QuinnyCodedwhats your dumb purchases?
BootLoopI always dreamed of having a fast food pop machine in my house as a kid. It took me about a year of owning a SodaStream as an adult to realize that I do own a slower and smaller scale pop machine and I can make as much pop as I want.
jqubedDoes it taste different than what you get in cans/bottles for home use?
If you want it to taste as close to identical as possible, you can usually find name brand bag in box syrups if you search around. So I guess in theory you should be able to get the same taste as real fountain soda. Idk how that compares to bottled though. I had a box of dr pepper syrup which made great tasting dr pepper.
Yeah, it tastes pretty different. It’s either the carbonation or the fact each SodaStream is haunted by the thousands of people killed and displaced for them to put a factory in the West Bank. 50/50 on which is a bigger factor
Is that a fact?
Everything can be a fact if you believe enough
Upon cursory glance at internet research yes sodastream is Israeli. Pass.
It’s also just a stand for a nozzle and a valve with really really overpriced CO2 cans
Check out this DIY fitting video to understand how it works and why you NEVER have to have a stupid sodastream to carbonate drinks
It’s exponentially cheaper to buy a 5 or 10 pounds refillable cylinder
and just fill existing 2 litres bottle
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLFvw4CVKgY
Home made big Carbonation System for $45.00 and 4X the power of soda steam
I love you, internet person
well I won’t say no to random internet love so thank you
Only thing I’ve been told to be mindful of is that sodastream CO2 cartridges are food safe and a lot of the cheaper alternatives aren’t.
I theory yes, In practice nobody makes contaminated industrial CO² since the 1950s. If there are contaminant the gas supply will be VERY upfront about it. Usually it’s over 99.99% pure, very low moisture There’s also usually very few commercial sources of industrial gases in any particular town, so it’s usually not difficult to source it.
If you want to pay extra, then find “food grade gas”, it’s probably the exact same gas because the industrial gas is already so pure it meets food grade quality. Probably the only difference is the fitting is kept “food clean”
My gas guy gets it from “air liquide”, it’s a welding shop
And when you look at the product’s safety datasheet
It even already lists it as “food grade” They even list it as “100%” pure but of course, nothing is 100% pure.
Personally, after seeing inside industrial facilities I’d personally prefer to use something they’re forced to classify differently. Yes, I know there’s a level of acceptable puss in milk or bugs in food, but I’d rather play pretends that the person processing everything is also concerned that I might be ingesting whatever is in the canister. Some people don’t like using tap water on their pasta and we humor them because it’s going to get boiled anyway but it’s their own personal use.
It really depends on the production process,
Imagine of the production process intrinsically produces 3% carbon monoxide,
that would be very bad for inhaling !
But as industrial inputs that can be perfectly OK, as long as it is known, expected and dealt with.
But over time, gas manufacturer devised ways to make pure gas for the lowest price as any other production process.
So that’s the only gas that is available already, and has been for a long time.
That’s why I’m not worried about CO2 gas for the welding shop. The most likely contaminant is going to be a few milligrams of regular air
But yes in the abstract, you can’t use anything but certified food safe gas. The problem is that now your distributor needs to have food safe practices along the whole supply chain.
That means not the welding shop, because they’re not a laboratory or kitchen, they don’t have a food safe protocol for gas handling.
And the industrial distributor will not sell you any gas if you buy less than a couple tons.
So, in this case buying a sodastream cylinder retail is probably going to be your only option.
And that means paying 18$USD for 380 grams of CO2
Instead of paying 20$USD for 2270 grams
In Germany every supermarket has their own sodastream-compatible cartridges, 100% sealed and food safe. And 30% cheaper or so.
RedjardGoing by memory there used to be competition a few years ago, so they may still be consolidating the market and stabelizing their monopoly before tightening prices.
The company is from Israel but the concept is not. There’s plenty of alternatives from 30 to 1000 bucks.
I got a carbonation machine from “sodapop” (Austrian) for under 50 euros, including a CO2 bottle and 3 water bottles. I buy store-brand CO2 replacement bottles and either store-brand or TriTop (German) syrup.
So does the displacement make it taste better or nah?
A little bit. The carbonation and syrup amount changes each time you make it. But overall it’s the same idea.
I got this bad boy when we needed a new sink anyway. It’s definitely overpriced, I could probably diy a system for way less, but i use this every day and it is awesome having sparkling on tap.
Despite the site screaming left and right that one should not count on a proper keyboard’s worth of keycaps at all, much LESS a matching set, and despite years of forum and reddit posts declaring their underwhelming nature, I still bought a 5-pound (2.27kg) sack of random keycaps from Signature Plastics in Washington state.
I just have to know, and I’m kind of unironically looking forward to sorting them like so many Lego bricks. I may even get a few that are useful for my projects.
Surely there’s enough for a macro pad in there? It’s like the makers version of a scratch off lotto ticket lmfao
Most likely, yes. I think most people do end up finding one or two smaller boards’ worth of “unicorn barf,” which is to say everything is the right shape and 95-99% have the right thing written on them, but the colors are totally random and visually jarring. I also have a few ideas that might benefit from some of the weirder caps, (like a big square that uses four keybaord switches… people seem to end up with some of those) and occasionally you’ll land on something that someone in the hobby actually does need and you can help them out. A lot of it is simply indulging a certain need to examine and categorize.
ObiI mean if you’re into mechs I can see how that could come in handy for spares if anything, or just fucking around. Depends on the price though if you’re paying anywhere close to normal price then it’s probably not worth it, if it’s like 10% of the price then sure why not.
I bought an old pachislo machine from a garage sale because ... I'm not real sure, but I have one of those now.
Looks fun. How much was it?
$75, and it works. Well ... worked, it's being weird now, but I'm sure it's mechanical, I just haven't gotten to looking at it.
Damn I’ve always wanted something like this! Jelly
If you manage to find one, there's a modification you can do to it so that it will also take US quarters. Mine seems to have already had that modification before I got it, so I can't say how involved it is, but I don't think it's too hard.
craigersA switch 2. No regrets on that fat PP tho love that thing.
I also love girthy pp
salty licorice😈
FancyLad Self-balancing electric vehicle gang! I have a VESC onewheel build and it’s the best waste of money ever.
those are so much money, I’m so jealous lol
I just got mine for 350 off Facebook marketplace
I just got mine for 350 off Facebook marketplace
You can do a vesc conversion on the cheap, there are kits out there. I spent two years amassing parts for my build and it made me feel like Tony Stark putting it together (and it worked).
knight_alvaEspresso machine
A nice double boiler one
I bought an entry level espresso machine and i thought that i want a really fancy one, if i keep using it and this one breaks. That was like 8 years ago and i use it almost daily and don’t really want another one.
Wayyyyyyy too much tea
what kinds :D
Thanks for asking :) WARNING: I got excited to respond. I’ve gotten into a Puerh kick lately. For those that don’t know, Puerh is a very dark fermented tea. My current one taste predominantly like leather with a hint of wood and dirt. High quality dirt. I adore this tea.
I’ve got a huge white2tea.com sampler order that hasn’t been shipped yet. I’m trying like 21 different teas spread across the following categories: white, ripe puerh, raw puerh, haungpain.
FYI haungpain is known as “Farms Tea”. It uses broken leaves and leaves lower on the tea plant that were/are considered lower quality. But I hear the lower leaves have a nice robust flavor, and most tea I buy tends to avoid the lower leaves. I’m excited to try it.
I’m thinking of reviewing all the tea I get posting them all on the tea community or something.
youre gonna make me get into tea again man lol
last time i bought some i wanted to try puerh too >:)
those all sound cool asf :D
Hell yeah lol. I hope you get some!
Since we are a few comments in, and can be sure few others are reading: have you heard of fuzhuan? Its another fermented tea category and I’ve only see great reviews online. Near every review has a comment being like “shhhhh, if this gets as popular as puerh then prices will rise”.
Its on my radar and I’m so curious about it. And tbh one of my favorite things is a big brick of tea. Fuzhuan often comes in 1kg bricks.
ive never heard of that, im curious now too >:)
It is fermented using a fungus that can leave gold spots on it. Often called “golden flowers”. I hear it taste a lot like puerh, but has its own uniqueness. Honesty I’m a little scared of it lol.
But I’ve not seen a bad review for it. Though its good to consider that this tea category is obscure, so maybe only big tea nerds ever stumble upon it.
whoisearthGet on my level lol
I tell my kids “if I’m not tea-ing I’m peeing”. It’s truly my only vice.
Lol let’s go.
Tea is easy to pretend it isn’t a vice. Just keep telling yourself its healthy. Even if it may be a bit more borderline at our levels lol.
No such thing.
That fat PP looks a little on the short side.
FredselfishNot enough room here to show all my impulse purchases.
A blank 10cm by 10cm square piece of aluminium. About 2 cm thick
I think I wanted to know how it felt. Like, the vibe of aluminium
LudrolAdd a tungsten cube to begin a collection.
I did a coop at IBM many many years ago. My project used a 1" thick slab of aluminum that was about 3’ x 4’ and it was so much fun to just touch that thing. We also had CADCAM which was not at all widespread in the '80s. It was so much fun to design parts and send them to the machine shop electronically and have them show up on a cart outside the lab the next day. Quite a shame how far IBM has fallen since those days.
That sounds completely logical to me. Did having a hunk of aluminum answer the question for you? Or did it only drive a more insatiable desire to hold elemental materials?
Onewheels are so much fun.
DyskolosA convertible that I had have tuned to the max and foiled and re-seated to my liking in my favorite colors. It looked awesome in my head.
Then my pimp-mobile came. And I always was the center of attention. Which I, a very private person, highly disliked but gloriously failed to predict. Also it was horrible to drive for >30mins because you basically had your nuts on the ground and felt every Lil pebble on the road. Few months later I sold the car and bought one which basically made me invisible. One that only >70yrs olds drive here 😁
I drive a roadster myself. Recently I’ve noticed that to get out of it, I have to lift my left leg up with my arms and set my foot on the ground, otherwise I get a sartorius muscle strain. I now understand why used roadsters are so cheap: there is only a tiny window where you’re old enough to afford one but young enough to actually get in and out of it.
Lol yes. That too. It was no fun to get in or out. On top of that enjoyment I’m 2m and ripped two jeans while getting out. Up to that point I never saw the appeal of SUVs 😁
I keep buying more synthesizers while I already have more than enough. I buy more than I play with them.
Something like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vjAeTh4DnY&list=RD1vjAeT… ?
The Bird and the Bee - Will You Dance? (Acoustic Session)
No I don’t have money for the real ones. I mostly have Behringer clones.