Best 6 Soda Makers (2025): Drinkmate, SodaStream, Aerflo | WIRED

Jun 27, 2025

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Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

Fizzy Water is better water. The best soda makers offer bubble heaven, a limitless supply of delicious sparkling water without the need to store cases and cases of seltzer—and without using so many disposable bottles. It's healthier than sugar sodas, and a weird diet trick to fool your body into feeling full. Heck, I care about sparkling water enough that I organized a blind taste test of about 20 different sparkling-water brands, with a strong and abiding preference for balanced Mineragua and beautifully bracing Sardinian Smeraldina.

But this said, our top-rated soda maker, the Drinkmate Omnifizz ($100), can carbonate even more than water. I've made fizzy wine and cherry juice foam—and even revivified a flat 2-liter of Coca-Cola. Dang. Meanwhile the Carbon8 ($200) offers water filtration to remove residual chlorine, and will even add calcium and magnesium to give you that mineral water flavor. This drives home another point, after recent reports of forever chemical PFAS in a number of sparkling water brands: Making sparkling water at home gives you a bit more control over the water you're drinking. The best soda makers will help make this pleasant.

Looking for more cool refreshment? Check out our guides to the Best Juicers, Best Cold Brew Makers, and Best Energy Drinks.

Updated June 2025: We added the Drinkmate OmniFizz and Carbon8 to our top picks. We also tested Drinkmate Spritzer, updated pricing and product information, and reassessed our top picks. A previous version of this guide was prepared by WIRED contributing reviewer Andrew Watman.

Drinkmate

Amazon

Bed, Bath and Beyond (with extra bottle)

The Drinkmate OmniFizz has introduced me to an entirely new world of carbonated beverages. I have fizzed up my own wine, for an utterly ridiculous take on sparklers. I've successfully revivified Coca-Cola from a week-old 2-liter bottle. I've turned dense and syrupy black cherry juice into wild foam that could be layered atop a cocktail. And, of course, I've carbonated cold water.

Drinkmate's user-friendly carbonation process works like a lot of other carbonation systems: You slide the bottle, capped by a “fizz infuser adapter” into the machine, and press a trigger to infuse carbon dioxide into whatever liquid's in the bottle. The key addition is a little valve that allows you to slow-release pressure from the bottle, after you're done carbonating. This lets you deal with mega-foamy, syrupy liquids like soda, wine, fruit juice, stuff of all kinds. It's a new world of bubbles. Depending on how persistent you are, you can get Topo Chico levels of big-bubbled, manic, aggressive fizz or lighter, more subtle carbonation.

Sure, the OmniFizz is made of flimsy-feeling plastic, with equally plastic bottles. But I've nonetheless seen good reports on durability and the warranty's two years. Ease of use is also pretty seamless. Note that the canister exchange system's a little awkward, requiring mail-ins for store credit. Luckily, Drinkmate is compatible with the threaded (not the Quick Connect) SodaStream canisters. I also look forward to testing the more solidly built “Lux” version of the Omnifizz.

SodaStream

Amazon

Williams Sonoma

WIRED's previous top pick, the SodaStream Enso, combines a few lovely, lovely qualities: ease, durability, and simple aesthetics. You can slide the water bottle into the machine's wand with one hand. Inserting CO2 cylinders is equally easy, sliding in with ease when you lift the lever on the back without having to screw in a canister. Carbonation is as simple as a button push on the top, and no electrical outlet is required.

The stainless steel exterior plating makes this premium SodaStream a bit more durable than the plastic competition—a quality backed up by a two-year warranty. While the bottle remains plastic, it's a higher quality than other SodaStream models, contributing reviewer Andrew Watman noted, and it retains its carbonation well. SodaStream's carbonation canister exchange is the cheapest of any device maker in this guide, and the proprietary bottles are also easy to replace at $22 for two.

Amazon

Williams Sonoma

The Carbon8 is an interesting proposition, and a wholly different model of a water carbonator. It plugs into the wall, for one thing. And it pulls from a 68-ounce removable, refillable water reservoir— meaning you pull sparkling water straight into your drinking cup, the same way you'd fill your cup from the tap. This means you don't have to worry about it going flat: Just pull what you need.

The most interesting sell, however, is Carbon8's filtering and disinfecting and remineralizing technology. Carbon8 hits water with UV light, shown in some studies to be helpful against bacteria. The tank also comes with a carbon filter, which I tested to be effective at removing chlorine or chloramine that might affect the taste of the water. But also? The Carbon8 “remineralizes” the water with calcium and magnesium, essentially turning the carbonated water into a home version of sparkling mineral water. It might not have the character of the ancient springs of Sardinia, but it is an admirable take on home sparkling mineral water.

But note the machine is a bit spurty—like, you'll need to hold your drinking cup right up to the spout—and the carbonation is not quite as peppy as our top picks. You'll have to replace the remineralizing chlorine filters alongside your carbon dioxide canisters, at $15 a pop or $12 with a subscription.

SodaStream

Amazon

Want basically the same SodaStream functionality for less money, with the caveat that you get a more lightweight and plasticky build? The Soda Stream Art, with its pleasant manual lever operation, is often found on sale for a hundred dollars or less. While the build feels a bit flimsier than the Enso—not ideal if you're a heavy user—the two-year warranty is the same. It does pull above its weight class, however, in terms of its carbonation abilities, noted contributing reviewer Andrew Watman.

If you want flavors, SodaStream sells separate flavor mixes, like Pepsi or Mountain Dew, that you can add to your sparkling water for $7 each for a bottle that makes about 9 liters.

Aerflo

Huckberry

This one’s for the sparkling-obsessed person who can’t leave the house without their bubbly beverage in hand. The Aer1 system from Aerflo is a nifty water bottle that allows you to carbonate on the go—and it works really well. Rather than the large CO2 canisters that most home soda makers require, the Aer1 comes with 15 mini capsules, which look almost like bullets, and screw easily into the compartment that’s attached underneath the bottle cap. You fill the water high enough so that it hits this tube. Once the lid is screwed back on, you lightly push on the top to release the CO2 to your preference. After each push, you’re supposed to shake the bottle. That’s it. It produces a really refreshing carbonation.

The bottle is partially stainless steel, which helps keep it cold longer. It holds up to 500 milliliters of water if you plan to carbonate, but otherwise, it holds a total of 650 milliliters of water (you need to leave room for the bubbles). The company also provides the option to engrave your initials on it. The package comes with a small silicon capsule holder that allows you to carry up to three capsules on the go. It’s almost like carrying your earbuds case. I probably wouldn’t carry these in my pocket, but if i had a bag with me then I’d definitely throw it in there. Twelve refill capsules are also included, as well as a prepaid shipping box to send the empty ones back. —Andrew Watman

Ninja

Amazon

Target

The Ninja Thirsti is more than a water carbonator. It's a full-on pod flavored soda machine, great for kids or those who just can't stand a life that doesn't taste like dragonfruit. This one's an electric, requirting an outlet, but it backs this up with some added functionality. It's one of the only machines to offer multiple preset levels of carbonation, with three bubble intensities or even an option not to carbonate. It offers a pod-style flavor infusion option for soda-fountain-style soda making. The Thirsti helpfully indicates when when your CO2 is running low, and when the water in the 48-ounce reservoir's not cold enough (though it doesn't cool your water.)

The device comes with a box of flavor pods, including flavors like lemonade, dragonfruit, watermelon lime, and strawberry kiwi. Some of these flavors are labeled with functional terms like “hydrate,” “vitamins,” or “energy.” Contributing reviewer Andrew Watman wasn't sure he felt any particular way after drinking sweet B-vitamin-infused sodas, though the “energy” pods do contain some caffeine.

Is It Cheaper to Make Your Own Soda?

Bubbling up your own water is convenient, it saves space, and it's by far the most eco-friendly option, versus stacking up cases of sparkling bottles in your fridge. But it's probably not cheaper. Aside from the initial cost of the machine, you'll need to continue to replenish CO2 canisters. These can run anywhere from $20 to $30 for a 60-liter canister, depending on the brand, which adds up, so you’re not necessarily saving money. Note that “60 liters” refers to the theoretical amount of soda you'd make with each canister. If you're a zealous carbonator who likes it fizzy, this may be more like 30 liters.

Some brands also have recycling programs where you send in your empty canister and get it replaced with a full one so that you don’t just toss out the metal canisters. These recycling programs were included in my testing.

How We Tested

Carbonators are a relatively simple technology. Generally, the gadgets just need a CO2 source and a means of pumping the gas into some water. But different makers have different abilities to infuse carbon dioxide into water and to keep it there.

For consistency in assessing the best soda makers, I and contributing reviewer Andrew Watman tested each maker with filtered water made with the Zero Water filter, and kept at a refrigerator temperature, testing fizz not just at the moment of carbonation but also after two hours and the next day to see how the bubbles held up. For makers that could carbonate more than just water, I tested wine, juice, and soda. And for makers with filtration, I tested of course with unfiltered water—and used chemical indicators to back up filtration claims.

I assessed each soda water maker for ease of use, quality of bubbles, duration of carbonation in the provided container, ease of swapping out CO2 cartridges, and simple intangibles: Did I love my soda maker? We'll spend so much time together: It's a shame not to love it.

Breville InFizz Fusion for $250: Like the Drinkmate Omnifizz, the Breville InFizz Fusion allows you to infuse kinda whatever liquid you'd like with carbon dioxide. It's also got a much more durable-seeming construction than our top pick Omnifizz, and contributing reviewer Andrew Watman noted the nice haptics on the carbonation button and attractive die-cast metal colors. But he also found the device's “Fusion Cap” a bit difficult to use, requiring a bit of finagling each time to snap the bottle into the machine and get the cap on properly. These little frustrations kept the device out of our top picks.

Smeg Soda Maker for $200: There's a lot to like about this Smeg soda maker. In a world of utilitarian or plasticky carbonators, Smeg is the only soda maker not named “Aarke” that one could plausibly call sexy, matte-finished with a clever knob control integrated imperceptibly into its sleek form. WIRED reviewer Chris Haslam had good experience with this device in the UK (8/10, WIRED Recommends), but the United States does not have the same CO2 canister exchange program, and this Smeg is the only soda maker I've tested that doesn't come with a canister to start you off—which keeps this out of our top picks. The included instructions are a bit basic, possibly too basic, as Haslam noted in his review. (I found them maddening, frankly, and the included bottle is a bit too easy to mis-thread.) But for the record, four seconds of carbonation gets you light fizz, six seconds gets big club soda bubbles. And it's a gorgeous device. If you want one that looks pretty on your countertop, this might be the one for you.

Aarke Carbonator III for $229: The metallic, slim Aarke is stylish—maybe even sexy—noted contributing reviewer Andrew Watman. This may be reason enough to love it, and invite it to live on your countertop, and unlike many it's a one-touch system. But the bubbles are finer and more faint than other entrants, Watman observed, and you need to flip the machine upside down to screw the canister in. Nice if you like delicate bubbles, though.

Aarke Carbonator Pro for $350: The “Pro” is an upgrade model of the Carbonator 3, but with lovely glass bottles instead of plastic ones. This is all quite pretty, but comes with a bit of a steep price hike.

Drinkmate Spritzer for $80: The portable version of the Drinkmate OmniFizz, shaped a bit like a nail gun, offers many of the same wonderful fizzing capabilities as the OmniFizz—but in a smaller and more portable package. So what's not to love? It's a bit jankier. The fizz infuser mechanism clunks awkwardly forward and back, with great difficulty, making you feel in danger of breaking the plastic. And at one point, the carbonation trigger stayed jammed in the “on” position and blasted carbonation into empty air until I removed the CO2 tank outright. This was an error I wasn't able to replicate, but it made me forever a bit leery.

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