

I have just bought a brand new, but old stock cylinder from e-bay £3.99 + £4.25 P&P. I guess these'll start going up in price now.

GTI

[CrownCap]

Cheers for the heads up on this. My local shops stopped stocking them last year but I've had 2 empties lying around. Just got refills direct from Sodastream - should keep me going for a while.

[Hogarth]

Robert Dyas still do them.

[Les_Howarth]

Sodastream may have changed their mind since they are now offering refills of their 35L cylinders on their web site: http://www.sodastream.co.uk/gbretail/ca ... ers&Page=1

They charge you £12.99 for the full cylinder + courier delivery and will refund £8 for each empty cylinder you send back. Since I have 4 empty cylinders I ordered 4 and found that this meant that I qualified for free delivery! Delivery took 2 business days. I've yet to send my empties back to check that part of the process but hopelly the fact that they are now making these more readily available via their web site is a good sign...

Les

[Dr. Dextrin]

From reading that page it does sound like they're still going to be around for a bit. However the refill service looks a bit pricey to me. I don't know what the delivery charges are, but £4.99 for the refill plus delivery for cylinders going in BOTH directions is surely going to add up.

[colchesterhomebrewer]

I have been having an ongoing conversation about this with Sodastream and they are adamant that they will be phasing the 35ltr cylinders out over the next 12 months. At present, they WILL swap them out for you but you have to pay the full price for the new cylinder and then they will refund the "deposit" when you send back your empty one - if they remember to process it correctly... I am waiting for a refund on 11 that I sent back at the end of June !!!!!

The Hamb bard cylinders have an internal screw thread so that they can be screwed directly onto the outside thread of the S30 valve.

The sodastream cylinders have an external thread and need an adapter (which doesn't fit the new 60ltr cylinders and the manufacturer is currently telling Youngs (the only wholesaler of the adapter) that they are not at present thinking of re-engineering it) or one of the So-dash systems that are used with Cornie kegs, as Sodastream cylinders have the same screw thread as the Widget World bottles. This also means that, until WW decide to address any concerns they may have about the wastage element of supplying only a very specific market with a very specific product, the brass sodastream adapters happily fit the Widget World CO2 and N2/CO2 bottles.

[oh!dougal]

So, if I've got this straight, NOBODY (worldwide) markets an adapter to connect the "world-standard" Sodastream 60 bottles to anything useful?

Or is there some way of doing it with an external valve?