Description
The Bodum Chambord 1928-16US4 is a 34 ounce French press with a borosilicate glass beaker held in a polished stainless steel frame, a matte finish handle and a plunger assembly with a mesh screen. It is listed at 39.33 dollars, weighs 1.46 pounds, is made in Portugal and has been on this listing since March 2004. The Chambord shape is the one most people picture when they hear the words French press, and Bodum has been making it since 1958.
Immersion brewing is what separates this from every pour over in this catalogue. The grounds sit in the water for the whole brew rather than having water pass through them, and at the end a metal screen pushes the bed to the bottom. That produces a heavy, full bodied cup with oils and fine sediment intact, because a metal screen cannot hold back either. It is the opposite of what a Chemex does to the same coffee, and the two are worth thinking of as different drinks rather than better and worse versions of one.
Capacity and Dose
Thirty four ounces is the standard large French press size, usually described as an eight cup press using a four ounce cup. In real mugs it is two large ones or three modest ones. The listing does not state a cup count or a recommended dose, so the ratio is entirely yours to choose. The widely used convention is roughly sixty grams of coffee per litre of water, which puts a full 34 ounce brew at about sixty grams, but that is general practice rather than anything Bodum publishes here.
Dimensions are 4.2 inches deep by 5.5 inches wide by 9 inches high. The 5.5 inch width includes the handle, and the nine inch height includes the plunger knob standing proud of the lid, so the real shelf requirement is a little under nine inches with the plunger fully raised. At 1.46 pounds empty it is heavier than a glass carafe of the same volume because of the steel frame.
The Frame, the Glass and Why Chambord Is Built This Way
The beaker is borosilicate, which is the correct material for a vessel filled with water just off the boil, since its low thermal expansion tolerates sudden temperature change far better than ordinary glass. The chrome plated steel frame is not decoration. It carries the handle, it holds the beaker so a crack does not become a spill, and it takes the load when you press the plunger down against the resistance of a full bed of grounds.
Exterior finish is listed as chrome plated and matte, the two describing the frame and the handle respectively. That handle finish is the practical detail: a chrome handle on a vessel of near boiling coffee conducts heat, and matte is easier to grip when wet. Colour is recorded simply as Polished. The listing never mentions whether replacement beakers are available, which is the single most useful thing to know about a glass press, since the glass is the part that breaks and the frame is the part that lasts. Bodum’s plainer framed press, the Bodum Brazil, uses a plastic frame instead and costs considerably less for the same brewing method.
The Filter Assembly and What It Passes
Filter type is listed as reusable, which is correct: a French press plunger carries a metal screen, usually with a coiled spring around the rim to seal it against the glass. There is no paper anywhere in the system, so nothing traps the oils and fines. That is why press coffee has weight and why there is always sediment in the last inch of the cup.
Grind size is the variable that decides how much sediment. Coarse is essential; a medium or fine grind will pass straight through the screen and turn the cup gritty, and it will also make the plunger difficult to press. Steeping time is the other lever, and four minutes is the usual convention before pressing. None of this appears on the listing, which offers only a note to wash in warm soapy water before first use. Included components reads Carafe, which omits the plunger and screen assembly entirely, and those are not optional parts.
Text on This Listing That Belongs to a Different Product
The manufacturer description on this page opens with a note that has nothing to do with a French press. It reads that too coarse a grind, too little coffee, or insufficiently tamping the grounds before brewing can lead to inadequate pressure for a proper brew, and that the amount of espresso extracted will vary with grind size and amount, and that reprogramming may be needed when those are adjusted.
Nothing in that paragraph applies. A French press has no pump, no pressure, no portafilter and nothing to tamp, and it does not extract espresso or have anything to reprogram. This is espresso machine copy that has been pasted onto the wrong product, and the identical paragraph appears on unrelated drip machine listings elsewhere in this catalogue. It is the clearest evidence available that the descriptions here were assembled by template rather than written for the product, and it means the two useful lines that follow it are the only manufacturer text on the page.
More Fields That Do Not Fit
Specific uses for product reads Iced Coffee. A French press can certainly make cold brew, but this is a hot immersion brewer with a borosilicate beaker and the field describes neither its main use nor anything the listing supports. Human interface input reads Buttons. There are no buttons. There is a plunger knob and a lid, and nothing on this product responds to being pressed except the plunger itself.
Special feature reads Portable, which is generous for a glass beaker in a steel frame. The UPC field carries twelve separate barcodes concatenated together, absorbed from two decades of packaging variants. Department reads Unisex-Adult. None of these change the product, but collectively they mean the specification block should be treated as unverified, including the 1.46 pound weight and the nine inch height.
What the Specifications Do Not Settle
There is no cup count, no dose, no ratio and no steep time, so the brewing method is left entirely to the owner. There is no screen mesh specification, which determines how much sediment reaches the cup and is the one number that would distinguish this from a cheaper press. There is no statement of whether spare screens or spare beakers are sold, and on a press the screen wears and the glass breaks.
Nothing says whether the beaker is dishwasher safe, which is a routine question. Nothing gives a glass thickness or temperature rating. There is no warranty length. Country of origin is Portugal, which is genuinely useful and unusual at this price, but the listing does not say whether the frame is made there too. Anyone who wants the same brewing method without a glass vessel to break should look at the Secura stainless steel press at the same 34 ounce volume.
Who It Suits and Who Should Look at Another Format
This suits someone who wants a heavy bodied cup, brews for two or three, and values a design that has been in continuous production for decades with parts and shapes that are widely understood. Borosilicate glass and Portuguese manufacture are a better material story than most presses at this price offer, and the steel frame makes it far more robust than an unframed glass beaker. The MuellerLiving 20 ounce press is the insulated alternative at a smaller size.
It suits you poorly if you want a clean cup, because a metal screen guarantees oils and sediment. It suits you poorly if you drink slowly, since single wall glass loses heat quickly and coffee left on the grounds keeps extracting and turns bitter. And it suits you poorly in a household where glass gets knocked about. Readers who want body without the sediment should look at the paperless pour over designs in the pour over range, which sit between these two extremes. The COSORI 34 ounce pour over is one of those.
