If you enjoy sparkling water you can save a lot of money by making your own, and you won’t run out. And this setup will save you money over the commercial products with small tanks and high fees for changing out tanks as well as allowing you to change the pressure (amount of carbonation). The tank size below lasted over one year (we drink a lot of sparkling water), and with Amerigas it was $27 to swap out my old tank for this filled one. But you may be able to find refills cheaper as I got my original tank filled for $5 from a fire suppression business. It’s probably worth paying a deposit and using one of the tank exchange businesses as you won’t have to worry about the tank certification time period and recertification which can be costly. Just change it out when you need a new one.
Beyond your CO2 tank you’ll need a CO2 regulator, some hose/hose clamps, and I just used schrader valves in the bottle caps along with a Schrader valve connector.
It’s best to have a few plastic bottles as the CO2 is absorbed best in cold water, so you can let one bottle get cold before carbonating while you use the other. And we use water filtered from our refrigerator dispenser. What I do is leave a bit of empty space at the top of the bottle, squeeze out the air and seal, then fill with CO2. Shake the bottle to have the CO2 absorb into the water and then hit with another blast of CO2 to replace the absorbed CO2.
And if you want flavored water, you can add your own getting something that is healthier as who knows what they’re using in the flavored sparkling water products. We sometimes just pour a little fruit juice in a cup and then add the carbonated water. And that’s all there is to making your own sparkling water and saving money.