stovetop expresso coffee pot - how on earth do you keep it clean?

[Cappuccino]

I have one of these aluminium jobbies

it grows stuff in the bottom as soon as you leave it

I thought that it was because we didn't use it a lot but we used it every day over Christmas and it has just been the faffiest faff in faffdom

i know I'm not supposed to use detergent but I have had to strap my hands to the worktop to stop myself putting it in the dishwasher

I clean it out with water, steel wool, lemon juice (from 101 book of household tips and what have you), left it on the stove to dry

help me

Not sure what the answer is - ours does this too, but I just keep cleaning it out. YOu could buy a dishwashwer safe one - might be better?

oh that is nice

but this was a wedding present from a very good friend.. so feel a bit precious about it

Have to say, I do use detergent in mine - didn't know you weren't supposed to. It just seems to grow things if I leave it wet in between using it and washing it up.

my sister leaves water in the bottom part of hers when she's not using it... she says it stops the buggy stuff forming. have to say that we use ours so often that nothing has a chance. plus i never do anything other than rinse it in hot water, like my italian chums, so perhaps that might have some bearing on it? who knows?

oh and DEFINITELY no dishwasher. it turns black and you have to throw it out (as dh found out with our last one...)

hmm - I don't think ours grows stuff, but it does get limescaley. I just rinse it hot water every time and occasionally boil it with hot water and lemon juice in, which seems to work...

the damn thing gets too hot to rinse it out straight away

though I know that is the point

good to know about the dishwasher result however - even though I should have learnt the lesson with my pans, something in me always wants to give it a go...

i think it anodises the aluminium, or something... try the water thing if you've got hard water where you live, my sister swears by it. we've got soft water so we're not so plagued by the weird growths, so i presume they're limescale au naturel.

next question. are you going to change your name to Espresso?

my dh always said if he ever came on and lurked he would be Espresso (realised right at the start by the way that I misspelt it in the title)

have to be Cappuccino. Coffee without froth is a sin.

i think it's mis-spelled so often that it's become the english way of spelling it, tbh. just don't tell the pedants.

I have one of those stove top thingies, but I use it everyday so I guess it never has time to grow anything in it. I just rinse the bottom of it out and the top bit et voila job done. I have never used detergent in it. So if you don't use it every day, then just rinseing it afterwards should do the trick?

Resurrecting this old thread, which is really helpful, but can someone please tell me whether you let it cool before rinsing, and do you dry the pot after rinsing, or leave it to drip dry? Wondering if it will get manky if I just leave it. And I have to store it in bits so the air gets to it, is that right? Thanks.