Is it safe to use aluminum foil inside a moka pot?

Question

My moka pot is sputtering coffee instead of pouring flowing coffee so I'm trying to find a solution on how to fix this. I stumbled upon this video, with a similar issue in which the filter is a bit loose so the heated gas doesn't transfer properly. His solution was to use some PFTE tape on the filter to make it tighter.

My father saw this and said that aluminium foil would work better because it's meant to be put on food. I am no expert and just want to be safe. Are there some hazardous side effects when using aluminium foil?

Answer 1

With the moka pot being made of aluminum itself, there isn't really any health effects from using foil. If there is a worry about ingesting tiny flakes of aluminum, you'd have a worse time eating that leftover lasagna.

The only caveat is if you use too much and it wedges the funnel into the basin and you can't remove it. As a side note, with the pot being much thicker than the funnel, it would also be pretty much impossible to crack it doing this.

If you have followed his advice and made sure the gasket is in good shape and not indented too much. The lip around the funnel could be out of shape, and like he showed sits deeper than what the gasket can seal.