First off I am a coffee newbie, but recently I bought a 3 cup moka pot. I have used it about 7-8 times now with no problems. However this morning a strange thing happened.

I put water in the bottom to just below the valve as I have every time. next i put coffee in the filter as instructed. Then I screwed the 2 parts together and did not over tighten as the instructions say. Then I placed it on the stove (gas) set at 5 (medium).

Well 20mins go by and no coffee, 5 more minutes and I hear a POP! I turn around and see the handle and black knob from the lid have melted off and landed on the stove.

Once it cooled down I took it apart and low and behold there was no water in the bottom and the grounds were stuck to everything inside.

What did I do wrong? :-)
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Some pictures of the damage

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I did the same thing recently. In my case, I forgot to put the water in the bottom. It was way early :-) The only other thing i can think of is that you packed way too much coffee in the middle and it didn't let the water seep through. All of the water could have escaped out the steam valve then.
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Hmmm, I thought I paid particular attention to the amount of coffee I put in , but then again it was before my first cup of the day :-)
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That pot got hot! I have spaced and let the pot sit on the flame well after the brew happened but the damage done was to the seal cooking.
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Alrighty, I spent an hour or so reading all the great tips around here and after that went out and bought another pot. I followed all the directions I read around here and not only did not melt the new pot but also achieved crema! I think the main thing I did was increase the amount of coffee and lower the flame on the stove. I brewed a great cup and could not be more pleased. Thanks guys for all the great info, I will try not to be a stranger on this section in the future. :-)
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The old one had a leak or a bad gasket; the water steamed or seeped out over the 20-minutes and then it melted down. Semi-bummer. At least you got a new one now. Brew on, brother. Brew on. Old gaskets get hard and don't seal well at some point. Not bad to change them every couple of years.
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I had a larger moka pot that never sealed right and always spit out water right at the moment brewing begun. It saw an early grave and it's the samller ones from here on out.

The learning process for me on the moka pot was way longer than the relatively ease I had getting down the machine.

Disclaimer:

I am in NO WAY suggesting you ditch the moka pot and start buying machines and grinders.:-)
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good job skrewing this one up:-)
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:-)





:-)
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