Bodum USA is recalling about 5.9 million French press coffee makers with replaceable glass carafes, according to a recall notice the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission published on 29 October 2026. The commission said the glass can break without warning during use once it has been cracked or damaged, including by a metal spoon used to stir the coffee, and that the break can cause serious burns. Owners are not being offered a refund or a new press, Daily Coffee News reported. Bodum is sending a plastic stirring spoon and a warning label instead.
The recall reaches back a long way. The presses were sold from 1974 through October 2026, at Target, Walmart and coffee and home goods stores, and online at Bodum's own site, Amazon and other retailers, for roughly $15 to $65 each, according to the commission. Spread across those 53 calendar years, the 5.9 million units reported by the commission work out to about 110,000 presses a year.
Which Bodum French presses are included?
The recall covers 8-cup and 12-cup presses with replaceable glass carafes in eight models, according to the CPSC notice: Bistro, Brazil, Caffettiera, Chambord, Crema, Java, Jesper and Kenya. The commission said the Bodum name appears on the frame and the inner lid of most of the affected models, and that the carafes are engraved with the Bodum name along with product warnings. It said the presses were made in Portugal and Thailand and imported by Bodum USA, Inc., of New York.
A French press is an immersion brewer: ground coffee steeps in hot water inside the carafe, and a mesh plunger is then pushed down to hold the grounds at the bottom. The carafe holds the hot water for the whole steep.
What is the hazard, and how many people were hurt?
The commission said Bodum has received 70 reports of carafes breaking while in use, including 48 reports of burns. Set against the 5.9 million units in the notice, the 70 reports come to about one for every 84,000 presses sold, a ratio worked from the commission's own figures. The notice names metal stirring as one way the glass can be weakened, and the label Bodum is sending warns against using metal spoons in the carafe and against using a carafe that is cracked or damaged.
What is Bodum offering owners?
The CPSC lists the remedy as a repair. It says owners should stop stirring with metal spoons or utensils in the glass carafe and contact Bodum for the free plastic spoon and the label. Bodum is taking claims through a dedicated recall site, by email, and by phone at 888-879-8213 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday, according to the notice.
Daily Coffee News reported on 29 October that the company is not offering refunds or replacement coffee makers. A report by Brady Doran of WHTM, the ABC station in Harrisburg, published the same day, said future units will ship with the plastic spoon and the warning label. Doran's report also carried a statement from Bodum describing itself as a family-owned company and saying the recall is meant to reinforce its warnings about cracked carafes and metal spoons. USA TODAY's Fernando Cervantes Jr. reported the same 70 breakage reports and 48 burn reports as reports received by the company.
How does this compare with the 2019 Bodum press recall?
The earlier recall was for a different fault and at a far smaller scale. In May 2019 the CPSC announced a Starbucks recall of about 230,000 Bodum and Starbucks 8-cup presses made partly from recycled materials, plus about 33,200 sold in Canada. The commission said then that the plunger knob could break and expose the metal rod, and it listed eight U.S. reports and one Canadian report of cuts or puncture wounds. Those presses were sold at Starbucks stores and on Starbucks.com from November 2016 to January 2019, and owners were offered a refund as store credit.
The two notices differ in hazard, scope and remedy. The 2019 recall was a cut hazard on one co-branded model sold for a little over two years, and it ended in refunds. The 2026 recall is a burn hazard across eight Bodum models sold for five decades, and it ends in a spoon and a label. On the commission's numbers, the new recall is more than 25 times the size of the U.S. portion of the old one.
What are the recall's numbers?
- 5.9 million units in the U.S., recall number 27-055, announced 29 October 2026 (CPSC)
- 8 models, in 8-cup and 12-cup carafe sizes (CPSC, 29 October 2026)
- 70 reports of carafes breaking in use, 48 of them with burns, as of 29 October 2026 (CPSC)
- Sold from 1974 through October 2026 for about $15 to $65 (CPSC)
- About 230,000 U.S. units and 33,200 Canadian units in the 2019 Starbucks recall, announced 1 May 2019 (CPSC)
The commission's notice lists no units sold in Canada or Mexico for this recall. More French press and home brewing coverage is collected on our brewing and gear page.
