Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a good product sold by a company that has sleazy business practices. Their practices should be known before committing to buy anything from them, because you are locked into dealing with them (and only them) forever. The company is misrepresenting the exchange situation in an almost criminal manner. They told me that if I bought 2 more spare bottles for 100 dollars, I would have free shipping for life as long as I ordered two exchange bottles at a time. Not too long after, they reneged on that, and started charging me for shipping. In addition, their site says, "Exchange locally to avoid shipping charges". That was true for me when I bought it. It did not last long. Fewer and fewer places have exchange bottles, and some have really high prices. Today, a local exchange for my (formerly) standard size 130 liter bottle is not possible in 99% of the US. Only the smaller 60 liter bottle is available in my state, as well as several neighboring states. I suspect this is a scheme to force me to convert to the smaller bottle, which will increase my costs and their profits considerably. To add insult to injury, their site trumpets "Now available at thousands of retail locations." A quick check reveals that there are a couple hundred retail locations that will sell you the equipment, but far fewer who will exchange your small bottles, and about three nationwide that will exchange the large 130 liter bottle. It would seem that they are far, far more interested in sales than service. This is particularly onerous, since their product requires constant refill service, and it is only available through them, at whatever price they charge, both for the refill and the shipping. It is also worth noting that a 130 liter carbonator will not come near making 130 liters of decently carbonated water. The only way we can get 130 liters out of a refill is to make the carbonation so weak that the bottle goes flat before half of the water is consumed. This, of course, defeats the purpose of making one's own carbonated water. You are at their mercy when it comes to how much CO2 they put in a refill, how much they charge you for it, and how much they charge you for shipping. And, that includes constant increases in their charges. So, do your homework before you commit to this company. The deal will change. I recently placed and order for refills, and they took a week to even get them from their facility to UPS, so plan on ordering well in advance. The have built a booby trap into their bottles so they cannot be refilled by anyone but them, so local refilling at reasonable prices is not an option for me. Edit 8/6/13: Both staples and Bed Bath and Beyond are not offering exchanges on the 130 liter chargers, so I do not have an availability complaint where I shop. Sodastream says all Staples and BB&B will stock exchanges.