I just realized it's been a long time since we had a soda machine post, and I forgot to update anyone on my "recent" ebay purchase from FountainKing. I think I mentioned that I fried a valve while I was flushing the machine after chlorine shocking it. I found a replacement valve for a very reasonable price from FountainKing, the same guy I purchased my sweet valve cover labels from earlier.

I mentioned to him that I was now looking for a Dr. Pepper label, and he threw that in as well. Very nice guy. The valve worked very well, as did the label. Here's the fully operational machine. It's been two months or more since the cleaning, and no sulfur smell as of yet.

I got in contact with Pepsi and got us some Mt. Dew on the level (previously we were getting it second hand) and ordered some Dr. Pepper as well. Pepsi wants us to order a minimum of three items at a time, so I'm not sure how long that relationship will last. I can get Dr. Pepper cheaper thru Gordons, and I don't know if we'd drink enough of anything Pepsi to warrant buying 3 cases at a time. Perhaps when we next clean out the Mt. Dew we'll get two Dews some other Pepsi product and swap out the Barq's (the new slow mover now that Dr. Pepper is an option and Sprite is gone).

My favorite right now is Mt. Dew. I'm not a huge Dew-from-the-bottle drinker since early college, but for some reason the mix is just perfect for my tastes coming from the soda machine.

Sometime I also want to try changing the mix levels on the Dr. Pepper. The instructions I've seen all recommend setting the mix level to the non-sugar syrup settings (5.25:1), but I'd like to try it on the sugar syrup settings (4.75:1).