A few months ago I gave a sturdy, 6-cup Bialetti to a friend as a present. He recently admitted that he managed to accidentally melt (!) the damn thing down, as he forgot to switch off the fire. I was curious if he really managed to melt the metal. But unfortunately he has not shared a picture of it; he was too embarrassed about it, and he just tossed it into the trash.

Some sibling comments mentioned replacing the rubber seal fixes the issue of burnt taste. I took a look at my rubber seals and they did have a burnt smell, so I'm gonna give that a shot. Thanks for sharing and good luck with your friend's Moka pot!

There's no more Moka pot; now he's on his own. ;-) I'm really surprised that my friend managed to melt the goddamned metal. I was wondering did the metal really melt? How long did he leave it on fire for the metal to melt? The bugger didn't answer these questions.

i think he obviously just melted the plastic handle, you just can't melt aluminium (let alone steel) with even a gas stove's burner.

A drill with a small hard sponge attachment could work? Using a drill with a sponge has been the only way I managed to clean my stove top within reasonable time when something particularly nasty has managed to get burnt there. Maybe a smaller version of it could work with Moka pot too?

Baking soda