DIY Carbonated Water - unlimited, on tap, nearly free

[@jamesbrown99991]

Very cool. A standard under-counter water filter before the keg would be a nice addition.

[@MrDinorex33]

Cuts down on the hard water into the keg and leads to less cleaning

[@kristinjokela381]

I need this. Thanks for the how-to.

[@ericness9660]

Love the idea. I was just looking at how to hook up a larger CO2 tank to my DrinkMate because those refills are way overpriced for CO2. But I didn’t realize there were different grades of CO2 so I’m glad I watched this video to learn that

[@JJiG]

I was told that there isn't food grade or industrial grade co2, it's the container you're using which defines that. so for example if u buy a new c02 canister and only use it for carbonated water then it's food safe as the actual container wasn't used in an industrial setting, but if you have to say swap your container which some places do and u don't know where its going after then its safe to say it was used for something that u don't wanna use it for to drink from after. so I dunno ymmv

[@punkdigerati]

I would suggest only using stainless or plastic faucets for seltzer, the carbonic acid can eat away at many metals which will be dissolved into it when you drink it. Same for other soda dispensing or wine, even flat wine with nitrogen. Beer isn't as carbonated/acidic and plated brass fittings can last longer, but still wear through with time.

[@OliverHoerold]

I also use this special keg lid and I love it. Cheers, great video!

[@nova31337]

Where can you find this lid?

[@williamwong3316]

Hi could you share where I could buy this cap, many thanks.

[@mmr159]

@@nova31337google continuous soda carbonator keg lid Most brewing shops have them.

[@mmr159]

@@williamwong3316google continuous soda carbonator keg lid

[@drewryvoshefski3651]

Thank You! Thank you for this video! Following your ideas, I took my R/O line into the basement under the kitchen sink, ran it into a keg in a fridge and back upstairs to be served in a dual spigot next to tap R/O water. I am overjoyed to never have to carry kegs filled at the kitchen sink into the garage and then run back out to the garage 10 times a day to fill up my glass. I live near Corny Keg, and the owner was very nice in encouragement and ideas for getting my system up and running. Rough cost for new system when all was said and done: $500. Having cold fizzy water that requires practically NO further work: priceless! I was a little on the obsessive side when making sure the fridge in the basement was up high so I would not have to waste a lot of Carb water waiting for it to get cold. As it turns out, I used something like 1/4" tubing from Corny Keg, and it takes no time at all to get to cold. I could have gotten by with not having the top of the fridge at ceiling level. It was a little difficult to work with the 3 tubes coming out of the fridge so close to the ceiling. My tubing goes through the top of the fridge. I was a little wary of drilling holes in the side due to possibly hitting a coolant line.

[@phamaral249]

Does your R/O tap disturb the water too much? I just got one of these taps but I think mine is taking a lot of the carbonation out of the water, it comes out cloudy just like the one in this video. I'll still do some tests but previously when I used a picnic tap the water wasn't disturbed and came out super fizzy.

[@drewryvoshefski3651]

@@phamaral249 My R/O tap does not disturb the water too much. currently @ 45 PSI it does gurgle a bit on its way out of the spigot.

[@JohnDoe-es5xh]

Nice installation. What ppl all do to consume stuff for decent burping. Long burps can free your minds and souls.

[@pleasebitt]

I just stumbled across your channel and it literally is what I want to do as an engineer. I am currently an undergrad and watching your videos give me inspiration and motivation to do projects. Thank you!

[@SeanQuinn4]

Oh jeez, now the devil in me is curious if our fridge dispenser valve/plumbing could hold this pressure 🤔 we have an RO setup, coupling it into some form of carbonation setup has beem on my bucket list, but is probably outside the realm of fitting in our current home 😅 bookmarked this for that future occasion, though 🤘

[@lifeinbuyck]

Awesome find! been making my own seltzer water for year but always have to refill my corney keg by hand when it runs out.. and you dont have to deal with the mccann carbonator.

[@JJiG]

i just picked up a mcann carbonator even knowing about this lid, but the thing I didn't know was that it has a float valve, if I had I would've bypassed that entirely.

[@mmr159]

How did you manage to serve the soda water so nicely? 40 psi would be like a fire hose of bubbly water?

[@UAVfutures]

awesome man. ive got a DIY solution hooked up to my soda stream but your solution on tap is awesome. not you just got to figure out how to auto make the CO2 lol

[@lelanddyke8386]

oh wow. I've looked at a ton of ways to do this, and I've never come across the keg, just a bunch of expensive pumps. not much excuse not to, now

[@globglob3d]

Exactly what I needed, now to find a cornelius keg somehow...

[@JJiG]

they're all over marketplace for like 20 bux depending where u live. i need to pick up one as well.

[@lifeinbuyck]

what ball lock are you using for the water in?

[@hassiaschbi]

cool! what is your take on integrating that into a reverse osmosis system?

[@anthonydellaragione81]

Excellent

[@zzresolute]

Cool Idea and I like the setup. I found all the parts except I cannot find the Continuous sparkling water keg lid with the special float valve. Do you have a parts list and source you can share?

[@nathanbuildsdiy]

I'll get a parts list together. For starters here's where I got the soda top: cornykeg.com/products/continuous-soda-carbonator-keg-lid There are other retailers that carry it though. I was trying to avoid endorsing one over another.

[@zzresolute]

@@nathanbuildsdiy thank you much!

[@KelvinGreyheart]

Try ptfe tubing if you want minimal flavor contamination. It's teflon lined. I used it for aquarium stuff because it reduced gas losses by quite a bit, but that same lack permittivity also makes it very low flavor. Also, get a stainless tap. Off the shelf ones from a hardware store are going to degrade and contaminate your water with some less than pleasant compounds. Everything after the check valve should be either stainless or plastic.

[@nathanbuildsdiy]

Good info! Thanks man

[@Z__K217]

Greeting Nathan. Thanks for this. I would rather connect a large bottle of filtered water to the kegerator - I am thinking I would need a flowjet (pump) to apply pressure to fill the kegerator. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks !

[@nathanbuildsdiy]

You could pour the filtered water directly into the keg. If you want to have a separate bottle for the filtered water you'd have to pressurize it somehow to force it in there. I think residential water pressure is actually pretty high, so a pump is probably the way to go. perhaps try a diaphragm pump from amazon and see if it can produce enough pressure to force the water in?

[@Z__K217]

@@nathanbuildsdiy Agreed. Thanks again.

[@michaelwolf2561]

Is that faucet brass free? Carbonated water and brass don't go together. The carbonated water slowly leaches metal out of the brass, which is (at least theoretically) poisonous. But even if you're not concerned about the health hazard, a brass valve in a faucet that's slowly being eaten away will eventually cause catastrophic failure of the faucet, and a water flood in your kitchen. I learned this the hard way. Sadly, it seems to be extremely difficult to find a faucet that's rated for carbonated water. Beer taps seem to be the only easily available option. That or restaurant style beverage guns, which isn't what most people want in their residential kitchen.

[@nathanbuildsdiy]

This is a great question, and I didn't realize brass + carbonation don't mix! I can't see what's inside the faucet without disassembling, so I'm going ot try to read up on the website about it. The exterior is brushed nickel, but there could be a brass ring in there for a compression fitting or something without my knowledge. I'll check!

[@wardsmith2476]

inspired...but on that same theme... having a heck of a time trying to find a stainless (barbed, to plug into plastic tubing) check-valve/ backflow preventer

[@williamwong3316]

Hi Nathanbuild, where I could find this Cornelius keg cap for water coming in. Thanks William

[@Lars-w4n]

aliexpress

[@nathanbuildsdiy]

I got mine from cornykeg.com/products/continuous-soda-carbonator-keg-lid

[@adrianomauri2247]

isnt a condition for this system to work, to have the tap water pressure higher than the CO2 pressure after the regulator? otherwise i dont understand how you could possible fill the keg

[@Originalsunrunner20]

Yes. Your tap pressure will have to be above the regulator output pressure- and a little above that because it'll be compressing CO2 space to fill with water. You can use the Ideal Gas Law (Pv=NRT) to find the approximate values. And, if your water pressure is too low, you can buy a booster pump, may not need a booster tank at all.

[@wearemany73]

I love it 🥰

[@thepopemichael]

Its a lot cheaper than a McCanns Carbonator. I paid $600 new foe one and it does the same...

[@tatertot3454]

So since you have the McCann can you tell me pros and cons of it in relation to this system? I’m guessing your Carbonator can make water faster?

[@KelvinGreyheart]

@@tatertot3454 It's faster yeah. These passive systems have a significant recharge time if you drain them heavily. The fresh water needs to cool down and absorb the gas. For a few people using it, that's fine, but you can pretty easily drain it enough to reduce the fizz if you're pouring pitchers of it for a party or something. The powered systems operate at significantly higher pressure (you can run them all the way up to around 120 psi if you want) so you can get much stronger carbonation, even at higher temperatures, and they carbonate fast enough for continuous use if you're running the water through a cooling loop. The big mac can do around 100 gallons/hr at full carbonation if you're setup correctly. Note that without a proper flow control tap you'll be burning most of the carbonation (and you can see that in her glass in the video, most of the gas is escaping very fast), so the benefits of going to higher PSI aren't that notable unless you're not refrigerating stuff prior to dispensing.

[@1over137]

My mains water pressure is only 16psi :( Cant fill a keg at 40psi

[@Kickassgamingable]

You’re not filling it from the tap at that pressure. It’s the co2 cylinder carbonating it at that pressure.

[@marvlb]

Some parts list would have made this video somewhat useful. Just laziness not providing list.