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The Best Soda Makers to Buy in 2024: Get the Best Bubbly With These Top-Rated Machines

Salma November 5, 2024

0 0 7 minutes read

The Best Soda Makers to Buy in 2024: Get the Best Bubbly With These Top-Rated Machines

$100 at Amazon

The best soda maker overall

SodaStream Terra

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$100 at Target

It is much better to do more than just clear water

Ninja Thirst drink system

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$229 at Amazon

A very stylish soda water maker

Aarke III Carbonator

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$163 at Amazon

Best soda water maker with glass carafe

SodaStream Aqua Fizz

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CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter of the technology.

SodaStream Terra soda water maker with water bottles and glass — SodaStream

A soda maker is a great investment if you’re looking to reduce or eliminate regular soda from your diet. Most people know the benefits of drinking more water and less soda, but there’s nothing wrong with having a soda every now and then. That said, if you want to jazz up your water intake, we’ve put together a list of the best soda makers around. Making your own soda at home is not only a way to save you from making a trip to the store or buying more soda than you really need, but it’s also an eco-friendly way. With the right soda machine, you can have a drink as good as the brand name stuff or make a few adjustments to make it taste just the way you like it.

Not only is a soda maker a great way to get creative, but it can also save you a little money — something we can all talk about. Soda makers work by adding carbonation to many drinks, allowing you to choose flavors and ingredients. If you are looking for a soda machine, it is important to make sure that it deserves your precious kitchen space. That means it should save space, be easy to use and actually make a tastier soda.

To find the best, I took a total of eight soda makers to task, including three SodaStream models, Thirsti’s new fancy Ninja home machine and Aarke’s stainless steel carbonator, to find the best soda maker. Based on my testing, here are four of the best soda makers to buy for yourself or that special someone you can gift.

What is the best soda maker overall?

After extensive testing (and one persistent case of hiccups), we rated the SodaStream Terra as the best soda maker of 2024. During our testing, we found that it consistently produces clear water with its simple manual pump; it’s cheap to buy, and they also offer an exchange program that makes getting cans of carbonation cheaper.

sodastream terra on kitchen counter — While there are great options, the SodaStream Terra is probably the best soda water maker for most people.

SodaStream

sodastream terra on the kitchen counter — While there are great options, the SodaStream Terra is probably the best soda water maker for most people.

SodaStream

The best soda makers to buy in 2024

If it’s more than just sparkling water that you desire, the Thirsti Ninja beverage system is the right choice. At its base price of $150, it’s more expensive than the regular SodaStream, but that’s because it does so much more.

Thirsti is the only e-drink maker on this list. It adds carbon dioxide to your water at its best, but also has the option to deliver flavor, caffeine, vitamins and other enhancers electronically in 6-, 12-, 18- or 24-ounce servings.

Choose from more than 20 water drops to attach to the front of the drink maker — up to two at a time — and the Thirsti will spit out fruity drinks, lemonade and flavored sparkling water in about 3 seconds. All drinks are calorie free and some are sweetened with sucralose. If you don’t like the taste of the sugar substitute, you’ll want to stick to the “Splash” pods, which contain only essence.

The basic Thirsti package comes with a device, a carbon dioxide canister and eight drops of water to add panache to your hydration regimen. Read our Ninja Thirst review.

If design and beauty are important to you, Aarke is the best looking soda water maker on the market. It is made of metal, while many others are made of cheap plastics. It also has something of a vintage malt shop appeal, and it’s small, so you can slide it over the counter without losing a fortune. The Aarke III works well, although it releases carbon dioxide much more slowly than the SodaStream.

This is also the most expensive soda maker on our list at around $200, and that price does not include the carbon dioxide canister. The good news is that you can use SodaStream and Soda Sensei canisters with Aarke and use their robust canister exchange programs. Read my full Aarke review here.

If you’re looking to transport yourself to an Italian piazza, a bottle of sparkling water poured into a molded glass bottle can help. The SodaStream Aqua Fizz has all the functions of other models but with a superior design. The carafe that comes with the starter package is glass and the base that holds it while in use is metal. It is also quieter than other types since the bottles are all closed when they are sprayed with gas.

I don’t like the look of this model as much as the Aarke, but it is an affordable premium model, and the glass carafes, although smaller than the plastic versions, are perfect for serving on the table for parties.

In searching for the best soda water makers, it often comes down to general functionality, ease of use, and overall price. I made at least 10 bottles full of sparkling water using each one, noting that the machine did its most important job of carbonizing the water well and consistently. I also carbonated other liquids — including fruit juice and wine — but found that there was no difference in performance based on the type of carbonated liquid. If the water machine is properly carbonated, do so for all liquids.

Some of the machines took a lot of muscle and lever pumps to get the carbon out of the bottles. For hand machines, the SodaStream models were the most consistent. With five different settings, the Spärkel electric seltzer maker makes the most precise soda water.

Aarke water carbonation machines — The stylish Aarke III carbonator comes on five sides and has a vintage shop look.

Ark

I also saw the durability and construction of each soda maker. I Ark III it’s a very stylish soda water maker and it’s solidly built from stainless steel, with five options to choose from. The aesthetics are great, but it’s also an expensive model, with a tag of over $200, keeping it from being the best model for most people.

Drink Mate OmniFizz: This $120 sparkling water maker does a great job of carbonated water, wine and juice. I don’t have much negative to say about the machine except that the top hinge that connects the bottle to the machine seems like it could loosen or break over time.

SodaStream Fizzi One Touch: The SodaStream Fizzi One Touch is an electronic sparkling water maker that normally retails for $130 but is currently on sale for $124. It works great and has three presets to get whatever level of carbonation you want. This is another model that I don’t have major issues with, but I don’t think it’s worth the $54 more than its manual counterpart, the Terra if it goes on sale.

The Sparkel: This unique carbonation system uses powder packets instead of carbon dioxide canisters to add fizz to water. It works well, but the base of the machine is much larger than most and is not worth the $150 price tag.

Soda Sensei [Out of Stock]: This model looks great, but it struggled more than the SodaStream Terra to create consistent water bubbles.

How cheap is it to make seltzer at home?

Let’s use SodaStream’s rough estimate of getting 60 gallons per $17 cartridge when using the exchange program. That’s down to 25 cents a litre. In comparison, the average cost of a 1-liter bottle of soda water is about 80 cents at the grocery store.

If you were to go through six cartridges over the course of a year ($102), plus the cost of the SodaStream Terra ($100), that would be a total of $202 and 56 cents a liter, a huge savings over store-bought seltzer.

These figures are based on drinking 360 liters per year, which is 33 ounces of soda water per day, or a little less than three cans. The more carbonated water you drink and the longer you use your SodaStream, the more you save compared to paying for the canned stuff.

Are soda water makers better for the environment?

Definitely. A soda water maker like the SodaStream or the Aarke Carbonator has almost no negative impact on the environment. When used in place of store-bought seltzer, these devices will remove hundreds of cans and plastic bottles from the waste management and recycling system annually. Standard carbon dioxide cans are also reusable, which is why SodaStream will sell you refills for half price when you return an empty container.

Can you make other drinks with a soda water maker?

Besides making carbonated water, you can add fizz to almost any liquid with a soda water maker. Fruit juices, sparkling wine and draft beer (even flat soda) are a few popular drinks to consider besides plain cold water. If you want hot milk, you can do that too.

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