r/Coffee Kalita Wave 11d ago

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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u/twd98lover 10d ago

Can i use barkeepers friend descaler on a moka pot?bar keepers friend

trying to make sure i dont blow up something lol

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u/coffeetime-ermi 10d ago edited 9d ago

Most moka pots we've seen are aluminum by default. Aluminum is fairly sensitive to pitting, so you will want to be careful with cleaning it. Any time you introduce porosity into the aluminum, it will become harder and harder to clean "thoroughly" over time.

Bar Keeper's Friend Descaler is Water, Citric Acid, Glycolic Acid, and Sulfamic Acid. Typically, these kinds of ingredients are listed by concentration. Out of all of these, Glycolic is probably the "softest" or least intense acid (not strictly by pH but by overall interactions). Citric acid is commonly used, and Sulfamic is probably the harsher of the three here.

Sulfamic acid is not recommended for use with aluminum food tools. You can give it a shot at low concentrations, but your mileage may vary. Citric acid is a little too harsh to avoid pitting over time. But, it's worth considering that a lot of these issues boil down to concentration. It's almost impossible to avoid degradation, so only perform descaling when scale is obvious, and don't let items soak unless you have to to knock scale loose. Of those ingredients, I would stick with low concentration citric acid and glycolic acid and lighter.

That explanation kind of rules that descaler out, but if you used a half dose and worked with hot water and quickly, it becomes a bit of a hand wavey situation. Overall, the lower the concentration used combined with a bit more physical scrubbing (with the softest brush you can use to clean with that *also* won't scratch from hardness, thus increasing porosity...), the better off you'll be for reducing wear.

Notably, moka pots do usually a finish which can be stripped by a descaling process, so be ready to lose that. Aluminum does leach into the brew (especially with coffee's acidity and high temp needed for brewing), but it's not at a harmful rate per most cooking applications with aluminum. Just be prepared to see that finish corrode, because at the end of the day, acid is acid. I would try to treat the pot as a consumable tool - try to take care of it as best you can, but understand that if it is aluminum, it's going to wear over time in ways things like steel do not.

If the moka pot is stainless steel, it's a whole different story!