I have had the Penguin one with the glass bottles for a few years, maybe four years, I think it's that long, if not longer. I LOVE it. I prefer Perier as my drink of choice and it was all I was drinking. I don't drink coffee or tea and only once or twice a year do I have some orange juice. Anyway, buying Perrier, even at the case discount (I only like it from the glass bottles), was getting so expensive, so my father suggested the Soda Stream after hearing from some people at work that it was so much better. Well, it's not better, but it IS cheaper. I do like that I can use my ZeroWater filtered water from my fridge and put as much carbonation as I like, which is a LOT. The one thing I can't perfect is the way Perrier in the glass bottles will hold the fizz without it all leaving the water as it warms. I could leave a bottle next to my bed overnight and if not finished, it would still be fizzy in the morning! Of course, I prefer a cold drink, but the problem I find with my SodaStream and any other carbonated drinks is that the carbonation is too fleeting.

I have been buying Canada Dry seltzer water in the cans lately for when I just can't stand to go through all the steps of the SodaStream (I have trouble with the noise and all the moving around when I am sick - I just want to grab a drink and lie down., such is my life *sigh*.

I would recommend it if you would like to control the level of carbonation in your drinks and if you have a close by place to buy the refills, otherwise it's probably not going to be that cost efficient. You have to drink a lot of carbonated drinks to really use it all the time and I don't know that most people do. I love it, but I already told you I would prefer to have unlimited bottles of Perrier. Of course the problem of hauling those bottles and recycling or re-purposing them is a pain as well, not just the cost. I store a lot of the SodaStream refills in the house so I don't have to go exchange them as often. Oh, I would also recommend going with the glass carafe version instead of the plastic, but I try to not use plastic anything which is hard enough as it is.

Are you interested in getting a SodaStream? Do you plan on adding flavors to the water? You might want to know you have to do that after you do the carbonation. I don't drink anything but the plain fizzy water, so I can't comment on the different flavor additives they sell.