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Endless Liquid Refreshment
rabtech writes "I'm very lazy. As part of that continuing effort, I've come up with a guide for installing a soda fountain in the house. I've detailed how to get the equipment, hoses, and supplies, as well as how to install and calibrate the system. Now you won't ever need to move for lack of liquid refreshment! My next project: Food Replicator."
Not so sure about that, but carbonation does upset the carbon-oxygen cycle of metabolism. The result is that more toxic acidic byproducts of metabolism stay in the blood.
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The carbonation in soda is pretty bad for you. It will react and strip calcium off of pretty much anything in you, teeth, bones etc, this is why sports coaches tell their players not to drink soda, it can weaken your bones. All this will also leave you with lots of Calcium-Carbonate(scale, like in hard water), this can also lead to problems. Drink a lot of soda in a short period of time, and you might notice your piss is slightly cloudy, the extreme of this happened a friend of mine, kidney stones. Ouch.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
The basic machine attaches to a water line and draws 110V from a wall outlet, and that's all that you have to hook up (you can even buy an accessory water tank, eliminating the water line). Inside the machine is a little refrigerator, a small CO2 cylinder, and space for three 1-litre syrup boxes.
The thing actually mixes pretty decent soda, but apparently there were reliability and maintenance problems. In any case, the whole program flopped,and Coca-Cola no longer manufactures the Breakmate. They still make supplies, though, and you can buy a used Breakmate for $200-$300 on Ebay or through vendors like this one.
Drawbacks? Well, you're restricted to a short list of Coca-Cola beverages... Pepsi and others are out of the question. The syrup packs are relatively expensive... each pack makes about 30 glasses of soda and costs $8-$10, so you'll pay about $0.25-$0.35 per glass. More bad news: the little CO2 cylinder doesn't go very far (many Breakmates have been modified to use larger cylinders); fortunately, they're refillable, and CO2 is cheap. Despite the drawbacks it might be worthwhile; the machine does work, it's a lot cheaper and simpler to install and use, and it's sorta cool besides.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
That only happens if you're a big enough account that Coke or Pepsi gives you freebies. I spent a couple of summers helping deliver pop for Pepsi, and while the chain restaurants and the bigger independant accounts got free CO2, small accounts had to pay for it. It doesn't get in the bottle by itself, you know:)