Leland Co2 Soda Chargers - 8G C02 Seltzer Water Cartridges

I had used them before with the Hamilton Beach Fizz maker and the chargers were fine but that product was not. It didn't last very long and I went through a couple of them. They were inexpensive but didn't do the job. Then I bought a Soda Stream and I ended up hating it. The cartridges need to be taken to a special store and they are expensive and not consistently filled and sometimes they don't do the job at all. I hated that but I love fizz.I chucked the Soda-Stream and bought a Seltzer maker that is well made. I don't remember the brand but I bought it here. The Seltzer Maker is very good at making Seltzer and it does what it is supposed to do.The Leland chargers are how you make the seltzer. They are reasonably priced and do the job. It is far easier to order a box of cartridges to keep on hand, then it is to go to the special store with the soda stream cartridges. The Leland chargers work well and they are the least expensive for the Seltzer Maker that I use. Finally I have the right product for me. I like having what I need on hand and being able to reorder when I need to.1 charger makes a Liter of soda water that is well fizzed. I use 1 or 2 a day and I won't run out because I can tell when it is time to reorder. These are very convenient and they do what they are supposed to do. I have run across a dud occasionally, but that is rare.

I read a lot of reviews before trying this because face it, you have to buy a pretty large quantity in order to make the shipping worthwhile. One of the things that concerned me was the difference in sizes but people stated that they were able to figure it out and I decided that I was smart enough, surely I could figure it out too.Having now put my hands on everything I wanted to come back and assure the tentative (like me) that it is not nearly as big of a deal as some people make it out to be! Sure, if you were mechanically inclined you could probably come up with some brilliant method of fixing the problem and that would be great. But if you are not mechanically inclined, here is what I did: Cut a strip of cardboard off the shipping box (the corrugated kind, not the thin cardboard from the individual containers) about an inch wide and 3 inches long. Attempt to slide it into the hole in the lid above the cartridge (it is about an inch tall, plenty of room to work with). Figure out that its a little too wide to slide in comfortably. Use the scissors to slim it down a bit to about 3/4 of an inch wide (no actual measuring, just eying it). Attempt to slide it in again. It fits! Push the cap down to make sure it can still close without the length compromising anything (the length just folds up to fit along the cartridge, imagine holding a strip of cardboard up to your finger tip and then folding it down to rest flat). It fits! Done. Keep the strip of cardboard with your cartridges so you don't loose it and it should last a year or two. Really, no big deal. If you mess it up the first time, the box is plenty big enough to go back and slice another piece off.The only other thing I wanted to address is the aftertaste. I tend to carbonate tea and orange juice. I tasted a tiny bit of something the first day or two with my tea so I added a bit of sugar to balance it. After a couple days I was forgetting the sugar but no longer noticed it. I think it balances out the sweet of the juice perfectly. It's taste though so your mileage may vary.

I have an ISI soda siphon I bought at a kitchen store many years ago but had rarely used - I hadn't been impressed by the low bubble factor nor the price of CO2 chargers, let alone how hard they were to buy at the time. I came across it again in the back of a cupboard recently & decided to give it another go & I'm glad I read through some of the reviews about getting the best results.Having a cold siphon & using cold water makes the world of difference, as does leaving the siphon in the fridge for a bit after charging to generate more bubbles. (The water I use has been filtered but the top of the siphon is so narrow it would be difficult to clean. However, that's a design flaw of the siphon & not the CO2 cartridges).The price of available chargers is also now more reasonable. I saw some negative reviews from people who had purchased this particular product from this seller but I had no problems whatsoever. In fact I believe they even filled my order on a Sunday! I received 10 sealed boxes of chargers of the brand I ordered. It's worth noting that NONE of the chargers were individually stamped or labelled in any way - just the boxes. The ISI chargers I still had on hand were stamped with the brand name. However there seems to be no difference in performance so far & cheaper chargers makes for cheaper drinks & weighing up against the price of purchasing seltzer water is more palatable.The only items for improvement I can think of are for the industry in general & not this particular seller &/or product. 1. Most of the different brands of chargers are made in Europe - is there no American source of the product? (Interpret this as you will from a global economic perspective but one thing is undeniable - steel chargers are heavy & being transported such a long distance has environmental impacts beyond the price & ease of availability). 2. A direct return/reuse program for the steel cartridges should be in place, just like glass milk bottles. I put mine in our recycling but wonder if they truly make it through - they're small, odd shaped, & not individually marked for recycling so there are multiple points in the chain where they are likely to just be discarded.