Yes, SodaStream is cheaper than La Croix if you consistently drink at least 1 can of La Croix per day.
tl;dr
I could sit here and draw out a huge story for you about why it might be better for some people than others, but let’s not waste any time. The real meat of this question is simply math, so we’ll jump right in.
I was buying my La Croix by the 24-pack at Costco, which I imagine is the cheapest way to get it. This costs $9.49 per case. To make things easy, we’ll use the price per ounce.
$9.49 / (12oz * 24 cans) = $0.03295138888 / ozNow, unlike buying the product on-demand, the SodaStream products have a major up-front cost. Currently there are three offerings: Fizzi Classic, One-Touch Electric and Fizz Premium. I prefer simplicity, and since there’s no reason to include electricity in any model I’ve skipped the One-Touch in this analysis.
At the time of this writing, the Classic is $89.99 and the Premium is $194.96. We can already tell that if it’s possible to break even at all, it will take a while.
Additionally, we should try to get 3 canisters of CO2, so that when two are empty we can run them through the exchange program while still keeping one on-hand. Each canister of gas makes about 60L of water, but buying these three up front does raise the initial cost by $59.98. However, it also makes the first 180L of “water cost” pre-paid.
Assuming you use municipal water which is essentially free, and you’re flavoring that water with official SodaStream flavors, such as Lemon and Lime, you end up with the following figures.
La Croix
Up-front cost: $0.00
Cost per oz of water: $0.03295138888
Cost per oz of flavor: $0.00 (included)
Total cost per oz: $0.03295138888 (3.3 cents)
SodaStream Fizzi Classic
Up-front cost: $149.97
Cost per oz of water: $0.00196910549 (First 180L are “free”; this is the price of refilling 2 canisters at a time after that point)
Cost per oz of flavor: $0.00737860057
Total cost per oz: $0.00934770606 (9/10ths of a cent)
SodaStream Premium
Up-front cost: $254.94
Cost per oz of water: $0.00196910549 (First 180L are “free”; this is the price of refilling 2 canisters at a time after that point)
Cost per oz of flavor: $0.00737860057
Total cost per oz: $0.00934770606 (9/10ths of a cent)
Result
You break-even with the Fizzi Classic around the same time you’d run out of the initial bottles of CO2, which is just shy of the 23 cases mark, or around 550 cans of La Croix. If you have a 2-can-a-day habit, it will take about nine months.
The premium has the same math with a much higher starting point. It breaks even around 320L, or 37.5 cases (900 cans). If you have a 3-can-a-day habit, it will take about 10 months.
Thinking Deeper
Now this only measures the financial impact on the consumer. But consider the broader implications as well.
Drinking La Croix will produce hundreds of aluminum cans, plastic packaging, cardboard packaging, fuel required for shipping pallets of water across the country, fuel for driving back and forth to the store to get them all home, and then more fuel and processing power to send all the trash back to the recycling plant.
With SodaSteam, all you have to do is press a button on a machine for a couple of seconds. The only shipping after the initial purchase is the CO2 canisters, which are re-filled with CO2 and re-used without needing to recycle. And they can be picked up from your door by the post office, who in all likely-hood is already going to drive by your house that day anyway.
On a personal note, I will say that it’s slightly more work to use a SodaStream-like product than just grabbing a can and running. But honestly, it’s sort of satisfying to press the button each time. I use the premium version due to the glass carafes. I’ll never have to replace them, and I can just pop them into the dishwasher with no worries about them melting.
