How hard could it be to make your own club soda?

Apparently it takes eight months, two faulty ebay purchases, two paypal refunds, lots of internet research and a coveted "charger holder " to make it work! What am I talking about?

The iSi soda siphon.

I bought the first one for Gregory's birthday in May. We are constantly buying seltzer water from the grocery store - to add to both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I actually only like to drink juice if it is cut in half with soda water, otherwise it is too cloying. I thought this soda siphon would be a cool addition to our "bar" and quite convenient for creating less plastic waste.

Fail.

We bought the individual soda chargers and loaded it up. We must have spent a half hour trying to screw it in, afraid that it was going to backfire and explode in our faces. We had every part listed in the Amazon.com description; the online tutorials did not show anything we didn't have lying on the counter. My birthday present was a lame dud. The beautiful, shiny iSi soda siphon was now decoration for the kitchen.

Attempt number two came at Christmas. I had bought the item from ebay, this time in the original packaging with complete instructions. I suppose it's my fault for not trying it before Christmas morning, but I think I was more excited than Gregory to give this another try.

Fail. Again.

I almost let it ruin my day. What was I doing wrong? What kind of engineering mystery was this? But leave it to Gregory to find an obscure beverage supply website that sells the indispensable "charger holder". Why was this not mentioned on any other site or any of the iSi packaging, I'll never understand.

We wait two weeks for the package to arrive. Gregory receives it while I'm at work. It's one of our days that I come back in the door at 2:35 and he's out at 2:36 and we don't see each other again until midnight. I see two damaged soda chargers (imagine very tiny CO2 containers) in the sink and am practically devastated. I could only imagine Gregory swearing over the sink while trying to screw on this extra piece we just bought! Why, God, why can't we just have soda water???

Fast forward to midnight and I finally get to see the soda siphon in action. Except the second siphon I had bought for Christmas leaked. You are supposed to fill the siphon with water and keep it in the fridge so the water is a nice, cool temperature. We resort back to the first soda siphon purchased in May, which does NOT leak. I'm beginning to understand why these things went out of style.

But with the siphon filled, water cooled and charger holder attached - we heard the beautiful *whish* of CO2 being released into the aluminum container. A light squeeze to the nozzle and we have carbonated water! I might as well have been a pioneer in the wild west who had never, ever heard of such "bubble water" - it was so gratifying.

It tastes closer to Perrier than club soda, but it's extra delicious because it took us eight months to figure out how to do it!