How To Clean Your Aluminium or Stainless Steel Moka Pot

One important thing to know before cleaning your Moka pot is whether it is aluminium or stainless steel. The cleaning method will be very different depending on the metal your pot is made of and using the wrong products can permanently damage your coffee maker. So, if you’re unsure, take a look at your packaging or look your model up online.

How To Clean An Aluminium Moka Pot 

As you may know, aluminium is an extremely fragile metal. As such, using any abrasive products to clean an aluminium Moka pot is to be avoided at all costs. You should even avoid using rough sponges or brushes to clean it out. Aluminium Moka pots are not dishwasher-safe either. This is because there is a coating on aluminium moka pots that prevents your coffee from taking on a metallic taste. The dishwasher and excessive scrubbing would remove this coating.

How To Descale Your Aluminium Moka Pot

Chances are, you’ll eventually need to descale your pot. How often you’ll need to descale your Moka pot will vary widely depending on the hardness of the water in your local area. If your water is quite hard, we recommend using filtered water if possible to avoid having to descale your pot coffee maker too regularly. You’ll know you’ll need to descale your pot when the inside of your Moka pot presents a significant amount of limescale. 

We recommend using 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar to descale your pot. While these are two acids, they are strong enough to break down the limescale without damaging your Moka pot or its coating.

Here’s how to do it:

• Fill the lower chamber of your pot with water, ensuring the safety valve is covered, and continue adding water until it reaches the coffee filter basket. 
• Add in the lemon and vinegar (1 tablespoon of each) and let sit for 2-4 hours. This allows the limescale and oils to break down. 
• Pour out some of the water, ensuring the safety valve is no longer covered, and brew a cycle. (Without adding coffee, obviously!)
• Then proceed as usual, i.e. let cool, disassemble, rinse and dry!

Don’t actually have an aluminium Moka pot yet but are interested in getting your hand on one? On MaxiCoffee we have all you need !

How To Clean A Stainless Steel Moka Pot 

Though Moka pots are traditionally made out of aluminium, there are now also stainless steel models, like the New Venus Bialetti pot, or the Pylano Kiara pot. These tend to be less fragile and can be cleaned and descaled with a wider variety of cleaning products. 

The steps to follow are much the same as for an aluminium pot, with the exception that soap and more abrasive cloths or even steel wool can be used to clean them.

How To Descale Your Stainless Steel Moka Pot

 It’s important to descale your stainless steel Italian coffee maker approximately every 3 months, or even more often if you have particularly hard water. To do this, you can use a very small amount of descaler, diluted with water. 

Here are the simple steps for descaling: 

• Put 10ml of descaler in the lower part of the coffee maker. 
• Fill the base with water. Heat only the base on a hob to around 60°. 
• Once you reach 60°, remove it from the hob and let it sit for 5 minutes. 
• Empty and leave to cool before rinsing and cleaning with a sponge as you would usually do.
• Remember to dry thoroughly before reassembling in order to prevent rust and corrosion.

How To Remove Oils From Your Stainless Steel Moka Pot

After every use, coffee oils and small grounds get deposited in the upper part of your Moka pot. This build-up is quite noticeable in glass coffee makers but also needs to be removed from stainless steel ones. These deposits will impact your brew’s flavour as the oils can go rancid and the grounds will add bitterness to your later brews.

To get rid of these oils, you must simply clean the upper part of your pot like you would a greasy pan. In other words, add some dish soap and hot water, stir the mixture gently and make sure that the stem is not covered. After cleaning, rinse the upper part thoroughly with clear hot water.

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By following these few simple maintenance and cleaning steps, your Moka pot should remain in tip-top shape for many years to come and provide an amazing coffee experience time and again. If you have just cleaned out your pot and are ready to get brewing your next amazing cup of coffee, be sure to check out our selection of ground coffee for Moka pots here.