How to refresh or reload a flutter firestore streambuilder manually?

Having the stream as a state variable and resetting on pull on refresh will solve the problem.

In below code, I am resetting the stream on button press. Hope that helps you.

import 'dart:async';

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(new MyApp());

class MyApp extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  State<StatefulWidget> createState() {
    return new _MyAppState();
  }
}

class _MyAppState extends State<MyApp> {
  var stream; // state variable

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    stream = newStream(); // initial stream
  }

  Stream<String> newStream() =>
      Stream.periodic(Duration(seconds: 1), (i) => "$i");

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    var streamBuilder = StreamBuilder(
        initialData: "0",
        stream: stream,
        builder: (context, snapshot) {
          return new Text(snapshot.data);
        });
    return MaterialApp(
        title: 'Trial',
        home: Scaffold(
            appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Stream builder')),
            body: Column(
              children: <Widget>[
                streamBuilder,
                FlatButton(
                    onPressed: () {
                      setState(() {
                        stream = newStream(); //refresh/reset the stream
                      });
                    },
                    child: Text("Reset"))
              ],
            )));
  }
}

Try to use this sample with rxdart package:

    class _MyAppState extends State<MyApp> {
      /// Controller for stream with `Object` (actually any) signal
      final controller = PublishSubject<Object>();

      /// Stream returning as transformed `Future` with Firebase data
      Stream<List> get stream => controller.asyncMap(_onRefreshFirebase);

      @override
      void dispose() {
        controller.close();
        super.dispose();
      }

      @override
      void initState() {
        super.initState();
        controller.add(Object()); // Activate stream
      }

      @override
      Widget build(BuildContext context) {
        return MaterialApp(
          title: 'Trial',
          home: Scaffold(
            appBar: AppBar(title: Text('Stream builder')),
            body: Column(
              children: <Widget>[
                RefreshIndicator(
                  onRefresh: _onRefresh,
                  child: StreamBuilder<List>(
                    stream: stream,
                    builder: (context, snapshot) {
                      // use data from `snapshot`
                      return ListView.builder(...),
                    },
                  ),
                ),
                FlatButton(
                  child: Text('Reload'),
                  onPressed: () {
                    // Prepare new data and send it to stream
                    controller.add(Object());
                  }
                ),
              ],
            ),
          );
        }
      }
    }

    /// Stream transformer from `event` to `List<dynamic>`
    Future<List> _onRefreshFirebase(Object event) async {
      // get data from Firebase
      return [];
    }

    /// Callback when user pulls down
    Future _onRefresh() async {
      await _onRefreshFirebase(Object());
    }