How to Clean Your Moka Pot after Using It

Contrary to popular belief, cleaning your Moka pot is essential to making a delicious cup of coffee. Learn all about how to properly clean your Moka pot right here.
image of a moka pot

A Moka pot (or Makineta, as it is sometimes called. If you’ve never heard of the Moka pot but have heard of Makineta – then congrats, you do have heard of the Moka pot) is an old-style coffee maker. The Moka pot was originally created in 1933 by Italian engineer Alfonso Bialetti in 1933, and despite its century-long life, it is still a popular tool among coffee aficionados, able to keep up with more recent inventions.

There are often complaints that Moka pot is overpraised by the coffee-lovers’ community. The truth is while Moka pot is low-maintenance, it still requires proper care. Otherwise, you won’t get the rich coffee aroma and taste you’re expecting, you’ll get terrible sludge.

One of the most common mistakes the newbie Moka pot owners make after acquiring the Moka pot? Not cleaning it properly.

Yes, You Need to Clean Your Moka Pot


Let’s start with the most basic fact: you do need to clean your Moka pot. This would seem like an obvious thing, but the internet these days is full of bad advice about… pretty much everything, and Moka pot care isn’t the exception.

I do not know when or how exactly it happened, but somehow a belief has managed to spread that washing your Moka pot is a mistake that will suck the flavor out of the coffee. This is wrong!

Coffee oils and sugars burn. The “never wash the Moka pot” rhetoric is based on the mistaken belief that the burnt coffee which forms the patina on the insides of the pot’s walls, is what ensures that classic rich coffee flavor many buy the Moka pot in the first place for. In reality, the burnt coffee will not enrich the coffee flavor. What it will do, is add additional bitterness to the brew (which many seem to think of as an indicator of “gourmet coffee”), but it will not be the “fresh” bitterness of classic espresso, but the unsavory flavor of coffee oils gone rancid many lie about enjoying, but few actually do

How to avoid this and enjoy the Moka pot to its fullest potential? Learn how to clean and descale it in a proper way so that the burn coffee patina doesn’t form.

First Wash

The first time you should wash the Moka pot is actually right after you purchase it and before you use it to brew the first cup of coffee.

Disassemble the Moka pot and give all the parts a thorough (but gentle!) wash with hot water and wait until it dries fully. Ideally, if you have some old coffee beans you won’t miss, brew a pot (or even a couple) you won’t be drinking.

You can skip the cleaning process between brewing these pots of coffee. But make no mistake – this is the only time brewing coffee in a dirty Moka pot is forgivable.

For future reference: unless you’re doing it for the explicit reason of throwing away the final product, you do not brew coffee in an unclean Moka pot.

Here’s How You Clean Your Moka Pot After Use

Rule #1 of Moka Pot (or Makineta) cleaning – you do it after every brew.

Thankfully, cleaning the Moka pot is a quick and easy process. It only takes a few minutes of your time, so you don’t have an excuse aside from being lazy if you don’t do it.

Rule #2 – don’t hurry and wait until it cools completely, before getting to clean it.

Okay, there is one thing that might lengthen the Moka pot cleaning process and that’s the waiting period. To not damage the pot coating while cleaning it, make sure that it has cooled completely before starting.

When it’s completely cool and safe to clean – disassemble the Moka pot. First things first – clean the filter basket: throw away the used coffee grounds and wash the filter basket very thoroughly (don’t leave any used coffee remains). When you’re done with the filter basket, give other parts of the Moka pot the same treatment – wash thoroughly and make sure there are no used coffee remains anywhere.

Rule #3 – wait until it’s completely dry before reassembling it.

The DON’Ts of Cleaning the Moka Pot

While cleaning the Moka pot is easy, there are several rules you should follow not to damage your makineta while cleaning it:

1. Do not scrub the Moka pot with abrasive material;

2. Do not put it in a dishwasher.

These are especially important if your makineta is made of aluminum. They tend to have a special coating on their walls to protect the coffee from acquiring a metallic taste. If you scrub too hard, you might accidentally scrub that coating off.

Zulay Classic Stovetop Espresso Maker for Great Flavored Strong Espresso, Classic Italian Style 5.5 Espresso Cup Moka Pot, Makes Delicious Coffee, Easy to Operate & Quick Cleanup Pot (Pink)

Descaling the Moka Pot

All coffee pots need descaling every once in a while, and makineta is no different. You’ll need to descale it around once every six months if you use it regularly.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Fill the Moka pot with water – keep adding until the water comes up to the filter basket.

2. Add lemon juice and vinegar (1tbsp each) to the water and let it sit for 3-4 hours – the acids should be able to break down the mineral deposits that have built up in the makineta

3. Pour out some of the water – the safety valve shouldn’t be covered

4. Brew the acidic water – just like with coffee, turn on the heat and wait until the acidic water rises into the upper chamber.

5. Wash it – turn off the brewer and pour out the acidic water. Then clean the brewer just like you’ve been taught above: wait for it to cool completely, hand-wash with non-abrasive material, wait for it to dry completely, and reassemble.

As long as you follow these instructions, your Moka pot will faithfully serve you for quite some time, providing a quality cup of rich-flavored coffee whenever you want one.

Bialetti Moka Express #06799 3-Cup Espresso Maker Machine and #06960 Bialetti, Six Replacement Gaskets and Two Bialetti Replacement Filter Plates Bundle

Clean the Gasket and Filter Plate

Don’t forget to pull out and clean the Gasket and Filter Plate each and every time.

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Tammy L.

Tammy L.

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We are at “Elijah Coffee” group of people who love coffe and have something to say about it :-)

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