Ikea French Presses Recalled

[nEver-Ready]

For all, like me, who may have one...(Recall Notice)

[JPDyson]

Ruh-roh! Looks like a glass defect in recent batches.

[Captain Pete]

Here's your problem. Says "Made in China on the bottom". Sounds like the glass isn't properly tempered against heat. That is the only explanation that sounds logical.

[JPDyson]

Here's your problem. Says "Made in China on the bottom".

There's a certain tasty irony in the poor craftsmanship of those sentences...

[drivingiron2]

Here's your problem. Says "Made in China on the bottom". Sounds like the glass isn't properly tempered against heat. That is the only explanation that sounds logical.

Yeah, maybe lead content too high in glass. So sorry I can't laugh.

[xillion]

The last time I was at Ikea I took a look at the press and the glass felt very thin, nothing like Bodum glass.
I also noticed that the moka pots are no longer made in Italy, but they are now made in India.
The old Italian made moka pots, known as the Trivsel, were dead ringers for the Bialetti Venus.
They were very well made and produced a nice cup of coffee.

[DFrancis]

The last time I was at Ikea I took a look at the press and the glass felt very thin, nothing like Bodum glass.
I also noticed that the moka pots are no longer made in Italy, but they are now made in India.
The old Italian made moka pots, known as the Trivsel, were dead ringers for the Bialetti Venus.
They were very well made and produced a nice cup of coffee.

I've also noticed other glass wear at Ikea is quite thin and fragile feeling, thank to the OP for the notice, I hope anybody that has one of these sees it.

[The Nid Hog]

Here's your problem. Says "Made in China on the bottom". Sounds like the glass isn't properly tempered against heat. That is the only explanation that sounds logical.

I don't think that being made in China is the end of the story. Yama has switched their production from Japan to China, but they still turn out a good product. Ikea is a little harder for me to figure out. They definitely do whatever they can to keep prices low. And yet, they manage to sell stuff like their very high quality Senior range of enameled dutch ovens at a very low price--and they're made in France! Every time I shop at Ikea, I'm so amazed at the great prices and interesting things that I'm certain I'm going to be disappointed when I get my purchases home. For the most part, that doesn't happen. I'm sorry to hear that the French presses have this problem--I had one in my hands a couple of weeks ago to buy as a present and I'm glad I didn't. Hope they get this squared away.

[SiBurning]

I don't think this is a manufacturing flaw made in China. It seem like a design flaw made on the desk of an industrial designer or a very poor engineer or someone with no design background at all. Thin glass certainly contributes, but the attempt to save costs by cutting down on the metal frame looks suspicious.

Trying to think through what might happens as the pot heats up, that single bar going down the side, being the longest piece, would expand the most as it heats and twist the parts that go around the glass, causing stresses on the glass that probably weren't expected. Metal has a slightly larger coefficient of thermal expansion than glass, but they're very close. That whole metal frame isn't exactly a precision fit in the first place, but I bet it's kind of tight. I notice Bodum and almost everyone else uses bands on at least two sides, which would even out any twisting stress on the bands. Looking around, only Bialetti seems to use a single connecting piece, a rounded plastic handle. Plastic has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion than glass, so it'll expand a lot more, but it has very poor heat conductivity, so it won't really heat up in the first place, and it's not even in contact with the hot glass where it matter (in the vertical direction). The part of the handle that is in contact with the glass is actually horizontally, so it won't move the parts.

I wouldn't bet on this particular theory (particularly since I'm just having morning coffee) but it could happen.

[JPDyson]

Edit: In case you missed it, quoted from the article:

"Hazard: Pressure from the metal pot holder against the coffee/tea maker can cause the glass to break unexpectedly, posing burn and laceration hazards."

First and foremost, the glass must be engineered to support the pressure of the plunge entirely on its own. The "frame assembly" cannot be structurally relevant to the pressure exerted on the glass.

I get what you're saying about the force exerted on the glass, but the lack of torsional rigidity of a frame designed in this way, in my estimation, would actually prevent that. The force wouldn't work along the single metal band in a meaningful way. I suspect, if anything, the downward force on the center of the bottom portion of the frame causes the other three sides to press inward on the lower portion of the glass - a force which is applied over as small area (perhaps the reason for bands in other designs, like Bodum's Chamford - it increases the surface area across which such pressure is applied).

But this all likely requires force exceeding normal operation. It almost certainly has to be defective glass. An interesting experiment would be to swap this with some schott or pyrex and see if they stop breaking.

[SiBurning]

By the time I finished that post, and had some more of my morning coffee, I was tempted to delete everything but the first paragraph, but useless speculation and inane babble is fun, especially over a nice cup of Kenyan peaberry.

[JPDyson]

By the time I finished that post, and had some more of my morning coffee, I was tempted to delete everything but the first paragraph, but useless speculation and inane babble is fun, especially over a nice cup of Kenyan peaberry.

I can think of little else do to when there's, you know, little else to do.