General Questions

How We Compare to Our Competitors?

  • Other soda maker companies typically require you to purchase their proprietary bottles and CO₂ gas. That's not how we operate. We take the "open source" approach. And our customers appreciate it. Most of our competitors' products are bulky counter top appliances.
  • We take pride in our products fitting in your silverware drawer. Our competitors make and sell you a shiny showpiece - eye candy for your table or kitchen counter.
  • Our products are rugged, durable no-frills carbonation tools built tough to do their job and last a lifetime. None of our competitors' products in major retail chain stores has a built-in pressure regulator to ensure your safety. Ours does.
  • Most of our competitors' void your warranty if you use their carbonator to fizz up anything but plain water. We have no such restriction and encourage you to fizz up anything you can fit in a soda bottle.

 
What is the difference between the basic Fizz Giz kit, the Soda Rope and the Soda Stick?
Each product operates under the basic premise of dispensing pressure regulated CO₂ into a soda bottle capped with a patented FiZZ GiZ cap (US PAT D708708S & US 9173430 B1). Using FiZZ-GiZ caps placed on regular soda bottles you purchase at the store, you use the FiZZ-GiZ hand-held dispenser, the Soda Rope or the Soda stick to put CO₂ into a bottle containing your beverage and shake it. The basic FiZZ-GiZ kit's hand-held unit is unique in that it uses CO₂ bulbs while the Soda Rope and Soda Stick use common CO₂ tanks for their source of carbonation. The FiZZ-GiZ is more portable than the Soda Rope and Soda Stick. But it costs more per liter to use disposable CO₂ cartridges to make soda.
 

How much does it cost to make soda?
After you purchase the product, the cost per liter is determined by the cost of the CO₂ that you purchase but in general it costs approximately twenty-cents to carbonate a 12oz bottle using the smaller disposable cartridges and about 1½ cents to carbonate the same bottle with the Soda Rope or Soda Stick.
 

Why do I need a Fizz-Giz cap?
The proprietary, patented Fizz-Giz cap has a one way valve that allows the CO₂ to enter the bottle but not escape. Our CO₂ dispensers are made to work with our caps.

What is "food grade" CO₂?

Good question. CO₂ is not food. Neither is salt. You may have heard people talk about "food grade CO₂". And you can find many opinions regarding the subject online - some educated, some not so much. What you won't find is a specification for "food grade CO₂" set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the applicable section of the Code of Federal Regulations. The FDA has this to say about carbon dioxide. The phrase "food grade" does not appear anywhere in the text. The FDA does not specify a purity level for CO₂ used as a food/beverage additive and states that the use of CO₂ as an additive is Generally Recognized As Safe. If you add some oxygen, nitrogen water, argon,  car emissions, chemicals from factories, dust, pollen or mold spores to a tank of pure CO₂, it's no longer pure CO₂. All these items are found in the air you breathe - in far greater concentrations than you'll ever find in a tank of CO₂ gas bottled by a reputable commercial gas distributor.

CO Tank Questions

What kind of CO₂ tank do I need for the Soda Rope and Soda Stick?
Both the Soda Rope and the Soda Stick are made to fit common CO₂ paintball tanks with on/off valves. You can also purchase an adapter that enables you to use the Soda Rope and Soda Stick on conventional CGA-320 tanks. CO₂ tanks are made from the same materials SCUBA tanks are made of, largely aluminum and steel.

 
Do you sell paintball tanks directly?
Sure we do. All our tanks are shipped to you FULL - ready to use - right out-a-the-box.  And all have pre-installed on/off valves. You can use your own paintball tank, as long as it has an on/off valve. 
 
Why do I need an On/Off value for my paintball tank with the Soda Rope and Soda Stick?
Leaving high pressure gas on continuously is not a healthy choice for any accessory installed on any high pressure tank - ever. Pin valves do not allow you to shut off the the pressure inside the tank or to bleed the downstream pressure from installed fittings and accessories. One of the most common problems people have when using paintball CO₂ tanks outfitted with pin-valves in lieu of on/off valves is removing fittings/accessories from the tank while the device is pressurized. This is true whether playing paintball with them or using one of our products. Pin-valves do not allow you to release the high pressure from the installed fitting prior to unscrewing it from the tank. On/off valves do. It's as simple as that. The drawbacks associated with being unable to depressurize the downstream attachments prior to unscrewing the Soda Stick or Soda Rope are difficulty of removal and frequently blown o-rings. As a result, we redesigned our products for use exclusive with tanks having on/off valves. This translates to increased longevity for the Soda Stick and Soda Rope and the o-rings on your paintball tank. Fewer blown o-rings means less wasted CO₂ that is lost when they blow. It is worth mentioning that conventional CGA-320 tanks have history dating back a century. All of them come equipped with on/off valves as a standard. Pin valves have never been a standard for conventional CGA-320 tanks, likely for the above, aforementioned reasons. Here is a video demonstrating the use of an on/off valve. 

 
There are several kinds of On/Off valves. Which should I purchase?
On. Here is the difference.

  1. One is a dedicated, native on/off valve. To install it requires that you remove your tank's current pin-valve and replace it with the on/off valve. This is the most reliable long-term option.
  2. Alternatively, there are on/off valves that simply screw on to your tank's existing pin-valve. This option is attractive to consumers who already have a paintball tank with a pin-valve. Removal of your tank's existing pin-valve is not a requirement to use these types of on/off valves.
  3. Some on/off valves are "in-line" and others have a valve shutoff knob at right angles to the direction of gas flow through the valve. The choice is up to you. We have received more reports from customers dissatisfied with in-line models than from customers complaining about those with right-angle shutoff knobs.
  4. Some on/off valves are equipped with pressure gauges. If you like seeing a pressure reading on your tank, or you just think it's cool to have a pressure gauge on your tank, those were made for you. If you're interested in how much CO₂ is remaining in your tank, get a set of scales - not a pressure gauge. If there's any liquid CO₂ left in your tank at all, a pressure gauge tells you absolutely nothing regarding how much CO₂ you have in your tank. To know that, you must weigh the tank and subtract the tank's empty weight (aka "tare"). The difference in the two weights is the weight of the CO₂ remaining in the tank. A pressure gauge on a CO₂ tank, in my opinion, is the most likely think to break if your tank is bumped or falls over. It is a weak link in the system and provides no useful information. The pressure it displays changes as the temperature rises and falls. It may read one thing today and another tomorrow.