The 3 Best Soda Makers Of 2022 | Reviews By Wirecutter

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Why you should trust us

Who this is for

How we picked

How we tested

Top pick: Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine

Upgrade pick: Breville InFizz Fusion

Best for no-frills countertop use: Drinkmate OmniFizz

Other soda makers worth considering

Exchanging your carbon dioxide cylinders

How to get the best results

The competition

Humans have a biological imperative, it turns out, to love water in motion. Our ears perk up at the burble of a creek in the woods. We ride waves sloshing onto shore just for the joy of it. We’ve even taken a liking to shiny jewels because the way light bounces off them reminds our deep-seated lizard brains of moving water.

And when water sommelier Anistacia Barrak-Barber explains seltzer in terms of that natural proclivity — the slow-simmering carbonation in volcanic springs, the riotous eruption of geysers — it’s compelling, even for those of us who may be seltzer skeptics. You know what? Heck yeah. Why not inject your daily beverage of choice with a bit of that action? Soda makers are the ticket.

In pursuit of bubbles, Wirecutter has tested 30 soda makers over the years. Our top pick, the Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine, stands out for its crisp carbonation, its easy-to-use design, its portability, and its ability to turn just about any beverage fizzy.

Everything we recommend

Top pick

The best soda maker

Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine

The Spritzer produces zippy, roiling, tasty seltzer and can carbonate beverages such as juice, tea, and wine. Its small size allows it to tuck into a drawer, and it’s easy to customize with additional purchases, such as a stand or a metal bottle.

$55 from Amazon$80 from The Home Depot$80 from Target

May be out of stock

Upgrade pick

The countertop stunner

Breville InFizz Fusion

The InFizz Fusion is a sleek, polished, countertop soda machine with a retro soda-shop feel. It makes aggressive, spirited bubbles in water and other beverages, and it’s sturdy, durable, and easy to use.

$250 from Amazon$250 from Breville

Best for...

If you want a no-frills standing soda maker

Drinkmate OmniFizz

The OmniFizz, our previous top pick, makes excellent, zippy, lively bubbles just as sparkling as those of our current top pick. It’s a reliable machine that we still stand by, though we love the option to avoid taking up counter space with the Drinkmate Spritzer.

$100 from Amazon$100 from WalmartHow we picked

• Thorough carbonation

  A good soda maker injects CO2 at a high pressure, creating an even solution of carbonated water with no weak fizz or sour flavor.

• Adjustable bubbles

  Different drinks and drinkers require different bubble levels, and our picks let you decide how fizzy you want it.

• More than just water

  Seltzer isn’t the only bubbly beverage to make at home. We looked for a machine that could carbonate anything.

• Sturdiness

  We avoided flimsy buttons, shaky machines, and leaky seals, seeking a simple, solid soda maker.

Top pick

The best soda maker

Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine

The Spritzer produces zippy, roiling, tasty seltzer and can carbonate beverages such as juice, tea, and wine. Its small size allows it to tuck into a drawer, and it’s easy to customize with additional purchases, such as a stand or a metal bottle.

$55 from Amazon$80 from The Home Depot$80 from Target

May be out of stock

In our tests, the Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine excelled at consistently carbonating water and apple juice with sprightly, satisfying bubbles that lasted long both in the bottle and in a cup.

The Spritzer is a handheld machine that you operate with a trigger, but a number of accessory purchases from the Drinkmate website — such as an insulated metal bottle and a stand to turn it into an upright countertop soda maker — allow you to trick out the portable unit. And even then it would still be cheaper than some of the pricier soda makers available.

This model comes with two 3-ounce carbon dioxide cylinders but works with any brand’s standard screw-in CO2 cylinder, including the larger, 14.5-ounce kind. So you can easily find and exchange cylinders both in person and online.

Upgrade pick

The countertop stunner

Breville InFizz Fusion

The InFizz Fusion is a sleek, polished, countertop soda machine with a retro soda-shop feel. It makes aggressive, spirited bubbles in water and other beverages, and it’s sturdy, durable, and easy to use.

$250 from Amazon$250 from Breville

If you’re seeking a soda machine that would look especially conversation-worthy on your kitchen countertop, the Breville InFizz Fusion, available in a wide range of colors, is the right choice. In our tests, the sturdy, hefty body of the InFizz Fusion stood out for its durability and stability.

The InFizz Fusion carbonates both water and sugary beverages such as juice with the push of a lever that feels a little more luxe than the trigger of our top pick. As with the Drinkmate Spritzer, with this Breville model you can easily customize how rollicking the bubbles are in your drink. In our tests its bubbles were consistently dispersed and sharp, and they lasted just as long in the InFizz bottle as they did in that of our top pick.

Best for...

If you want a no-frills standing soda maker

Drinkmate OmniFizz

The OmniFizz, our previous top pick, makes excellent, zippy, lively bubbles just as sparkling as those of our current top pick. It’s a reliable machine that we still stand by, though we love the option to avoid taking up counter space with the Drinkmate Spritzer.

$100 from Amazon$100 from Walmart

We still stand by the excellent form and function of the Drinkmate OmniFizz, which comes in a variety of colors and produces lively seltzer and easily carbonates sugary drinks like apple juice with minimal spillage. We found it clunkier to replace the CO2 canister in the OmniFizz in comparison with the Spritzer, but the task is still easier here than with other machines we’ve tested and can be done smoothly with a little practice.

Even so, we acknowledge that counter space is precious real estate in many kitchens. Our top pick, the Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine, makes sparkling beverages that are just as excellent, with the added convenience of a design that you can tuck away into a drawer or cabinet if necessary — all for a lower cost. We recommend the OmniFizz if you know you want a standing machine rather than a handheld one and prefer push-button operation over a trigger.

Why you should trust us

Antara Sinha, who ran our most recent tests and co-wrote this guide, is a writer on Wirecutter’s kitchen team. She has tested saucepans and rice cookers, and she has led taste tests for canned cocktails and ketchup. She wasn’t a seltzer fan at first, but she became a convert by making liters of carbonated water and apple juice for this guide.

Mace Dent Johnson, who tested models in previous rounds and co-wrote this guide, is a Wirecutter writer on the kitchen team who loves soda, has opinions about which grocery store sells the best generic seltzer, and made and taste-tested so much carbonated water for this guide that they had to take a week off from the stuff. But only a week.

For this guide:

• We tapped the knowledge of a wide array of experts, including water sommeliers Anistacia Barrak-Barber and Martin Riese; Emma Christensen, former general manager at Simply Recipes and author of True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home; and Gavin Sacks, professor of food science at Cornell University.
• We’ve looked into every soda maker widely available online, and we’ve tested 30 machines over more than 10 years. For our most recent update, we tested five new soda makers and retested three models that we’ve recommended in the past.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, we review and test products with complete editorial independence. We’re never made aware of any business implications of our editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

Who this is for

If you love seltzer and drink it often, carbonating water at home can be a more economical, environmentally friendly, and convenient alternative to purchasing cans, cases, or bottles of seltzer or soda. It can also be more fun, giving you the freedom to play with all sorts of bubbly options.

First, let’s talk cost. Depending on how you buy your seltzer, a liter can cost from 80 cents to $2. SodaStream and Soda Sense both promise that their carbon dioxide cylinders (which cost about $15 to $20 each if you have empty cylinders to exchange and around $30 each if you buy without an exchange) can carbonate 60 liters of seltzer each, making the cost of gas per liter as low as 25 cents.

There are DIY methods to refill CO2 cylinders at home in an effort to drive that cost even lower, but they can take quite a bit of work and can even involve dry ice. At the end of the day, handling compressed gas or concentrated chemicals involves more risk than we prefer to encourage.

Beyond the potential savings, a soda maker allows you to be more self-sufficient in your soda drinking. If you love a fizzy drink, you have likely experienced the disappointment of opening the fridge and realizing that you already drank your last can. Having a soda maker at home means that you always have access to a bubbly beverage (assuming that you keep a spare CO2 cylinder on hand) and saves you the task of lugging seltzer home from the store. Some people find that having a soda maker at home helps them drink more water and less sugary soda or alcohol.

An at-home soda maker lets you get more creative, too, as it provides soda enthusiasts and mixologists a constant source of customizable, bubbly beverages. Our top pick, the Drinkmate Spritzer, isn’t limited to water — it can carbonate whatever beverage you toss in. Maybe you want to carbonate grapefruit juice for batch palomas or create a sparkling margarita mix or add some fizziness to the watered-down apple juice you give your kids.

Just remember, sustaining an at-home soda-making routine requires that you keep cylinders of carbon dioxide on hand. And if you want to have seltzer at home that is as good as or better than what you can find in stores, we recommend using one additional tool — a water filter — and making sure that your water is cold before carbonating it.

Consider those additional costs and your willingness to work those extra steps into your beverage routine. If you’re unsure, a good way to try out a soda maker is to find one secondhand. In our experience, we’ve often seen soda makers turn up in buy-nothing groups and in free piles on the sidewalk.

How we picked

We’ve tested models ranging from tabletop soda makers that use standard 60-liter carbon dioxide cylinders for carbonation all the way down to handheld soda makers that use finger-sized 8-gram CO2 chargers. (Our top pick comes with two 3-ounce CO2 canisters but is compatible with a 60-liter canister too.) As we’ve tested, we’ve paid attention to the following criteria.

Strong bubbles, clean flavors: We want a soda maker that consistently produces seltzer with plentiful, active, long-lasting bubbles and minimal sour flavor. Most at-home soda makers work by injecting carbon dioxide gas into water at high pressure, creating an effervescent solution of carbonic acid and water. Carbonic acid gives carbonated water a slightly sour taste; the flavor becomes more prominent when the seltzer isn’t effectively carbonated or has gone flat.

Build quality: We look for sturdy, attractive machines that we wouldn’t mind leaving out on the counter (or could be stealthily tucked into a cabinet or drawer) and that wouldn’t shake or topple during use. We eliminate machines that have spitting and leaking issues, and we make note of any particularly noisy machines.

Fewer demands on hand strength and mobility: Soda makers can require a slew of fiddly hand motions, including screwing or locking in a CO2 canister and a water bottle, pushing and holding down a flimsy plastic button, and unscrewing a tightly sealed, pressurized cap. No soda maker is perfectly accessible, but in our tests we note the motions necessary to operate each soda maker, and we rule out any egregiously difficult-to-use machines.

Versatility: We look for machines offering a range of carbonation levels that are easy to dial in and each satisfying in their own right. For home mixologists or those looking to add syrups and sweeteners to their seltzer, maximizing the carbonation ensures that the bubbles will hold up in a homemade soda or cocktail. We also favor machines that can carbonate more than just water and produce both exceptional seltzer and other carbonated beverages without too much fuss.

How we tested

We started our tests by assembling each soda maker and inserting the carbon dioxide canister, noting the steps and hand motions required and taking stock of the size, sturdiness, and aesthetic of each machine.

We used water, both room temperature and refrigerated. We carbonated the water in each soda maker and then assessed the bubbles visually, both in the bottle and in a glass. We also tasted the seltzer, taking note of the flavor, bubble character, and bubble size. We looked for bubble longevity, returning to the bottle of seltzer after five, 10, and 30 minutes. With the soda makers that can also carbonate beverages other than water, we carbonated sugary apple juice to see if the machines leaked or clogged while carbonating liquids with different solutes and viscosities.

Once we narrowed down the field to our favorite machines, we had a panel of testers with differing abilities and hand strengths try to remove and replace the CO2 canister of each machine, carbonate a bottle of water, and rate each machine’s ease of use and ergonomic function.

Top pick: Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine

Top pick

The best soda maker

Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine

The Spritzer produces zippy, roiling, tasty seltzer and can carbonate beverages such as juice, tea, and wine. Its small size allows it to tuck into a drawer, and it’s easy to customize with additional purchases, such as a stand or a metal bottle.

$55 from Amazon$80 from The Home Depot$80 from Target

May be out of stock

The Drinkmate Spritzer Portable Machine is a handheld carbonator that is compact enough to squeeze into a kitchen drawer, camping pack, Airbnb crate, or cabinet but retains all the functionality of an excellent all-beverage tabletop carbonator. With a gun-style trigger instead of a button, you can easily dial the carbonation up or down to your preference with the number of times you squeeze it. And the bubbles stay fizzy and energetic for more than half an hour, especially if you keep the bottle sealed after carbonating.

It produces powerful bubbles in every beverage. We tested the Spritzer with room-temperature water, refrigerated water, and refrigerated apple juice, and we were able to achieve lively, active, fizzy bubbles in all three.

Note that when you’re carbonating nonwater liquids, some frothing is unavoidable, even in the Spritzer. To minimize spillage, fill the bottle only halfway when carbonating anything particularly sugary or when carbonating any nonwater liquid for the first time, as knowing how much a liquid will froth can take some practice.

As you carbonate, wait between trigger pulls for the froth to settle down before tilting the bottle forward and removing it from the soda maker. Once you remove the bottle, a mechanism in the cap allows you to release pressure gradually so that your drink doesn’t foam over. But just in case, we also recommend holding the bottle over a sink.

It’s ergonomically friendly. We found it easier to snap the cap of the carbonator bottle in place, and easier to swap out the CO2 canisters, with the Drinkmate Spritzer than with any other soda maker we tested.

Instead of feeling for and pinching our fingers on plastic panels, tipping over machines to find grooves to slot in the canister, and balancing heavy canisters with one hand, we simply screwed into place both the lighter, smaller 3-ounce canister and the full-size 14.5-ounce canister. If you purchase the Spritzer stand for use with the larger canisters, you should find, as we did, that it slides in easily and feels sturdy. Of all the soda makers that our panel of paid testers tried out, the Spritzer was the runaway favorite for its ease of use.

With a few add-ons, it’s a great countertop machine. The Spritzer has all of the features that we love about our previous top pick, the Drinkmate OmniFizz, but what sets it apart is how easily you can attach accessories, sold separately, to customize it to your liking, while typically spending less in total than you would for fancy, less functional competing soda makers.

If you’d like the option of using the Spritzer on your countertop, you can buy a stand from the Drinkmate website for $20. You can also purchase a larger, 1 L bottle, since that’s compatible with the machine too.

You can even splurge for a stainless steel carbonation bottle. At $55, the steel bottle seems a little pricey, but even if you were to buy both that bottle and the stand, you’d still be spending less than you would on Drinkmate’s luxury offering, the $300 Drinkmate Lux. The Lux comes with the stainless steel bottle and produces seltzer similar to that of the Spritzer but is slightly harder to use.

It’s compatible with most standard carbon dioxide cylinders. The Spritzer comes with two 3-ounce CO2 canisters, but it’s also compatible with any screw-in standard-size 60-liter CO2 cylinder. The CO2 cylinder slides into the stand easily and is even easier to change than it is with conventional, standing soda makers such as the Breville InFizz Fusion and the Drinkmate OmniFizz.

As is the case with many soda makers, the cylinders are brand-agnostic, so you can use the SodaStream cylinders available in many big-box stores (just be sure to get the type with the blue label, not the pink Quick Connect version). If you prefer taking advantage of cylinder-exchange programs by mail, Drinkmate and Soda Sense both offer those.

It comes with a two-year warranty against defects. Drinkmate will repair or replace a defective product and will pay for shipping. Note, however, that the company also requires proof of purchase for a warranty claim.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It may not make enough seltzer for your needs. If your household goes through a lot of seltzer, keep in mind that this soda maker comes with only a half-liter bottle. For more capacity, you have to purchase the standard-size 1-liter bottle separately, through Drinkmate.

The trigger takes some getting used to. If you’re accustomed to a conventional soda maker with a button or lever at the top of the machine, the trigger shape of this machine has a tiny learning curve. In our first couple of tries, we accidentally pulled the trigger when trying to slide the bottle into place. But we quickly got used to its placement and didn’t encounter the issue again throughout our testing.

Upgrade pick: Breville InFizz Fusion

Upgrade pick

The countertop stunner

Breville InFizz Fusion

The InFizz Fusion is a sleek, polished, countertop soda machine with a retro soda-shop feel. It makes aggressive, spirited bubbles in water and other beverages, and it’s sturdy, durable, and easy to use.

$250 from Amazon$250 from Breville

The Breville InFizz Fusion is a looker. Whereas many of the other soda makers we tested had a flimsy construction, toppled over easily, and felt cheap and fragile overall, the InFizz Fusion stood out for just how sturdy and stable it felt, as well as how sleek and beautiful it looked. But it’s important to note that while this model doesn’t perform any better at producing bubbles than our top pick, it’s almost four times the price.

It’s a beautiful appliance. If this were a soda maker beauty contest, the Breville InFizz Fusion would be the winner. It comes in six colors, and it carbonates at the push of a sleek, retro soda-shop-style lever instead of a button or trigger. In our experience, the stainless steel body felt especially nice compared with the thin, brittle plastic or wood-composite materials of some of the other soda makers we tried. However, for the price of this soda maker, we wished the bottle weren’t the same plastic type found on the Drinkmate Spritzer and OmniFizz.

It’s easy to use. After our top pick, the Breville InFizz Fusion was our second-favorite model for its ergonomic function. The 60-liter CO2 cylinder slid easily into place to screw in from the bottom of the machine, unlike with some of the other soda makers we tested, in which the cylinders could be difficult to align or would jostle out of place.

Using a lever instead of a button to carbonate the bottle was an especially nice mechanism for testers with different hand strengths. The InFizz Fusion is a heavier soda maker because of its stainless steel build, but that also makes it more stable and less likely to tip when you’re snapping the bottle into place.

The InFizz Fusion is covered by a two-year warranty. Like Drinkmate, Breville will repair or replace its soda maker if you come across any defects within the first two years.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s pricey for what it offers. For all of this soda maker’s aesthetic and visual charm, it offers no additional functionality (besides making it easier to swap the CO2 cylinder). With this model’s price tag, almost four times that of our top pick, you’re not paying for better soda — just a prettier machine.

It can stain easily. That sleek and shiny stainless steel body looks lovely, but we found that water stains were quite visible after use. You can easily buff them away with a dry cloth, but to keep this model looking its best, you have to wipe it off after each bottle of soda you make.

Best for no-frills countertop use: Drinkmate OmniFizz

Best for...

If you want a no-frills standing soda maker

Drinkmate OmniFizz

The OmniFizz, our previous top pick, makes excellent, zippy, lively bubbles just as sparkling as those of our current top pick. It’s a reliable machine that we still stand by, though we love the option to avoid taking up counter space with the Drinkmate Spritzer.

$100 from Amazon$100 from Walmart

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use, conventional countertop soda maker, our previous top pick, the Drinkmate OmniFizz, remains a great choice, though it's less customizable and portable than the Drinkmate Spritzer.

It makes a full liter of soda at a time. The OmniFizz comes with a 1-liter bottle. If you go through seltzer quickly or have a household with many seltzer drinkers, this is a great option to start with, since you don’t have to purchase an additional bottle or a larger canister and stand separately, as you’d have to do with our top pick. You can use the OmniFizz with any screw-in 60-liter CO2 cylinder, including the SodaStream cylinders available in many big-box stores; if you go with SodaStream cylinders, just be sure to get the type with the blue label, not the pink Quick Connect version.

It makes excellent soda. It produces consistently delightful carbonated beverages — equal to the results we saw from the Drinkmate Spritzer and Breville InFizz Fusion — that you can easily ramp up or down to your taste level, creating anything from a subtle fizz to big, tumbling bubbles. The OmniFizz also carbonates nonwater beverages like juice just as well as it carbonates water.

We carbonated sugary apple juice using the OmniFizz to delightful results and with minimal leakage. Note, though, that some frothing is unavoidable when you’re carbonating sugary beverages, even in the OmniFizz. To minimize spillage, fill the bottle only halfway when carbonating anything particularly viscous, rich, or sugary, and wait between button pushes for the froth to settle.

The Drinkmate OmniFizz comes with a two-year warranty. This is the same amount of coverage as for the Drinkmate Spritzer and the Breville InFizz Fusion.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Changing the CO2 cylinder can be challenging. Our editors found the back panel of the OmniFizz difficult to remove, and screwing and unscrewing the canister requires quite a bit of hand strength and dexterity. When we asked testers of different hand strengths and abilities to test this soda maker, they found it the most difficult to use of the models they tried.

Its construction is flimsy. The plastic body of this soda maker felt on the flimsier and less durable side, especially after we tested it alongside our current top and upgrade picks. It relies on the weight of the canister and a filled bottle of liquid to stay steady on the counter, and an accidental knock or bump could easily crack the body of this machine.

Other soda makers worth considering

If you want a water-only, budget seltzer machine: Regularly available for around $60 in several trendy, attractive colors, the Philips GoZero Sparkling Water Maker is a good soda maker at a great price, especially if you anticipate carbonating only water and no other beverages. You do have to purchase a carbon dioxide canister separately, which generally costs around $30 (or around $15 to $20 if you’re exchanging with an empty cylinder), but even then it’s still less expensive than our other picks, and you get to choose your cylinder brand from the get-go. Unlike other budget soda makers we tested, which failed to produce an even solution of carbon dioxide and water, this Philips model made consistent seltzer without any sour flavor or aftertaste, though its bubbles were smaller and sharper, not as large or roiling as those of our top pick, and they didn’t last quite as long.

Exchanging your carbon dioxide cylinders

Generally, new carbon dioxide cylinders cost about $30 each (some companies require you to buy two at that price). Once you have some empty cylinders, usually you can exchange them for full cylinders at a discount of $10 to $15 off each new cylinder.

SodaStream is the only company that currently offers widespread in-store cylinder exchange. You can find the nearest participating store and what cylinders it has available through SodaStream’s store locator. If you live near a participating store, this is likely the cheapest CO2 refill option, at about $15 per cylinder.

In addition, SodaStream, Drinkmate, and Soda Sense all offer mail-in cylinder-exchange programs, in which you send in empty cylinders and receive full ones. Which one you use depends on a few factors:

SodaStream charges $15 per refill cylinder, plus a shipping cost that decreases with additional cylinders you exchange and free shipping if you exchange four or more cylinders at once. To exchange cylinders by mail, use SodaStream’s gas-exchange order form. Once you receive the new cylinders, you have 60 days to return your empty cylinders, or SodaStream will charge you an additional $15 per cylinder, canceling out the cost benefit of exchanging cylinders in the first place. This late fee is a perpetual target of online ire, and it’s the biggest reason we recommend exchanging SodaStream cylinders in person.

Drinkmate’s cylinder-exchange program is coupon-based. Once you return cylinders, at least two at a time, you receive a coupon for your next cylinder purchase: $22 off if you return two cylinders, $35 off if you return three, or $55 off if you return four. Drinkmate does not charge late fees and also exchanges Soda Sense and SodaStream cylinders.

Soda Sense’s refill club offers free shipping, but you must exchange two cylinders at a time. Once you have at least two empty canisters to exchange, you order a free refill shipping box to send them — or, if you’re still in need of cylinders, you can order a bundle that includes full cylinders and a box to send them back once they’re empty. Once the Postal Service scans your package of empties, Soda Sense automatically initiates an order for the same number of full refills and charges the card on your account $21 per cylinder. Soda Sense does not charge late fees, and it exchanges universal 60-liter cylinders from other brands. Of the mail-in programs we looked at, Soda Sense’s exchange program seems to be the most seamless, automated, and easy to get started with.

Other than SodaStream’s pink Quick Connect cylinders, CO2 cylinders are generally universal; you don’t have to go with the exchange system for the company behind the soda maker you purchase. If you want to mix and match cylinder brands and machine brands, however, make sure to buy a soda maker only, not a bundle deal that includes cylinders from the same company as your soda maker.

We’re also currently testing the Simpli Soda cylinder exchange, which is the cheapest program we’ve found and operates through Amazon.

How to get the best results

The canned or bottled seltzer you’re used to drinking is probably made with filtered water. To get the same clean taste when you’re making seltzer at home, we recommend filtering your water before carbonating it.

Also, most of the manuals for the soda makers we tested suggest using cold water for the best results, and we recommend that too. Water and other liquids are physically able to take on more gas the colder they are. Using room-temperature water in your soda maker is likely to result in a less thoroughly mixed solution of water and carbonic acid, leading to weaker bubbles and a more prominent unpleasant sour taste. Keeping a pitcher of filtered water or prefilled soda-maker bottles in the fridge will set you up for great results anytime you’re ready to make some seltzer.

The competition

This is not a comprehensive list of everything we tested for previous iterations of this guide, just what’s still available.

We previously recommended the OTE Portable Sparkling Water Machine as our handheld pick. But after retesting, we found that our new top pick, the Drinkmate Spritzer, is a non-countertop option with much stronger bubbles, functionality, and customizability than the OTE model offers. This machine’s bubbles quickly fizzled out, in under 10 minutes, and unlike the Drinkmate Spritzer, it’s limited to carbonating water.

Although the Drinkmate Lux performed just as well in our tests as our top pick, we found its $275 price tag untenable — especially considering that you can upgrade your Drinkmate Spritzer or Drinkmate OmniFizz system by purchasing the sleek, insulated metal bottle of the Lux separately on the Drinkmate website for only $55.

The Ninja Thirsti Drink System is an electric countertop soda maker. Instead of being able to manually customize how carbonated your water should be, you must rely on a panel that merely lets you pick one of three bubbly settings, from low to high. We found that even the “highest” setting came nowhere close to the bubbliness of our top pick. The machine’s clunky construction, its requirement to be plugged in on your countertop to operate, and its non-insulated water canister were all dealbreakers.

The construction of the MySoda Woody looked sleek but felt especially flimsy and light — we likened it to a cardboard box. Changing out the canister was challenging and cumbersome, and we pinched our fingers a few times trying to screw the top of the machine on. In addition, the MySoda Woody is restricted to carbonating water; for a similar price, our top pick allows you to carbonate any beverage.

The SodaStream Fizzi One Touch is an electric soda maker, so rather than needing to press a button repeatedly, you can press a button just once, and the soda maker carries out an automated carbonation process depending on which of three carbonation levels you choose. But we found that even on level three, the Fizzi One Touch’s carbonation level was lighter than that of other machines, producing more of a soft, subtle sting than a bubbly, satisfying fizz.

The higher price and stainless steel exterior design of the Aarke Carbonator 3 suggest premium quality, but we found the machine to be wobbly and especially loud. The seltzer was good, with adequate bubbles, but it quickly took on a sour taste as it sat out, whereas seltzer from our picks eventually flattened but still remained flavor-neutral.

With a stainless steel exterior and a glass carafe, the pricey Aarke Carbonator Pro seemed promising as an upgrade option for seltzer aficionados wanting to avoid plastic. But the internal mechanisms of this machine, such as the carbonation nozzle, are still plastic, and the glass carafe adds difficulty to the carbonation process, as you have to slide a metal sleeve over the glass carafe, at which point you cannot see the carbonation happening. The manual suggests carbonating until you hear a buzz, but like the company’s Carbonator 3, this soda maker is particularly loud, making a lot of buzz-like sounds throughout the carbonating process, so knowing when to stop is hard. It took us a few tries to get this one right, and even when we did, the resulting seltzer was only as good as what we produced on our picks, no better — and unlike the seltzer from our picks, it acquired a sour taste the longer it sat out. The Carbonator Pro also leaked, leaving behind a puddle in the basin under the bottle after each use.

We tested two iSi handheld soda makers: the iSi Soda Siphon and the iSi Sodamaker Classic. The two differ in build material but have in common overly complicated processes and unpalatable seltzer. Instead of offering a max-fill line, these soda makers have “measuring tubes” that you are supposed to fill until they overflow, making a mess before you even get started. These measuring tubes also require separate plastic “keys” for removal — single-purpose devices we don’t want in our kitchen. The instructions suggest that the seltzer is ready after the use of one 8-gram CO2 charger and at least five shakes of the soda maker, but it took us closer to 15 shakes to create any bubbles at all. We don’t recommend either of these models, but between the two we preferred the Classic, as its measuring-tube key was easier to use, and its lever was easier to push down than that of the Siphon.

The seltzer from the SodaStream Terra was weak and sour, and the button felt flimsy, requiring precision for a full push.

We were drawn to the rugged, double-walled stainless steel design of the handheld GrowlerWerks uKeg Twist, not to mention the machine’s promise to both make seltzer on the go and keep it cold all day. But we found this soda maker extremely difficult to use. Screwing the plastic lid onto the metal bottle threads and screwing the small plastic “regulator cap” on and off were some of the most hand-straining tasks in all of our soda maker testing. The machine leaked throughout the carbonation process, and it was hard for us to get the CO2 charger to release fully rather than in weird little chirps. After all of our effort, the seltzer was only barely carbonated.

The Spärkel Beverage System is an electric soda maker that uses packets of baking soda and citric acid to create CO2 and carbonate any beverage of your choice. As long as the bottom cap is screwed on tight, the resulting seltzer tastes okay but loses carbonation quickly. And the machine took the longest of any we tested to complete a carbonation cycle, so we dismissed it.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.

Meet your guides

Antara Sinha

What I Cover

Antara Sinha is an associate staff writer reporting on cooking and kitchen gear at Wirecutter. She was previously at Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Cooking Light, and she has over seven years of experience writing about food, drink, and culture. She considers herself an ice cream connoisseur and believes the Chipwich to be a perfect food.

Mace Dent Johnson

What I Cover

Mace Dent Johnson is a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter. Their background is in creative writing and academic research, and they are always thinking about food.

Further reading

• 

  The Best Countertop Ice Maker

  by Andrea Barnes

  If you dislike lugging bags of ice home from the store or filling ice-cube trays, a countertop ice maker might make your day.

• 

  How to Clean Your Coffee Maker

  by Joanne Chen

  Cleaning your coffee maker regularly and thoroughly will help the machine last longer and make the coffee taste better.

• 

  The Best Ice Cream Maker

  by Mace Dent Johnson

  We’ve tested 21 ice cream makers, and our favorite is the Cuisinart ICE-21. It’s a great tool for beginners and pros alike.
• 

  The Drinkmate OmniFizz Converted Me From Cases of LaCroix to DIY Carbonation

  by Mace Dent Johnson

  The Drinkmate OmniFizz is a simple, sleek soda maker that can carbonate any beverage you want.

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