![]() ![]() The vessel, especially, needs to be rinsed and dried thoroughly in The Right Way. Correspondingly, the only way to use this thing is, indeed, to heat it with water. Aluminum tarnishes (oxidizes) somewhat readily, especially when it is hot and in contact with water. Unfortunately the symptoms you're seeing, from my perspective, is a classic failure of the Bialetti design. The vessel is probably made out of aluminum alloy (though there are similar models that are made of stainless steel, your picture seems to be looking down into the bottom heating vessel, and it looks like the classic aluminum species). This is a classic Bialetti model, and a classic Bialetti symptom. You probably can't (or shouldn't) really permanently remove them even if you wanted to. You don't need to take any action unless they're affecting the taste of your coffee, and it shouldn't be. Short story: They are probably aluminum oxide, but almost certainly some kind of metal oxide. So what are these spots? If they aren't affecting the flavor of the result, do I need to worry about them? If so, how can they be removed? It's been used 1-3 times per day for about three weeks. ![]() I use filtered water, so I don't think they are mineral deposits (unlike in this case). I have a hunch that that moisture may be contributing here. Sometimes when I'm pressed for time, the just-used pot sits in the sink for a few hours without getting disassembled or rinsed. Generally I make a cup of coffee, rinse all components, and allow them to air dry. They look sort of like black mold, but I gave the pot a gentle scrub with warm water and a mild soap and they didn't budge. They are only on the bottom of the pot as far as I can tell, not the sides. They are placed pretty evenly around the ridgy part toward the edge of the bottom of the circle, with a few toward the middle. In my kitchen, the Ilsa took almost 10 minutes to make a pot of coffee, compared with just 8.5 minutes with the Alessi, 9 minutes with the Bialetti, and 9.5 minutes with the Grosche.I've got these spots on the inside the bottom section of my Bialetti Moka Express: And, says Leporati, “It will take longer for the water to boil and for the coffee to rise,” a result that we confirmed in our testing. However, stainless steel is heavier and more costly to produce. Stainless steel is stronger and more durable than aluminum, it’s an excellent conductor of heat, and (because it’s magnetic) it can work on an induction cooktop. It’s also the only model we tested that comes with a fine, circular sieve to allow you to make a half pot of coffee. It has a flip-up lid like the Alessi, and it’s more curvaceous in shape than the other three pots. Like the Moka Express, the Ilsa Turbo Express is made in Italy (the Alessi Moka is made in Vietnam the Grosche Milano, in China). If you’re fussy about cleaning or have an induction cooktop, get a stainless steel moka pot like the Ilsa Turbo Express ( Bialetti and Alessi also make stainless steel moka pots, but we haven’t tested them, and the Ilsa is the one we saw most frequently sold by specialty coffee purveyors such as Espresso Zone and Seattle Coffee Gear). ![]()
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