Bodum recalls 5.9 million French press coffee makers after burn reports

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Bodum USA is recalling about 5.9 million French press coffee makers sold in the United States since 1974, after the company received 70 reports of glass carafes breaking during use, including 48 reports of burns to consumers. The recall notice, posted to the agency's site on Oct. 29, covers eight Bodum product lines and ranks among the largest coffee-maker recalls on record by unit count.

The recall applies to 8-cup and 12-cup French presses from Bodum's Bistro, Brazil, Caffettiera, Chambord, Crema, Java, Jesper and Kenya lines, all of which use a glass carafe that can be removed and replaced separately from the plunger and metal frame. The Bodum name appears on the frame and inner lid of most affected models and is engraved on the carafe itself, alongside safety warnings. The presses were sold nationwide at Target, Walmart, and coffee and home-goods stores, and online through Bodum's own site, Amazon, Target.com and Walmart.com, for between $15 and $65, according to the recall notice.

How the carafes fail

According to the CPSC, the glass carafes can break during use if they are cracked or otherwise damaged, including by scratches or weak points left by a metal spoon or other metal utensil used to stir coffee inside the glass. A carafe weakened this way can shatter later, during an ordinary pour or press, releasing hot liquid and glass fragments. The agency describes the resulting hazard as a risk of serious burn injury. Bodum has sold the presses, largely unchanged in basic design, for five decades, and the company said the rate of reported incidents remains low relative to the number of units in use.

"While the rate of reported incidents involving carafe breakage during use is extremely low, especially considering that Bodum has sold millions of these products in the U.S. for decades, this recall will further encourage the safe use of our French Press Coffee Makers," the company said in a statement reported by Daily Coffee News.

Bodum, a family-owned company founded in Copenhagen in 1944, now runs its global operations from Switzerland while its U.S. importer, Bodum USA, is based in New York. The French press line at the center of the recall dates to 1974, when the company introduced the Bistro press, the same year the recall's sales window begins; the Chambord, whose rounded silhouette is probably Bodum's best-known design, followed in the 1980s after the company acquired the rights to an earlier coffee-press design. Bodum describes itself as the North American market leader in the French press category.

No refund, no replacement unit

Unlike many CPSC recalls, this one does not offer consumers a refund or a replacement product. Instead, Bodum is asking owners to stop stirring with metal utensils immediately and to request a free plastic stirring spoon, designed by the company, along with an additional warning label to affix to the carafe. Consumers can request the kit through a dedicated recall portal run with the claims administrator Sedgwick, by phone at 888-879-8213 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, or by emailing [email protected]. The notice separately instructs owners to stop using any carafe that is already cracked, chipped or otherwise visibly damaged, regardless of whether they request the new spoon.

• Stop stirring coffee in the carafe with a metal spoon or other metal utensil.
• Inspect the carafe for cracks, chips or other damage, and stop using it immediately if any is found.
• Request a free plastic stirring spoon and warning label through Bodum's recall portal or by phone.
• New Bodum presses will now ship with the plastic spoon and warning label already included.

Bodum's notice was one of more than a dozen recalls and safety warnings the CPSC posted on Oct. 29. The same day's postings included a separate recall of roughly 338,800 Dreo DR-HSH015 space heaters over fire and burn hazards, after that company logged 17 reports of units igniting, as well as recalls of children's dressers, a sensory swing and nursing pillows cited for tip-over, fall and suffocation risks. None of those products is related to the French press carafes, but the cluster illustrates how much of the agency's routine recall activity concerns ordinary household goods rather than rare or specialized ones. Reports of burns specific to the Bodum carafes were not broken down by severity in the recall notice, and the agency did not say how many required hospital treatment.

A familiar hazard in American kitchens

Hot-liquid burns are a persistent, if under-discussed, hazard in home kitchens. A federal analysis of emergency-department data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that roughly three in four nonfatal scald burns among adults 65 and older happened at home, and six in ten of those occurred in the kitchen itself. Coffee specifically accounted for about 15 percent of hot-liquid scald injuries in that study, behind boiling water and hot oil. That data is two decades old and limited to an older population, but it illustrates how a cracked carafe or a splash of near-boiling liquid can escalate quickly from an inconvenience into an injury serious enough to require medical care.

Coverage of the recall from outlets including KRISTV has largely echoed the CPSC's account, and neither the agency nor Bodum has indicated that the recall will be expanded to a refund or replacement program. For now, the agency and the company are urging owners not to wait for an incident: anyone with one of the affected presses should change how they stir their coffee today, whether or not they ever request the free spoon and label.