This Simple Carbonated Water Gadget Could Upend The Beverage Industry
Fast Company, Jesus Diaz
Photo: Aerflo
The Aer1 system makes carbonated water anywhere, anytime, with the push of a button.
I love carbonated water, but I hate the waste of packaged carbonated water. And while a Sodastream might have been a solution a decade ago, it doesn’t allow you to refill your bottle when the water is gone and you are 12 subway stations and two transfers away from your kitchen. Which is why I’m excited about the Aer1, a portable bottle that sparkles the hell out of your favorite liquid—anywhere, anytime, at the the push of a button. It may very well become the game-changer for the millions of people who love their bubbles but hate the environmental toll of single-use cans and bottles.
Made by a Brooklyn startup called Aerflo, the Aer1 system is a simple concept: it combines a reusable bottle with a carbonating device. The system comes with 13 reusable CO2 capsules, each capable of carbonating the equivalent of four 16 oz bottles of water. These finger-sized capsules lock right inside a sleek carbonation device built into its cap. When a capsule runs out, you simply replace it with a new one from the included pack.
But what really sets Aer1 apart is the sustainability of its design. The used capsules aren’t tossed in the trash. They’re sent back to Aerflo’s facility in New Jersey inside a neat packaging with a preprinted post label (think old Netflix years, without the subscription).
In that custom-designed, custom-built, fully-automated facility, they’re inspected using optical and mechanical sensors, thoroughly sterilized, and finally refilled for another round of use. The company doesn’t send you back your capsules because the moment you ship your used capsule pack back, a package of newly filled capsules ships immediately.
The company says nothing gets trashed and you can keep four extra capsules on hand, so you never run out of bubbles while your new capsules are en route.
When I saw the Aer1 bottle in action over a video conference with the Aeroflo founders—Buzz Wiggins and John Thorp—it all seemed deceptively simple. One of those “oh yes!” moments followed by the usual, stupid “why hasn’t anyone done this before?” thought.
It turns out that making the Aer1 was a major design challenge. Aerflo’s founders say in total, the product took four years full of mechanical challenges and regulatory nightmares to come to life. It started with designing a cap that injects the bubbles into your favorite liquid, and ended with creating a shipping package and label design that had to go through three years of revisions and approvals before the United States Postal Service and the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) approved the refillable CO2 capsules for shipping.
A nightmare design trip
Wiggins and Thorp, long-time friends, had talked about starting a company for years before they landed on the concept for Aerflo. Thorp, who has a background in venture capital and hardware businesses, recalls the moment they realized they were onto something. “We saw our entire peer group carrying around reusable bottles, and we started to think about those as a platform. We asked ourselves, ‘How could you bring beverage customization to the bottle that someone is carrying around with them every single day?’”
The answer they found was carbonation, which they identified as the fastest-growing beverage category in North America. However, portable carbonation solutions were almost non-existent, aside from single-use options, which didn’t fit with their vision of sustainability. So, they set out to develop a system that could carbonate water in a portable bottle while being environmentally friendly.
The first prototype was little more than a bike pump rigged to inject CO2 into a bottle. “I can’t believe this worked,” Wiggins says with a laugh, showing me their ACME contraption. But while that initial device proved the concept was possible, it was far from market-ready. They started to miniaturize the design until they reached a key point. “When we were able to get five bottles of sparkling water out of one capsule, that’s when we knew we had something,” Wiggins points out.
One of the most significant hurdles was creating a pressure relief valve small enough to fit into the bottle’s cap, yet robust enough to manage the carbonation process safely. Wiggins recalls how everyone told them it was impossible to do. “I designed this valve 50 times before we found one that was market viable,” he says.
The duo’s relentless pursuit of perfection led them to take on tasks that most would consider far outside their wheelhouse. When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains, finding manufacturers willing to produce their custom pressure relief valve became nearly impossible.
Faced with a six-week wait and a $3,000 price tag from the only company that didn’t laugh at their proposal, Wiggins decided to do it himself. “I told John, for $1,000 in two weeks, I can purchase a lathe, go learn how to use it on YouTube, and do this,” he says. And that’s exactly what he did. This hands-on approach not only kept their project on track but also built a deep understanding of every aspect of their product.
Seven rings of regulatory hell
Traditional CO2 cartridges used in carbonation devices are single-use and made of steel—heavy, expensive to ship, and environmentally damaging, particularly when they’re filled overseas and shipped to the U.S. “We looked at that entire model, and for us, it was just a huge breakdown,” Wiggins explains. “The core of our company and the nexus of what we worked on for so long is this thing here,” he says, holding up one of their deep blue reusable capsules. “This is made out of aluminum, and what that does for us is it makes it so that we are allowed to refill it.”
Refining this idea took years of negotiation and innovation. The refillable CO2 capsules had to meet stringent safety standards, and getting them approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation was no small feat.
Wiggins recalls their initial conversations with regulators: “I’ll never forget on that call, the person we were talking to said, ‘I told you somebody was going to come up with this idea.’”
Three years later, Aerflo had an approved capsule design and packaging that the USPS can safely ship. Today, Aerflo operates out of a 5,000 square foot, custom-built facility in New Jersey, where used capsules are accumulated and then refilled.
A cheaper sparkling water
With traditional sparkling water costing between $2.55 and $6.33 per liter, the Aer1 system can produce sparkling water for around $1 per liter—up to 70% less than buying single-use bottles or cans. It took a lot of effort, but the result could change the market of carbonated beverages without screwing up the planet.
Aerflo is launching the Aer1 system on August 27, with the first 1,000 units available for preorder on its website. These early units come with custom engraving options and a 50% discount on the first refill pack. Full availability will follow in late September, with the system priced at $99 and replacement packs of 12 capsules available for $25.