I am so sorry, if I was more fully human I'd have the capacity to figure this out on my own and not bother you with something you've heard a bunch of times, but alas--my moka pot has ceased and brain not brain properly yet
I have the bialetti 6 cup, i'm pretty sure, and it's bare minimum five/six years old but i think older, although given what i've heard of these i'm assuming they're one of those lifetime tools and that's not actually that old. But it's stopped really brewing. It makes maybe a third of what it used to, with most of the water being left in the pot (and looking like it was partially brewed at that).
i have abused this fucker. cleaning is minimum with water and sponges, i've never done the vinegar brew to flush shit out, i use it multiple times a day, i use cold water (filtered at least although that's not much of a choice, our water is shit and tastes accordingly) and the cheap ass cafe bustelo espresso that comes in the preground bricks. It screams the screams of the damned when I use it (it started as the clean whistle and very rapidly devolved into something throaty and demonic, but hey, me too buddy. me too.). That stopped around the same time it stopped brewing. Perhaps it's given up the ghost and its soul returned from whence it came
I've replaced the rubber gasket, although not the metal filter. .....And that's because i was so tired one morning that i accidentally left the rubber gasket in the pot as it was brewing, and I was so out of it I just tossed it all and started fresh. It DOES brew when I start with hot water and lightly pack the grounds, but it's so weak compared to what I'm used to, and like....
i know fully well i am doing everything wrong, but the problem is that I LIKE the coffee that I get out of it. I like the kinda burnt taste, I like the strength, I like how thick it is. I'm drinking the nearly black syrup that came out of the unsuccessful brew that prompted this and thinking about how good it is. This is no small feat. I started trying to figure out exactly what kind of coffee I like when I was sixteen and it took me like ten years to make it the way I like at home. And now I don't like anything else as much as I like that. I've had an espresso maker, a drip machine, I've tried french press and cold brew and pour-over. Coffee from shops is fine but it's not the same. I like THIS coffee, exactly the very wrong way I've been doing it, and now nothing comes close
So like......what do I DO. How do I fix this. Do the vinegar bath brew thing?? If it's brewing with hot water and more lightly packed grounds, I'm assuming it's not that it doesn't function at all. Is it the gasket? If it's the gasket what do I even do? CAN I do anything?? Or should I just give this guy a warrior's funeral and get a new one?
Thank you, I'm sorry, I'm doing this all wrong and also i'm very tired
Thank you so much!! I did try almost everything you suggested, except for swapping out the metal filter (which I still might try just to say that I gave everything I could a shot). In the end I went out and got a new pot, but I still wanted to see if I could save the old one.
The gasket was brand new from a Bialetti-brand Moka pot replacement kit, and I've used that same kind before with no problem, but it was an issue I was having before and after I replaced the gasket. I took a look at the filter and saw there was a tiny gap when it was sitting on the reservoir--I fiddled with it until it was as flat as I could manage. I then gave it a vinegar soak, washed it, and then did vinegar brew (with another wash just for good measure). I WAS able to get it brewing to about where it had been before....
But then I realized just how much less coffee my original pot had been brewing for a long while T-T Something must have gone with the gasket, which is really frustrating. Maybe I dropped the reservoir as I was washing it once and hit the gasket wrong?? Or something fell on it in a dish drain and damaged it?? And over time it was slowly getting to be less functional without me realizing. I feel so bad, he was such a good buddy.....
Hopefully I'll be able to get a full ten years out of this one I just got 🤞🤞 I'll just have to be more careful ðŸ˜ðŸ’”
Ooohhh i didn't think about the rim! The lip has a really small dent, but it didn't seem to be affecting anything until really recently, so maybe it's a bunch of small issues that piled up over time.... Thank you! I'll see what i can do to save my poor metal friend before i let it kick the bucket
not anymore, at least not unless i bother it. I thought maybe the valve wasn't working (a gap somewhere or it came lose or something) and there just wasn't any pressure circulating at all, but when i nudge it with a spoon I can see steam escaping
cold water in reservoir to just under the valve
spoon grinds into filter cup, tap the side to level/settle them, run spoon over top to level the mound more, if i have to pack the grinds to make them fit take some grinds out and repeat
filter cup into reservoir, tightly screw pot on, high heat
up until now when it would scream I'd turn the heat off and let it finish brewing just from the residual heat, but it's stopped making any noise and it also mostly stopped pushing coffee up into the pot unless it's lightly packed with grinds and i use hot water instead of cold
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It's working great!! It's fast, the coffee is good, and they've started molding the reservoirs with markings for where to fill the water, so that's a bit easier too. But still.... I wouldn't mind having the other one on hand for the just-in-cases ;;; It's hard to have coffee any other way once you've settled on the one you like ((and admittedly I'm pretty sure I'M more of a problem than the pot XD This is my third one, because I......managed to melt my first one..... I was very tired, i forgot to fill it with water, and the entire thing turned into the terminator post-thumbs-up. I've started making [iced] coffee the day before so i have something immediately when I wake up to avoid anymore lost souls ;; ))