Hamilton Beach Fizzini Hand-Held Carbonated Soda Maker

We love it way more than the SodaStream. It's portable, fast, and way more cost effective. It takes generic 8g cartridges and for all of you that say you bought cartridges and they don't fit, I have a fix. Don't use the door mechanism. Turn the Fizzini upside down, and wedge the cartridge right into cylinder and not in that little white housing attached to the door. It works. I bought a bunch of cartridges that are too long but I got them to work this way. Wedge it in, use the Fizzini like normal except with the door open, and then the cartridge falls out when done because the metal has contracted.

I loved the concept and the price so much that I bought one for me and send two as gifts. All 3 failed after less than 10 CO2 fills. What's worse, the manufacturer, Hamilton Beach, is denying knowledge of any batch manufacturing problem. So in my review, I recommend NOT buying this product. Hamilton Beach doesn't acknowledge a design or manufacturing problem, so they probably won't be fixing it.If you really like the price, wait until you see some consistently positive reviews before buying. If you want a soda charger now, look at other products.Amazon was great. Even though it took me slightly longer than 30 days to learn that all 3 Fizzinis had failed, Amazon extended the return window. I'm returning them for refund.Incidentally, I've used a soda syphon for years. I think it was of Austrian or German manufacture. It's wearing out, and I thought I'd try the Fizzini because it was inexpensive and I liked the Fizzini's clear bottle. The soda syphone is aluminum, so you cannot see how much liquid is left. I can judge more or less by weight, but I'd love to have a clear soda syphon. The benefit of the soda syphon seltzer bottle is that you don't open the cap and let CO2 escape each time!!! You can keep your soda carbonated at full potency for weeks or even months with a soda syphon. Depending on how quickly you use your seltzer or soda, you may wish to opt for a seltzer bottle. (Remember them from the 3 Stooges: shake hard, press the lever, and out shoots the seltzer....wish I could find a glass seltzer bottle like those of yesteryear.)

I had considered getting one of these for my mother. I thought it may be too fiddly for her, so I passed. However, I love the one that I have.I use the Fizzini to make plain carbonated water and sparkling lemonade. I bought additional bottles so that I can have both in my fridge at the same time.As long as one follows the instructions, there will be no streams of water all over the place. One issue that bears mentioning, though, is to be care with the caps and gaskets. It's important to wash the caps thoroughly. However, if you do not replace that gasket properly after washing, the bottles will slowly leak gas.The are also quite cost-effective. As the only charge for carbonated water (given that I don't pay for water) is the carbon charges, my cost is around 40 cents per liter. The lemonade increases that, but I use lemon juice and sweetener rather than a more expensive prepackaged​ mixes. This also gives me control over how sweet or tart I'd like my beverages, too.

I bought this as I was tired of transporting full bottles of Seltzer to work and empty bottles home and thought this would be a good purchase. I was wrong in that regard but have found a few pros.Pro:It is easily transportable - if it worked that would have made it amazingIt doesn't use electricity and the reusable bottle is fairly niceIt uses the same cartridges as my quick co2 for my bicycle (will get to that in a minute)Cons:1 co2 cartridge doesn't make it even to a 'sparkling water'. I usually don't like a lot of carbonation so I figured this could be ok, but even seltzer that has been left out overnight has more carbonation than what this product creates.there is a REALLY funky taste to the water after it's been in the bottle. I don't know if it's due to the water bottle or something to do with the co2 system but it was pretty much undrinkable, even after washing the bottle repetitivelyThe only plus side is that if you have a quick pump for your bicycle that takes co2 cartridges (non-threaded) you get a box of cartirdges to use. Otherwise it's a waste of money to purchase this product.

It's small and easy to use. Fill the "soda" bottle with cold water, stick in the wand, empty the Co2 canister--voila! Done.Points:1) It leaks a little during the process. No big deal. The pressure pushes out some water.2) It takes a full (but small) Co2 canister to fill up a full bottle that, by my estimation, equals two cans of sparkling water (about 24 ounces). If you're making flavored soda, which I do not, you get less product.3) Each Co2 canister costs about forty cents if you buy them from Leland (100 count), sold on this site.http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00304SLAO/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1421945550&sr=1&keywords=leland.That means you're spending about twenty cents per "can" of sparkling water. If you want to purchase flavoring, that costs more.4) You get ten canisters with the Hamilton Beach Fizzini starter package.5) I don't know if you can recycle the canisters. They are metal.6) Using the Hamilton Beach carbonator is easy. Twist the handle, shake it, remove the handle, put on the cap. The whole process, from putting in the water to carbonating it, including putting in the Co2, takes less than a minute.7) If I am not mistaken, this product has been discontinued. Worse, the bottle itself has an expiration date. I myself have a year before I have to recycle my bottle. Will I be able to buy more bottles from Hamilton Beach? I doubt it. We'll see. By then, however, I will either be bored of carbonated water, or I will upgrade to a more expensive system. This product is a GREAT starter set for those of you who want to know if bubbly water is for you.