The Best Soda Makers

The best soda makers carbonate water quickly, easily, and effectively. They sit stably on the counter, and their water bottles are convenient to drink from and store. We’ve designated four winning models. The SodaStream Terra is our all-around top pick; it’s great for most people. A stylish metal manual model, the Aarke Carbonator III, was another top performer. If you prefer glass water bottles to plastic, we recommend the automatic SodaStream E-Duo, which works with both bottle types. And if you’d rather skip the carbonating bottles, our recommended dispenser-style model, the Ninja Thirsti Drink System, carbonates water from a tank before dispensing it directly into your glass. It allows you to customize carbonation levels, flavorings, and more. The only downside? It operates much more slowly than our other favorites.

What You Need to Know

To turn regular tap water into carbonated water at home, you need to add carbon dioxide (CO2). There are four main types of soda makers, each with a different method for accomplishing this goal. 

The first (and most popular) group of machines employs tall, slim CO2 canisters that hold enough gas to carbonate about 60 liters of water. These machines are sold with reusable water bottles that are unique to each specific model. Many bottles are plastic, but one machine comes with dishwasher-safe glass bottles. To operate this style of soda maker, you fill the water bottles with cold water and attach them to the machines. Many of the models we tested are manually operated (you repeatedly press a button or lever until you get the amount of carbonation you prefer), while a few are automatic (you choose from a selection of preprogrammed carbonation settings). The automatic machines are electric and must be plugged into an outlet for you to operate them. 

The second group of soda makers uses the same multi-serving CO2 cylinders but draws water from external tanks (similar to those from single-serve automatic coffee makers) and mixes that water with CO2 before dispensing it into your chosen vessel. We call these devices “dispenser-style” machines. The third group doesn’t use bottled CO2 at all and instead relies on small packets of powdered citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, which, when mixed with water, create CO2. There is also a fourth category of soda makers, known as soda siphons. These devices require tiny single-use CO2 cartridges to operate. We’ve found this style of machine imprecise, and we think it’s a nuisance to buy, store, and dispose of all those tiny cartridges, so we didn’t include any in this review.

What to Look For

• A Machine That Uses 60-Liter CO2 Canisters: We prefer ...