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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."
Would be if you'd managed to rig a kegorator to dispense Guinness. If you feel like drinking a calorie-laden fizzy beverage, it might as well be one that tastes good.
Besides which, there is evidence that diet soda drinks are mildly carcinogenic and may slow down the metabolism enough to negate the fact that they are less caloric.
Have you been stalked by Seth today?
As if people aren't fat enough...an endless supply of extra calories, extra sugar, and easy dehydration from too much caffeine. I'll install a water fountain: I perfer to keep my teeth and not get fat.
All told, I spent about:
$300 for the system
$50 for the CO2 tank deposit
$200 for various fittings and hose
Reoccurring costs that you don't recoup are:
$16 per CO2 tank fill; should last 6 months to a year
$4 per month for the tank rental (versus $125 to buy a tank)
Water (we are on city water, but it is so cheap as to be listed as "free")
Electricity (again, very little)
Reoccurring costs that you DO recoup:
$50 per 5 gallon box, $25 per 2.5 gallon box. The syrup has an expiration date, so I am trying to stick to 2.5 gallon boxes, since those get used up faster.
Since we only buy a few 99-cent bottles of soda here, this is another plaything if you got over $500 dollars burning a hole in your pocket.
An easier way is to buy soda in bulk, and keep a 2 or 3-liter bottle of soda in an ice bucket next to the couch.
Just not as much wow-factor.
The Pigloo
without reading the story, how does he handle the soda NOT corroding any piping? Is it all plastic? Can plastic survive soda corrosion?
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
I had my own soda machine setup in our old house for a couple of years. While the appeal is definatly there, cost savings should not be among them. The stories you hear about "the cup costing more than the actual soda" is competely false While it is slight cheaper than purchasing 2-liters, after doing the math, it really only has a cost savings of about 20%, assuming your paying around $40 per pre-mix box, and $15 or so for the CO2. It is damn cool though, and the chicks dig it.
an insulin dispenser
"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."
Wow! You're right! That 'continuing effort to be lazy" sure does take a lot of work!!!
Wow! How to install a soda fountain! The very height of tehcnology. Something I have always wanted to do. Wait a minute.
If the guy would have installed it and controlled it with a wireless NIC and had Big Gulp cups printed with the Penguin and a caffeine molecule
Whats next in the story department?
1. Watching Paint Dry - The do's and don'ts.
2. Color Coding Recycling bins.
3. Zen and the Art of the Compost heap.
4. Tae Boe Power Knitting.
5. Sheep dipping for fun and profit.
But seriously, admittingly I sit in front of computers probably far too much, this guy has no life. Diagramming his soda dispenser installation?
Hooray that he installed then had so much time on his hands to create a web page?
Now I have seen everything.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
...or with that same $500 you could've spent $495.00 on a decent web server, and then bought a case of your favorite soda.
www.GamezCore.com For Hardcore PS2 Gamerz : By Hardcore PS2 Gamerz
an automated insulin injector, thanks to your newly-developed diabetes, too!
Yeah, right.
The whole thing is pretty absurd, hence I feel silly being serious about this...but...making it that much easier to consume soda, which is LOADED with calories(among other things- mostly from sugars), is only going to give you diabetes sooner and plump you up mighty quick. I forget exactly what economists call it, but you're more likely to spend money that's easily accessed. Ie, the bag of chips next to you is gonna get eaten faster than the one downstairs in the drawer.
Seriously, folks- get out and walk, jog, run, bike, skate/skateboard/rollerblade to the local corner store, and carry the 6-pack back. If you're lucky, it'll all balance out. you'll get your daily exercise(what is it, minimum 30 minutes raised heart rate per day?), which means you'll feel better(excercise creates endorphines), and you'll live longer, too. You'll also get to excercise the brain, and reduce eye fatigue, since you'll be moving your eyes a lot and focusing on different things.
There's also cool stuff like(gasp!) water, fruit juice, and vegetable juice. All three are much healthier for you, and(at least IMHO) taste better. I'm not saying switch off soda completely- just go for variety; it's probably the most common thing you hear from nutritionists- eat a little of everything. It's more fun/interesting, too :-)
700,000 people a year die from heart disease. "A little exercise won't kill you" is truer than you think, and eating healthy is great insurance. Ask people who just came out of having heart-bypass operations or their first heart attack, or just got diagnosed with diabetes, and ask them if they wish they had eaten better. I'd be amazed if the answer isn't 100% "Yes".
Please help metamoderate.
And if going to the bathroom becomes too inconvenient, try some of these.
Does it run Linux?
I hold a patent on sigs...
I work for one of the vendors listed on that site. We sell every part you could possibly need to do something like this, but we don't sell to home consumers or even individual restaurants. We're a sister company of the largest manufacturer of fountain soda machines in the world. So, working were I do, I've found out a fair amount about these machines. We have about 90 employees in our office and haven't installed a fountain machine because with so few employees the lines would get coated with syrup in no time. You really need a larger volume of people, or you will have to flush the lines all the time. Personally, I say just get yourself a Culligan water dispenser and save your money and teeth. If you really need soda, buy 2 liter bottles.
I was not touched there by an angel.
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.
...
My next project: Food Replicator.
Number 6: And I invented the bottemless peanut bag.
Homer (number 5): Wow!
Ok maybe it is cool that the dude made a fountain, sure. But the author of the referring post is right - we need to stop this crazy binging on sugary drinks. And remember, researchers in psych found long ago that the number one thing that makes us eat more is food/drink that is more accesible. Let see what this dude weighs like in a few months ...
-- (Score:i, Imaginary)
Hopefully, the important lesson is this: If you're going to slashdot your server, at least have one capable of handling such an effort.
I got about half of the images broken and the other half weren't even found.
*sigh*
Anyways, for all the flame mongers out there complaining about how it's not "worth it", please. This is what hacking is about. If you sit around asking "Why? This is useless!" how do you expect to have any fun in life?
Flying cars and voice-operated light switches are pretty useless, doesn't mean I wouldn't want one.
Karma: Non-Heinous
Well, I'm too lazy to find all of that stuff and then go install it.
So, I found this instead.
It seems like it should work just as well and have only a minimally higher cost, but the up front cost is much much less (~$500 vs. ~50).
w00t for extended laziness!
Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
Disclaimer: The link is slashdotted so I dont know he did or not.
3. PROFIT! [because coders' teeth fall out]
I'm glad you put that explaination there in parentheses, because I had no idea why a dentist would profit from this scenario. Once again, thanks for the road map!
do not read this line twice.
(Not only a fitting double-meaning topic, but a nice subtle X-Men comic book reference ;D )
:p Still, the endless fountain was great while it lasted.
We had a free soda fountain when I worked at ANS - err, UUNet Ann Arbor - err, Worldcom - err, a hollow shell of a building... but I digress. After they put Mountain Dew on tap, productivity incresed... as did the waistlines of a lot of co-workers.
I finally decided one day that the weekend caffine withdrawls (since I was drinking upwards of 3 to 4 liters of Dew a day when at work) and related mood swings were causing too many problems around the house, I quit cold turkey. I lost ten pounds in the next month or so, after having cut over 1000 calories a day out of my diet. Great while it lasted... but then I replaced the raw calories with fat and sugars in the form of chocolate, and gained them all back
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Soda's alright, but I'm more of a water drinker. Do you think you could adapt this thing to dispense water on demand?
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
It would be a million times worse to replace the syrup than get a new can/bottle of soda when it runs out, even if it is only every week or so. Plus, fountain soda is definitely not as good as canned/bottled soda.
Wouldn't it then go
1. Have coder install endless soda fountain.
2. coders' teeth fall out
3. PROFIT!
since you have the roadmap you don't need the ???
moo.
Hardcore Waste Recycling
Can't wait to see the sheep story.
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."
Hey now! Just because this guy built his own soda fountain, it doesn't give you the right to infer that he's a jerk!
You just brought back one of those embarrassing first job moments. Worse than selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, it was selling home pop-machines! Evil company called 'sodamistic', long-since-defunct, I'm sure.
...).
A valuable formative experience in the sleazy world of hard-sell direct sales, it lets me watch movies like Tin Men or Boiler Room with an insider's appreciation, and more importantly, it taught me the importance of never ever letting a salesman inside your house. (Not that time-share group sales pitches are much better.)
For those who are interested, a google search for sodamistic turned up a minor reference in the comments section of this totally on-topic to this story web page: How to Make Your Own Carbonated Soda (Coke, Pepsi,
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
I agree that drinking sodas is a bad way to go. Yet, I still consume about 3L a day of some cheap-but-amazingly-good pseudo-Mountain Dew. (It's called Mountain Holler; see Save-A-Lot: 58 cents!)
I'm already working hard to stop smoking- that's the top of the list. If I can kill that demon, the next two are increased exercise and moving towards drinking water-only.
As to exercise: what's a good choice for people like us? It seems pointless to run in place for 20 minutes. Biking has gotten downright dangerous. Is there anything *you* do that you find interesting/useful?
I'm serious; I want something that doesn't amount to standing in the rain....ya know? Painballs? Swimming? (can't, BTW) Karate?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Its sad how few people will get the joke
:)
the one vendor i know for Old Fashioned Soda Fountain supplys
one of these days after I buy a house I will set one of these up. The question that is do i need a 20 foot long counter to go with it
This kind of thing is frequently due to people not having a clue how to exercise and driving their hearts way too hard. Pick up a heart rate monitor for less than $100... Polar is a good brand. Set it for your optimum heart rate speed (the watches come with some relatively good guidelines) and stay in them. Wham, suddenly you're only a tiny bit more likely to die of a heart attack while exercising than you are while getting up from the sofa to get some chips.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Do you really have deadly cauliflower-like organisms in your water supply? Perhaps you meant "coliforms".
"E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
Good old google.
Researchers Clarify Link Between Consumption
Of Carbonated Beverages and Bone Loss
With soft drinks now the beverage of choice for many Americans, researchers have become increasingly concerned about the link between intake of carbonated beverages and increased risk of bone fracture. A new study exploring this link has shown that calcium depletion -- and ultimately bone loss -- experienced by people who regularly consume carbonated beverages is more likely due to an inadequate daily intake of calcium rather than the ingredients in the beverages.
A team of researchers at the Creighton University Osteoporosis Center studied 30 women aged 20 to 40 who consumed more than two 12-ounce cans of carbonated beverages daily. The team measured levels of urinary calcium excretion after the subjects consumed caffeinated and noncaffeinated soft drinks. Milk and water were used as control beverages.
While the researchers measured little or no calcium loss from the consumption of the noncaffeinated soft drinks or the control beverages, they found that drinking carbonated beverages containing caffeine does indeed cause the body to lose calcium, but only temporarily. A compensatory drop in urinary calcium excretion later in the day offset the small calcium loss from the caffeinated soft drinks.
So what is the explanation for the bone loss observed in people who regularly consume carbonated beverages? The researchers placed the responsibility on the "empty calories" of soft drinks that replace nutrients derived from other foods and beverages. "The most economic explanation for the association of carbonated beverage intake with poor bone status is milk displacement," said lead author Robert P. Heaney, M.D.
The relationship between drinking carbonated beverages and calcium is important, according to the authors, because the National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that adults get 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day, 1,200 milligrams for teenagers, pregnant women and people older than 50. However, according to the Foundation, most adults only get half that amount.
The study results were published in the September 2001 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
I find you can make a perfectly decent cup of tea by putting 2 bags of tea inside your espresso maker and adding 1 cup of water. I found this out while I was sick and didn't want to sit around waiting for tea. Then I made my own concoction. Tea + orange juice. It helps loosen the phlegm in the throat and gives you a boost. I suppose I could take the tea out of the bags and be able to cram another bag-full in there.
idrinksoda.com. $100 or so gets you the machine, then they sell you virtually any soda syrup you want, including esoteric stuff. I saw it advertised in a live demonstration at the Seattle Home Show. He mixed up a diet coke for my fiancee (who'd know), and she said it was as good as fountain drinks. The "system" is basically a carbonator and a regular delivery of CO2 & syrup. You put the water in the machine, carbonate it, and put it in the glass with a squirt of syrup. No syrup in the machine, so no lines to clog. Overall cost (not including the startup of the machine) seemed roughly equivalent to $0.50/liter. It wasn't for us, but maybe for you...
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Homade Soda Fountain instructions
+
"Be aware that there may be mistakes or gross errors on my part, as well as omissions. IF you spot any errors of this sort, please contact me so I may correct them at once!"
=
A very bad idea.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I work at a Taco Bell and in the back they have a soda machine for the really lazy. You just put the cup down and it automatically fills to the top, waits a few seconds till the foam goes down and then gives a last little squirt. It doesn't matter what size cup you use or how much soda is already in it, it will always fill to the top and there's never any mess (the cups are titled and any excess foam goes over the top of the cup into a drain and not down the side of the cup). I've wanted one ever since I started working there, I'd get the CO2 and the syrup from my grandmother (she owns a bar so she's getting syrup and CO2 all the time)
It's not half the calories. It's 1/100 or less. Aspartame (NutraSweet) has approx. the same calories per unit weight as sugar, but is 100-200 times sweeter per unit weight. (It's THAT strong. NutraSweet sugar replacements are 99% inert powder.)
One would have to drink a few liters of diet soda to even reach 10 calories.
Calorie-wise, diet soda = water.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?