GROHE 31608DC2 Blue Single-Handle Pull-Out Kitchen Faucet Single Spray with Chilled & Sparkling Water, 1.75 GPM, Supersteel

I will preface this review with the mention that I was going to give it 5 stars but Grohe's recent changes in the after market support and accessories have really upset me as a customer and I cannot recommend this product in good faith to anyone considering to invest in it.I bought this product about 8 months ago and initially I was extremely happy with it. It ultimately does what it claims to do: gives you good, tasty, chilled carbonated water.The system is connected to an RO line so perfectly pure water enters it. We have a Magnesium cartridge connected to it to increase flavor and carbonation but about 6 months in the water coming out of the system started tasting and smelling weird. To make matters worse, GROHE discontinued the original cleaning cartridge they recommended to be used with the machine, so I was unable to find any cleaning cartridges until I called them. Which is when I was informed that a new version/model of the cartridge was released. Except the new mode (40914000) is twice as expensive, at $123, and worse yet, it need a special adapter to be connected to the Blue system, which is another $60!This substantially increases the running cost of the system for no apparent reason other than GROHE deciding to screw over their existing customers. So now I am stuck with a nearly $3,000 kitchen gadget and carbonator that is unusable until I spend another $200 on parts needed to clean it.This kind of decisions made by this company without any consideration for their customers is extremely upsetting. And I will never again buy another product from them.Don't waste your money on this unless you have a large savings account that you can spend on just maintaining and cleaning this device.

My family lives on soda water and go through soda stream canisters quickly (have had the system for so long the company was called Soda Club and a currier had to deliver the canisters). Finally decided to get a built in system and decided on the Grohe blue. As we do not drink Soda (Coke, Sprite...) is was the best option while being expensive.The install took me about two hours but very happy with the end result. The most difficult part was getting the dispenser settings right.The good:1. Clean looks2. Function: There is a control on the right for typical sink (hot and cold) function. The left have two push buttons, top for filtered water, bottom for carbonated.3. the system: The box does take up a good amount of space but it carbonates as well as chills the water.The bad: Nothing that can not be overcome1. install: Fairly straight but one thing I did not realize when I ordered was the system needs to vent so you will have to cut out a section on the base through the cabinet and while I picked out that the system vented out of the front of the cabinet if it vents inside of the base board you will have to cut a vent into the baseboard. You should also have a jigsaw to cut the vent. I did not so I used a Dremel to cut the vent area and then used a circular drill bit to cut out the area. It is also at an odd angle and when installed it fits in the track I cut with the Dremel. (you also have to drill two more holes in the base for the feet to sit in and hold the system in place. There is a template included which I blue taped down prior to cutting.2. Setup: Everything was in the instructions with the exception of recommended settings for the CO2. As a result I first did not know I had to turn the screw to start the flow in the middle of the gauges (not the valve on top to start flow, that I did). I eventually realized that the screw controls the pressure and they I over pressurized it resulting in it working properly and then and error code resulting in it shutting down. After waiting on hold with tech support for and hour and 30 min, I got the help from Steve while talked me through everything very quickly and now it is working great. I just wish I know that I should not have set it higher than 70 before hand.Ending: While I wish the system was cheaper it is well built, lots good, and does what it says. I would recommend it to anyone that drinks a lot of soda water.

General Impressions: This was quite a splurge for me and my plan was to return it if I did not think it worth the money. This faucet has exceeded my expectations! I love it. Hands down the best thing I'd done to the house since I moved in. My worry that the seltzer was not going to meet my high expectations were unfounded. The chilled filtered water both still and sparkling taste great. I am constantly filling up my water bottle and drinking way more water than I ever did before. Great for entertaining and making cocktails too. I did the install myself as I am pretty handy and love these kinds of challenges. The plan was to give it a try and if I run into any problems I would call in a professional. For the most part if you look at the install videos on line and follow the instructions it's pretty straight forward but I did run into a few things I had to trouble shoot. Luckily I read one of the other reviews and saw that the cleaning step was not needed on install so I skipped that as I was unable to source the cleaning cartridge. I bought a filled 10lb CO2 tank which was a bit of an over kill, if I had to do it again I would have bought a 5lb one. Actually if I would have I would have bought the 2Lt cylinder that that Grohe recommends but could not source the one they make so had to make due with what I could buy at the local brewery supply store.Now to the Install: Everything went fine until installing the CO2 tank, The instructions gave no guidance on how to set the regulator and what the step down pressure should be. After some searching on line and scrutinizing the manual I found that the max pressure that the chiller can accept is 69.5psi so I set the step down pressure between 60 and 65 psi. You can dial it back but I wanted to make sure I had big bubbles in my sparkling water. The other thing that is still a mystery is during the set up process they ask for pipe length but do not specify anywhere what pipe they are referring to. I suspect it is the "pipe" from the chiller unit to where the water comes out of the faucet. This seems odd to me as it is a set length but I guess some installs might adjust the "pipe" length. I also suspect that the reason to specify is the unit flushes the line after one dispenses sparkling water and this is how it sets the flush time. All told it was fun project and I was able to install myself. They provide the needed fittings and pressure regulator in the kit so I did not have to go to the hardware store for anything.Operating: It took a little getting used to but operating this faucet is really easy. The only thing I was surprised by was the flush sequence after dispensing sparkling water. When you shut off the flow pull the glass out of the way so the flush is not into your glass of you will get diluted sparkling water. If that does not bother you and you don't want to wast water know that there will be a little more water that comes out into the glass once you hit stop.Overall I highly recommend this product. For me since I don't have filtered chilled water as part of my fridge and was in a market for a soda stream when I stumbled upon this it was worth it, especially as it comes in a compact form factor and does not take any more space on the counter than my old faucet did!