I bought my first carbonator at a thrift store for 25¢. I liked it so well, I bought another a few months later. Now just today I bought a third one. Apparently I can't get enough.

Here's a bunch of stuff I do with this thing myself:

* Make awesome club soda
* Make fun-flavored soda
* Re-cap store-bought soda to keep it carbonated
* Re-carbonate a beverage that wasn't capped properly
* Carbonate home-brewed beer in small batches
* Re-carbonate beer from a local micro brewery that went flat sitting in a growler
* Add some sparkle to a bottle of regular white wine so I always have champagne on hand
* Create and carbonate a batch of adult beverages for picnics and tailgating

I've seriously done all of that stuff. The last bullets are some of my favorites.

I was stoked the day I realized the growler of awesome beer from my local microbrewery I'd accidentally allowed to go flat in a growler could be re-carbonated by pouring it into a plastic bottle and hitting it with the carbonator.

Same thing with the sparkling wine. I realized I needed some for an early brunch, one night after the liquor stores were closed. I poured a 750ml bottle of white wine into an empty and clean 1-liter plastic bottle, squeezed out the air, and hit it several times with the carbonate/shake technique. With a little orange juice the next morning, I had mimosas. The next time I needed to do that, I mixed the wine and juice in the bottle ahead of time and carbonated the whole thing at once.

works fine - after you trim the excess seam plastic from under the o-rings -
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at first i had a leak on both carbonaters i received - i found an answer to a question about leaking that described the problem and the solution

if you experience leakage using a ball lock with this carbonater cap for 2 liter bottles - the problem is probably the carbonater - they have excess plastic at the seams - you have to take off the o-ring and trim the plastic - a butter knife works to get the o-ring off - then use a sharp knife to carefully trim the plastic - try to keep it smooth and don't cut into the plastic or you will make another possible leak point - then put the o-ring back on

it would get 5 stars if they would at least put note in the packaging to tell you to do that .
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I guess, until they get some competition - they are going to keep charging a high price and not care how much trouble the customer experiences .
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as soon as someone comes up with a competing product - they will half their price and fix them before they deliver -

Excellent high quality design and high quality plastic- super easy to use and works with all ball locks. The other thing that is not obvious from the entry: IT IS MADE IN THE USA!! I was thinking of making my own variant or even considering the tire valve alternative I decided to order one of these to be ready for my new CO2 tank thinking I might buy others or go the tire valve route to have several for bottles- nice because you can recarb them if needed and they function as a cap too. But when it arrived I was astounded at "the Carbonator's" quality and the fact that it was made in America really pleased me- I will be sure to tell everyone I bump into -- I sincerely think few would bother with the questionable tire valve method if they knew that for about the same price you can support a US made product. What a great thing. DO NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT BUYING THIS- ONE FOR 3 or more bottles is a good idea since that way you can carb and recarb the number of 2 liters you are likely to keep in the fridge. A minimum of 2 is highly recommended.

Also I ordered this at the end of the week and they managed to get it to me ON THAT SUNDAY!(using Prime shipping) Excellent packaging and very important instructions were included- be sure to keep for future reference. Read the instructions twice to make sure you understand all CO2 safe use aspects. Apparently some come in the color red and others in blue but they are the same thing.

Updated after much experience making seltzer. It really works, and it gets easier as you learn to use it.

You need to remove the plastic ring that breaks away from the cap when you open the bottle. I tried replacing it with an o-ring, but the hex cap is a little too small to hold the ring in place and it leaked. Turns out it doesn't matter anyway, since the leak is too slow to prevent adequate carbonation, and you can use the original cap for storage.

You should ignore the instructions (but don't over pressurize). According to the patent, you press the valve and smash the bottle until all air is out. Then you attach the CO' source and the bottle unsmashes. Then you shake the bottle. Assuming you started with cold liquid, the pressure will drop, sometimes so much the bottle smashes again. Replace the CO', and repeat until the bottle stays firm.

After I did it this way a few hundred times, I realized I could shake it with the hose attached, at least when carbonating plain water. That makes it a lot faster and easier. If the liquid isn't water, it will contaminate the hose.

I also ignore the pressure warning and use 55 PSI, but I'm a cowboy chemist and definitely don't imitate me :-). Someday you'll read how I died from plastic shrapnel wounds. The spring in the cap is too weak to open the valve on the hose connector when the hose is pressurized at 55 PSI, so you have to connect the hose to the bottle before opening the gas valve.

The item I received was good - with a caveat. The circular slot on the inside which is supposed to fit onto the upper edge of the bottle's mouth to provide a seal was a tiny bit too small - simply screwing it onto a (freshly emptied) PET bottle causes it to fit crookedly, possibly damaging the bottle's threads if forced further. There is a solution, though.

When using this with a new PET bottle, the trick is to slowly screw the cap on while watching from the side. Stop when you see the cap go slightly crooked, note which side of the cap is raised, and unscrew the cap just until it straightens out. Then, pressing down *firmly* on the side that was raised, *slowly* re-screw the cap back on. Keep watching the cap's level, and when the cap goes crooked, unscrew a quarter-turn or so, and re-screw while pressing down on the side that was raised. Eventually, I was able to get the cap on the bottle - straight and sealed. The goal is to slowly force the CarbaCap onto the bottle, using leverage to keep the cap straight and counteracting crooked strain on the threads.

This process slightly narrows the plastic of the upper lip of the bottle, allowing it to mate with the cap. Once a PET bottle has been "adjusted" this way, the CarbaCap can be screwed on to it normally, and it will fit straight and seal properly.

Now that I have a few "prepared" PET bottles, this product performs as claimed. It's a great upgrade from my previous home-made carbonation cap, which had some metal components that suffered from carbonic acid corrosion. If you shop around a little, you can buy and assemble this cap, a ball lock keg connector and hose, and a CO2 tank and regulator, for far less than the cost of a S*daStr**m - and with much cheaper CO2 refills. All the Italian soda you could want, and non-proprietary standard fittings FTW.