CJC45,do you leave the collars in place full time & if so do you find any setback in growth with cabbage family crops or anything else that is shallow rooted.That was my reason for making the collars removable,once the stems are tough enough to not be attacked.I like the idea of using yogurt tubs,but being a Brit,I drink way more rum & coke & don't eat too much yogurt :)

Potassium bicarb works a bit better but sodium bicarb works to some degree if you diligent. You can also try milk about 1 to 2 dilution, as well as vinegar 3 tbsp to gal of water, mouthwash 1 to 3 parts etc Neem oil helps as well.

I have one. I go through easily 3-4 liters of seltzer a day and it was getting expensive and hard to lug that many plastic bottles home from the store. We have the 130L cartridge one (from Costco), but because I like it really fizzy and I go through so many liters a day, it was empty in a couple weeks. And I could only get the smaller sized refill canisters at the local stores -- I would have had to mail-order the larger ones. So I invested a little more in a freedom one hose from a company called CO2 Doctor. It lets you hook up a 20lb CO2 tank (like you'd find in a restaurant fountain soda machine) to the sodastream. Although the initial outlay was high -- about $100 for the sodastream, $100 for the freedom one hose, $65 for a used CO2 tank on craigslist, then $30 to exchange the tank for a full one at the local Airgas -- my expenses now are nothing -- one $30 tank of air lasts me almost a year -- at an average of 3 liters a day with several extra pumps per bottle. If I was more frugal with the carbonation level, it would last close to 2 years. So now the $30 that used to get me about 2 weeks worth of seltzer gets me 10 months. Definitely one of the best purchases I ever made. One downside - you will have to find a place to put the 20lb co2 tank - it's big and heavy. We have our sodastream sitting on a pantry shelf with the tank sitting on the floor, all hidden behind the closet door. My sister has friends (who told us about the freedom one in the first place) who keep their sodastream on the counter and the tank in the cabinet below (they drilled a hole for the hose in the counterop). I have no affiliation with the CO2 doctor website or the freedom one product, but if you are a heavy sodastream user and you have the room for the larger tank, I highly recommend it! (I will link to the CO2 doctor site below -- they also have products that let the sodastream take paintball gun CO2 canisters -- apparently, that is also cheaper than purchasing refills through sodastream....) Here is a link that might be useful: Freedom One

thanks donna, that is it! now i just need to get the plastic rings. ha ha. i looked everywhere for it. i bought an old one at the auction yesterday and want to make some to hang in my kitchen. thanks again, vicki