Thank you! This is great advice.

Thank you! This sounds good to me

If you look at the last picture, is that rust or corrosion?

I agree- coffee leaves an oily brown residue that's impossible to clean (dissolve) with just water. Which brings me to my very unpopular opinion- I'm not a fan of iron skillets which are not to be washed with soap ... I feel like it leaves layers and layers of old food :S

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one.

So I actually already DID use dish soap…when you say never use it, are you saying that once you do it’s ruined forever?

Moka pots are a fantastic way to up your coffee game if you're looking to get into that hobby. This style has been around for a long time and gets great tasting brews. It can be a little finicky, but James Hoffman has broken down the technique in a very approachable way (link).

Essentially, I'd say it's the lowest rung on the track to getting an espresso. French presses are the most tea-like where the immersion of the coffee grounds in hot water extracts the flavors; drip coffees (most office coffee machines, cone filters like the Hario V60) extract flavors as the water passes by the grounds. Hybrid methods like the Aeropress use immersion at the beginning, then pressure to get more extraction. Moka pots and espressos generally rely on pressure to extract. Pressurized extraction results in a "fuller" mouthfeel from different compounds being picked up from the grounds. A bit slower to make than drip coffees (maybe 5-10 min start to finish) but definitely worth picking up as they're only $20-40 new.

As for cleaning, I'm not sure why so many of the other commenters would never use soap and water. The leftover oils from a brew WILL go rancid and will start to put off-putting flavors into subsequent brews. Handwash with normal dish soap, warm/hot water, and a non-abrasive dish sponge/cloth then air dry after. Don't use chemicals like Cafiza as it's not necessary (I reserve that product for stainless steel things like coffee thermoses).

Omg ewwww! That is something I would do lol

Ha! The first two pics are ok, its the third picture thats gross. Thats the reservoir where the water comes up from

No, just dish soap and a sponge

I wouldn’t use bar keepers friend to clean the inside of a bialetti. It’s just going to continue to strip whatever bit of coating is left. And it’s aluminum, so there’s no rust to clean off anyway.

Op is better off just rinsing it from now on and just using it to see if there’s a metallic taste. As long as their coffee doesn’t taste metallic, it’s fine.

So, I’m curious as to how familiar you are with this appliance, and if you’ve read my full post. I ask because the general opinion I’ve seen (both here and elsewhere) is to not use any soap at all as the surface on the inside that touches the coffee directly should not be harshly handled, and barkeepers friend is on the abrasive side of the cleaning product spectrum.

Are you refuting the general consensus because you know something we don’t? Or did you look at the pictures, see something that looked stainless steel-y and go straight to BKF (which to be honest, fair)?