Soda gun
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A soda gun or Bar gun is a device used by bars to serve various types of carbonated and non-carbonated drinks. A soda gun has the ability to serve any beverage that is some combination of syrup, water and carbon dioxide. This includes soft drinks, iced tea, carbonated water, and plain water. When served from a soda gun, these are often known as fountain drinks.
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[edit] Advantages
The advantages of dispensing from a bar gun instead of bottles include lower cost of transport (because water is added at the point of sale), convenience (no need to locate and open bottles or cans; a single canister contains much more product than a bottle), a freshly carbonated drink for the consumer, and a much more profitable product for the venue (a glass of post mix costs about 1/40th the price of the same amount of drink from a bottle). Postmix systems result in significantly decreases green house gas emissions due to reduced weight in the supply of the concentrated bag-in-box syrup versus supply and recycling of bottled beverages.
[edit] Disadvantages
If the system is not properly maintained it will serve an inferior drink. If the bar owner chooses, he or she can set the ratio of syrup to water to a lower than optimal rate, thus saving the restaurant money in syrup costs but resulting in an inferior drink.
[edit] Post mix soda gun
A post mix soda gun combines concentrated syrup from a bag-in-box and mixes it with filtered tap water, either carbonated or non-carbonated at the point of expense. For a post mix soda gun to function it must be connected to a bag-in-box system, including pumps, a chiller, water filtration system and a carbonator. Due to the complexity and expense of purchasing and configuring the entire system that runs the soda gun, in most cases the restaurant relies on their beverage supplier (in most cases Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola) to supply the equipment and handle the installation and maintenance.
[edit] Pre mix soda gun
Premix soda guns are connected to a simpler system that closely resembles a draft beer system. The drink is supplied to a restaurant in pressurized canisters that are connected to the premix soda gun. Premix soda guns are primarily used in countries where the supply of water cannot easily be filtered to a level suitable for use in a restaurant.
[edit] Beverages
A post-mix soda gun is able to supply any beverage product that can be dispensed in bag-in-box form that does not have pulp. This includes carbonated cola, lemon, orange and tonic drinks as well as non carbonated juices and ice teas. Additionally they can supply energy drinks and root beers. The Wunder-Bar soda gun can supply juice drinks with pulp no larger than 0.03 inches in diameter.
[edit] Manufacturers
Automatic Bar Controls, Inc (Wunder-Bar) is the leading manufacturer of post mix and premix barguns. The company is the main global supplier to Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola and independent bottlers. IMI Cornelius, a major manufacturer of fast food post-mix towers, also supplies a post mix bargun, but at a significantly lower volumes than Wunder-Bar.
