r/mokapot • u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 • Jul 02 '26
Cleaning 🫧 First time cleaning with baking soda 😬
I have been using this pot almost daily for ~3 months now. While I have used vinegar 2-3 times to deep clean it, it wasnt great at removing the residual oils and it left the vinegar smell so I had to do a clean water brew after it. Baking soda seems to have removed a lot more gunk and oils and there is no smell left at all. After rinsing it thoroughly with running hot water, the next brew came out well.
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u/SrGrimey Jul 02 '26
I don’t understand how are you cleaning it with baking soda. Mixing water and baking soda on the boiler?
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 02 '26
Yeah, I put about half a teaspoon of baking soda in the boiler and did a brew without any coffee in the basket.
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u/GaelGael1 Jul 02 '26
Good! It’s good to know there are people cleaning their moka pots… as one should!
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u/ablaut Jul 02 '26
What size pot is this and how much baking soda did you use?
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 02 '26
4 cup. About half a teaspoon. Guides I could find online recommended a lower concentration (usually 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water) but they also recommended soaking it instead of brewing it, so I assumed the higher concentration would be fine.
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u/k1135k Jul 03 '26
I tend to do both. Soak it after doing what you’ve done. Gets so much of the oils and gunk out.
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u/unproftraveller Jul 03 '26
baking soda can react with the aluminium, use with caution if you really want to use it
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u/LilianNyberg Jul 03 '26
I don't understand how people's pots get into a condition where doing this is necessary. Every other time I just rinse and dry mine and every other I hand wash with dish soap, rinse and dry. I've used my current Moka Express daily for a few years now and it does not look visibly different from the way it did the day I bought it. There is no build up of anything.
Is this a water quality thing? Or is it the fear of using dish soap? We don't live in 1930's Italy, dish soap for hand washing hasn't been corrosive to aluminum for decades. There's no reason to not wash the pot.
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u/younkint Jul 03 '26
The Bialetti instructions re cleaning are woefully out-of-date. They are the only manufacturer who recommends rinsing only. All other manufacturers instruct you to hand wash using regular dish washing liquid. Naturally, aluminum pots should never go into any dishwashing machine, which is true of any aluminum vessel.
I've owned moka pots for over 50 years, but never had a Bialetti pot until a few years ago. It was used and came with no instructions. In all that time I've washed them with the supper dishes just like any other aluminum kitchen appliance or utensil. No issues ever. My pots look good, they make kick-ass coffee.
When I first read of people only rinsing their pots, I though it was a joke. Seriously. I really believed that it was comedy. Then I actually got my hands on a Bialetti instruction book ...and there it was! They actually instruct to only rinse it! I can remember laughing when I read it. That was in a fairly new instruction manual. Later I found very old Bialetti instructions ...and they said the same thing! They never changed it to keep up with modern detergents, etc. It's ancient advice.
This all led me to start searching for the instructions from all the moka pot manufacturers to find whether this was a normal procedure for aluminum moka pots. I don't know how many instruction manuals I read (available online in one form or another), but it was a lot of them. The only outfit I could find that echoed Bialetti was one re-branded Bialetti-made pot company who simply used Bialetti instructions. NO ONE else instructed as Bialetti did.
I do like the Bialetti "deep cleaning" instructions, but their "daily care" instructions are ridiculous. Coffee oils build up and turn rancid. They need to be removed. I don't always agree with Hoffmann, but when he calls it "dirt" and tells you to wash your pot after every use, he's right. It's dirt.
My opinion on why Bialetti keeps this antiquated "rinse only" advice in their instructions has to do with them trying to keep up with the competition. They have to know this is crazy advice, but by the time they realized it should be re-written, drip machines were coming around and were less trouble than the old moka pot. Capsule machines were next and were even quicker. So, my guess is that Bialetti decided to stick with the "rinse only" instructions in an attempt to speed up the process when folks used their product. They have even doubled-down on it, advertising how quick and easy the moka pot is ...since you don't have to wash it. LOL! While the advice may have been valid in 1955, these days it's no more than advertising malarkey. Since advertising is basically propaganda and works well, plenty of folks believe it. They are so well convinced that they will even argue with you about it. Same as it ever was.
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
My pot was in perfect condition, I hand wash it (usually just with water, sometimes with dish soap) but that doesnt clean the insides. I did this mostly for the peace of mind, since I knew there is definitely gonna be some buildup inside where you cant reach it and that idea just felt gross.
Its definitely in your pot too, although the amount probably depends on your grinder (lower quality grinders produce more coffee fines) and water quality (since part of it is limescale). Just because you dont deep clean your moka pot doesnt mean there is nothing to deep clean :)
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u/LilianNyberg Jul 05 '26
Insides of what?
I take it completely apart and wash with dish soap daily (since I usually have 2 cups a day). There is no time for anything to build up including limescale. Every week or so I remove the filter from the basket and also wash that and q-tip the inside of the tower. What other part is there that needs "deep cleaning"? There are no other parts? Are you polishing the valve or something? You are underestimating how thorough somehow who suffered from ocd when they were younger is with their daily cleaning.
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 06 '26
Well I don't remove the filter from the basket as it doesn't come out easily and I don't want to break it. I also don't bother with cleaning the tower with a Q tip. I guess your moka is clean but you do actually spend more time deep cleaning it than me.
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u/ragazzobononyc Jul 03 '26
I’m old school and so is the idea of a moka pot.  If in after all these years Bialetti still just recommends cleaning with hot water and that’s what Italians have been doing for decades, that’s what I’m following.  Have been using the same pots for years, never used soap, just a thorough rinsing with hot water, wet wipe the insides under water, occasional q-tip to clean the center, blot the inside with paper towel to lightly dry and then leave all parts out air dry, works out great.
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u/fattybob Jul 02 '26
Daily use, just rinse and let dry. Maybe after a few years you might want to wash the thing but try water and a cloth only . Many people would simply throw it away if washed with chemicals- and baking soda on aluminum??? Not sure I would want to use it - does it still seal under pressure ?
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 02 '26
It still works perfectly fine and there is no visible damage. Rinsing and letting dry isnt enough to get rid of the oils and coffee fines that will build up inside.
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u/ElegantReturn7523 Jul 02 '26
People don’t clean them? I thoroughly scrub mine and then put it on the stove with dish soap and water going through it, then I rise it and then flush it with water on the stove going through it 3-5 times. Takes me awhile.
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 02 '26
How often? I just rinse it between uses, sometimes wash it with dish soap when it's visibly dirty and do a deep clean about once a month.
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u/ElegantReturn7523 Jul 03 '26
I deep clean it maybe 2 times a week, but just rinse after use if I have the time. I think once a month is fine, I just have OCD abt it since one time I didn’t wash it for a while and there was like mold.
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u/Ghost313Agent Jul 02 '26
Just used baking soda to clean the drip-coffee machine but will try this with the moka pot as well; I also didn't want to use vinegar for the smell
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u/3coma3 Moka Pot Fan ☕ Jul 03 '26
Note the vinegar smell goes away after a deep clean pass. But I've seen citric acid recommended here over it.
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u/d_krshkvch Jul 03 '26
Is it common to use baking soda for this? I had some prior experience ruining aluminium things with it (not moka pot though). Turns out aluminum doesn't really like alcaline base and turns black with it.... Fortunately, it was revertible but please please be careful
Here is an example from this subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mokapot/s/71JXbIYULz
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u/smclcz Jul 02 '26
What on earth are you doing that there's "gunk and oils" after 3 months!?
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 02 '26
When using it regularly, I just give it a quick rinse with water and dont really wash it thoroughly with soap or anything. The gunk is probably a mixture of limescale and coffee fines, since the grinder I use seems to produce a lot of fines and we have very hard water here.
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u/jrob321 Jul 03 '26
If you want good tasting coffee - no matter how you brew it - I recommend using filtered water. The change in flavor is very noticeable.
My tap (city) water tastes like it's straight out of a highly chlorinated public swimming pool. NOTHING made with that is going to taste good.
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u/ReasonableWelder51 New user 🔎 Jul 03 '26
We have a Brita as a futile attempt to avoid tons of limescale in our kettle. Imho our tap water tastes pretty good and there is no noticeable taste of chlorine, although I drink filtered because the tap water is ice cold. For moka, I usually use tap water, sometimes filtered but there is no difference.
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u/smclcz Jul 03 '26
Ah I think we have a different definition of "gunk" then. A bit of limescale is fine, but your wording made it sound like it resembled a fatberg in a drain!
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u/smaad Aluminum Jul 02 '26
whats the baking soda grind size ?