If you can, I would recommend taste testing it somehow, through a friend, or a demo/tasting event at a store that hosts that sort of thing. My store did for awhile, but has decided not to anymore.

A friend of ours with TEN...yes, TEN kids, loves theirs. They all seem to do their own version of Coke, more then any others. I have not tried the flavors or results of their machine, so I cannot comment on that aspect, but they think it saves them a ton of money.

I will definitely have to see if I can find a friend with one or a store that's doing a testing then.

I think they say its about .25c per 1 liter of carbonated water with the soda stream

If you were to pay full/regular price for the sodastream flavors/CO2 canister exchange etc then you are paying .25c a can of soda or, $3 for a 12 pack. Depending where you live this might be cheaper, or more expensive. Sometimes a lot of places have sales on 12packs that end up being $2-$2.75 per 12pk. Also with sodastream you cant cash in cans/bottles or recycle them for money.

Luckily for me, with my discount at work, and also when flavors get close to their expiration, they are major discounted. I generally get most of my flavors at .25c for 12 liters worth and up to $2 for 12 liters worth, or 33 cans of soda. Our company allows us to discount food/drink products as they get closer to that date so we can get rid of them. So right now i'm generally paying $1 to $1.50 per 12pk.

For a family of 10, I hope they buy in bulk and get some discounts on it at least, otherwise I doubt it is cheaper. But I also look at it as the greener way if you will. By using the sodastream, i'll use 2000 less 1 liter bottles. That's 2000 that won't need to be recycled etc.

Agreed