I have long been on the quest for a *good* way of carbonating water and juices / drinks.
Much research and I trialled a number of different Soda Stream units. While there was limited success, there were a number of downfalls.
As we sell items for brewing and distillation, I decided to invest and trial a large CO2 bottle for carbonating kegs and 2L bottles. Sin the meantime I saw an advert for a resale of the “Qarbo Luxe”.
A number of things jumped out at me about the design right away:
– Flavoured drinks or juices *CAN* be carbonated (unlike Soda Stream)
– The valve is in the lid of the bottle (meaning you don’t loose all your gas as soon as disconnecting the bottle)
– It was *FAST* – no need to screw & unscrew each bottle (unlike Soda Stream).
– It used standard Soda Stream bottles
– It looked amazing, but really for me this had little impact. 
When the unit arrived I tested & re-tested and tested some more.
Water with herbs & mint & lemon verbena & passionfruit & guava – ANYTHING!
Water with syrups or cordial
Flat lemonade, the kids even tried milk & coconut water & various other crazy ideas.
As a family of 8, each time we used the Qarbo Luxe, at least 6 people were drinking. It was not uncommon to supply drinks to 20+ people during lunch break after a hard & hot days work. In those sittings we may have gone through 20 litres of drink quite quickly. That would have been a nightmare with our previous soda makers.
So fast & easy it really is amazing. In fact, so easy I still have done nothing with the larger keg set up supplies, still sitting in a box.
You just slide the bottle in & press the button for a sedan or two, then pull the bottles out.
The carbonated bottles can easily be put in the fridge to store for later (normal for us now) but when doing a number of drinks, just put the next bottle in.
We have carbonated water and carbonated water with fresh mint / thyme / lemon verbena / Gumby Gumby etc etc on hand all the time.
We highly recommend the Qarbo Luxe – the only downside?
If I had to say so it would be the slightly higher cost of the bottles due to the included valve.
We use 6 – 8 of the Bottles, though guess most families would be fine with 2 – 4
If you find this review helpful, please consider using the link below to order the Qarbo (we may receive an affiliate credit of some kind).
QARBO LUXE QUALITY CARBONATED WATER MAKER
Cheatsheet:
To carbonate water faster: (works for Soda Stream too, but much more difficult).
1) Use cold water
2) After carbonating for a second or two, shake the bottle vigorously for a few seconds.
3) Refill and shake again – it’s ready to drink in 20 seconds!
4) For extra fizz – repeat a third time*
*If you put too much fizz in, the Qarbo will vent loosing some pressure (presumably to protect the bottle from exploding).
