How To: Tired of Flat Soda? Use This Trick to Keep Two-Liter Bottles of Soda Fizzy Longer

I think it depends on how flat the soda is to begin with, and how much soda is in the bottle. If you had half-flat soda filling half the bottle, and you didn't scrunch it up, more CO2 would leak out of the liquid into the large headspace, which would be released when you open it. If you did scrunch it up, there's less headspace to fill and it leaks out of the liquid at a slower rate. If the soda wasn't half flat to begin with, but still full of CO2, then it would force the squished bottle to expand causing it to go flat sooner. So, the key is probably to make sure it's already pretty flat, so that it expands the bottle back out at a slower rate. Some believe that shaking the bottle to try to dissolve the gas back into the liquid from the headspace will help, but it actually has the opposite effect; only repressurizing the bottle will help force the CO2 back into the liquid.

I keep my empty 20 ounce bottles and when I open the 2 liter for my first drink , I pour the rest into several 20 ounce bottles, after reading this article, I will make sure to pour all the way to the top and store all bottles in the coldest part of the refrigerator (bottom drawer with the lower temperature setting built into my 20 yr old GE frig that works as efficiently than new ones at 3kw per day @ .07perkw= 21 cents day or $75 a year, oh how I love Texas low power rates....if you can find them) although I notice my new deep freezer only added 1kw per day or $25 a year ......anyone have figures on cost of a deepfreeze verses refrigerator?) Also, has anyone looked at freezing their coke....like what % volume you need to leave in air so the ice can expand without busting the bottle? yeah I'm a rocket scientist, but I had to drop and repeat thermodynamics class, but only because I like electricityzzzzzzzzz.

I do all the things described, but, then I store it upside-down on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Seems to keep fizz a little longer.

you should really

Someone once told my mother and I about the squishing the bottle trick. It's way cheaper to buy 2 litre vs. cans altho I prefer cans and on some random occasions I just get into a kick where I'm making a lot of drinks for myself. Having to keep opening can after can gets annoying. So I decided to try this cause my soda is always flat by the time I hit the bottle again for the first time after opening and I hate wasting stuff. Which is what continuously happens. I eventually pour out the 1/2 or 1/4 of the flat soda once I buy a new one. So anyway I tried it and when I went back to the fridge, the bottle was back to normal. I turned the cap as tightly as I could so it was weird that the air got right back in.

Keep it cold. Keep it capped. Don't squeeze the bottle. Don't stand on your head. Don't pray to goofy idols. Check out gas laws on Khan Academy if you want to know the facts. That said, the gas wants to escape the liquid that it is trapped in. If it has room, it WILL escape. Squeezing the bottle only gives it more room to expand, therefore leaving the liquid... Leaving the liquid flat. Temperature plays a big part on whether or not a gas stays or leaves. You do the math, a warmer gas expands and elevates, a colder gas contracts and stays.

You will actually make the soda worse by using a "fizz saver" gadget that pumps air into the bottle, such as the illustrated "Fizz Keeper" cap. This is exactly because of the "partial pressure" reason mentioned later in the article. When you pump ambient air containing nitrogen/oxygen into the bottle, it will displace the CO2 dissolved in the liquid, and it's CO2 that's necessary for effervescence.

There are many soda bottle "dispenser cap" gadgets available which do not let outside air into the bottle while they pour the liquid out. Try using those.

That works for me too!

stock it on the fridge upside down..

Soda bottle caps are designed not reseal tightly once the cap seal ring is broken upon opening, so they will go flat. If you buy o-rings the same diameter as the inside of the cap, put one inside the cap, squeeze the air space out of the bottle, and screw down the cap tightly, the soda will be fizee a very long time.

The "fizz keeper" which pumps air into the drink bottle will NOT increase the carbonation of the soda. It is a hoax. Henry's law states that the amount of dissolved gas in a solution is a function of the partial pressure of THAT gas above the liquid. In order to increase the amount of dissolve CO2 in the soda you would have to pump in CO2, NOT air.

Crushing the bottle is probably the worst thing you can do, unless you clamp it or something like that to keep it from inflating back to its original size, try to crush a soda bottle and take time lapse photos of it and see how the bottle inflates back to its original size by the gas from the drink. Also, closing the cap as tightly as you can is not very helpful, you only need to close it as tight as it was closed when it was still sealed (this tightness holds up the gas usually much longer than the bottle will be in your fridge), closing the cap very tightly only ruins the gasket and making it less efficient and will result in unwanted gas loss. The only thing that will efficiently sustain the gas in the drink is a pressurized environment, you can achieve that by either compressing gas back to the bottle, or moving the drink to a smaller container, a process which is not that recommended for it causes gas loss as well. If you close the soda bottles too tightly everyone will hate you for it and your soda will still go flat!

really the laws of physics state that a gas will fill every inch of an area, yea unless you have your bottle wrapped up in like 40 of those thick broccoli elastics to prevent it from just refilling the crushed space with air its just going to end up working in reverse in-fact Drawing more of the carbonation out then it would have if you didn't crush it because again the Laws of Physics state that pressure prevents flow the mathematical equation here would be something like this

(PsiA - PsiB = Co2Loss)
(PsiA = Starting Pressure as soon as the cap is screwed on)
(PsiB = The maximum pressure needed to stop the flow of air)

... simple math

as for the equation for converting Psi to Co2 loss percentage that's a whole other set of variables and if you want to figure it out good for you but im not that intrested in the finer points of how much carbonation i have lost from my soda cause i usually just decant large bottles into smaller bottles... makes everything easier to handle and i end up recycling less of those small 750 ml bottles

... of course i wash the bottles with hot water and soap before re-using em

I appreciate the equations, but they don't care. These people are just looking for the answer. I think you've summed it up quite eloquently but... I don't think they got it. There's a world of difference between knowing the answer and being able to explain the situation to achieve the intended goal.

sounds like it might be easier for someone to invent a soda bottle that gets smaller as you pour the soda out, leaving little room for gas to escape. Not really far fetched with all the different materials there are today.....

Good to hear all these views.

My takeaways are - keep bottles as cold as possible; the shaking the bottle and compressing the bottle approaches are worse than doing nothing (as I have found from experience), and I will look at the o-ring suggestion but not sure it will help as bottles need to be airtight so they are not flat when bought.

Probably the best answer is to buy smaller portions if you can afford it. No big savings in big bottles if it's not a big party.

Cheers to you, Master Lane! Excellent gleaning of the information.

The air pump gadget, according to Henry's Law, apparently does no significant good, but the bottle squishing is definitely making things worse. The bottle naturally wants to return to its original shape and volume... as it does, it is actively vacuuming the carbon dioxide out of your soda. This has always been common sense to me, that the equilibrium cannot be restored until the bottle is re-pressurized, and the only source of repressurization is (normally) the fizz coming out of the soda. Very often at parties other people will put the cap back on a large soda bottle while there is still a large dent in the bottle from them gripping it. This has always been a pet peeve of mine, as the result to me is so glaringly obvious. I'm always careful to pop out any dents before I tighten the cap. At least then the repressurization process is starting from "zero" instead of a negative pressure situation. A key point to remember is that a significant part of the "air" that you squished out of the bottle was actually carbon dioxide that you wanted to keep and now have to replace -- out of the liquid -- before repressurization can begin.

I have read a number of comments here on how to solve the issue of lost CO2 from fizzy drinks, but what really boggles the mind, is that no one is willing to put the monkey where it belongs......with the manufacturer. I remember a time when coke was sold in glass bottles with metal caps and this issue never existed. Since the introduction of plastic bottles, every soda loving individual out there had to find a solution to their dilemma without any assistance from the creators of this global problem. 80% of the recommendations here Don't work and as a result, we will continue to throw out our hard earned cash along with the flat soda. Until we confront the industry and impact their sales numbers with our displeasure , we will be drinking flat soda for plenty of years to come.

Ok so this is COMPLETELY wrong... Squeezing the bottle to let air out creates a slight vacuum or low pressure which causes the soda to go flat. Higher pressure keeps the CO2 dissolved so keep your bottles unsqueezed ans close the cap tightly. Good day.

This is only if you don't have to share with anyone else, but I found that if you exhale from your lungs into the bottle after you open it ,then as quickly as possible tighten the cap back on, it helps add CO2 back into the bottle, adds pressure and whatever lung infection you may have but then gives you nice fizzie soda or if you're from the Midwest , pop.

And for the pros out there, you can put the top in your mouth, pressurize the bottle by exhaling out into it and maneuver the top to be pressed against the top of the bottle enough so to where you can eventually pass it over to your fingers to tighten it unless you can do that with your tongue.

All the suggestions mentioned in this article DO Not Work, Except "Close the lid as soon as you can" and "Drink it all Up" .

1. Fizz Keeper devices do not work as Increasing the pressure has no effect on saving the Fizz for a longer time.
2. Keeping it Cold only accelerates the loss of CO2. In fact, keeping the bottle at room temperature will make it long laster than keeping it cold.
3. Squeezing the bottle will accelerate the process of losing the Fizz. Should be avoided.

This tip works:

Keep the bottle upside down type Fizz Keeper devices may help to keep the Fizz longer. The CO2 will be on top of the bottle and can not escape and the soda is dispensed from the mouth of the upside bottle.

You obviously have never tried to test what you are preaching. There are some facts which are undisputed scientifically.

1. If a gas like CO2 is suspended in a liquid then keeping it under pressure will stop it from releasing as the CO2 has nowhere to go.
2. Keeping a liquid cold will reduce the rate at which the gas can be released. You can test this by taking two identical bottles, one cold (about 4 degrees centigrade), and one warm (about 35 degrees centigrade). Open each bottle and put a balloon over their openings. You will quickly see that the warmer one is filling the balloon quicker. The warmer one is losing its gas faster.

Your "This tip works" does not work in the way you have explained it.

If you open a bottle and intend to drink it within a short time (1 - 2 hours) then you are better just pouring it from the open bottle and resealing after each drink. If you intend to drink it over the next day or so then keeping it in a dispenser is better than opening a bottle and not resealing it quickly each time you have a drink.

The reason for this is that every time you dispense the liquid from the dispenser it is being pushed out under pressure. This excites the liquid causing it to lose some more gas immediately as it is being poured. As you drink more of the liquid there is more space inside the bottle for gas to escape to. It has nothing to do with the gas being at the top of the bottle. It has everything to do with giving more volume for gas as each drink is taken. If the lid was resealed tightly on a normal bottle then there would be no difference except you lose a little more gas when you excite the liquid being poured from the dispenser.

If you have any doubts I would suggest you look more into how gasses suspended in liquids work.

In general the advice given is good however squeezing the bottle does not help keep the gas in. In fact it helps the soda lose air quicker as the bottle tends to try and return to its original shape and this would cause the bottle to have a slightly negative pressure. Try half emptying the bottle, squeeze almost all of the air out and put the lid back on. Now shake the bottle. The bottle will quickly return to its original shape and you will have lost most of the CO2. Pressure is what is needed to keep the CO2 gas in the liquid and lowering the temperature also helps considerably. There are 2 great ways to do this.

1. Transfer remaining liquid to smaller bottles and fill them almost to the top. After transfering the liquid the gas starts to release but having very little room to do so means that you only lose a very small amount of gas. The bottle will now be under pressure and will stay that way. Keeping the bottle cool will help it stay that way even longer. This is the best method!!!
2. Putting a tyre valve into the lid and pumping it up to keep the pressure in the bottle also works well but it does involve work to make up and if you don't do a good job you could have a small leak which will reduce the effectiveness of this method. You would also need to keep a pump handy and if you lay your bottles down in the fridge then you also have the problem of liquid getting into the valve which will degrade the valve over time.