Can You Put a French Press On a Stove? 3 Best Options

Wondering if you have to boil your water for brewing a French press separately? Why not do it in the press to make the process a bit more efficient?

Most French presses are not suitable to put on a stove/heat source to boil water or milk. Plastic parts can melt while metal parts can deform. Boiling water in a separate vessel is the best way to heat water. A single-walled steel French press is the best option to be put on a stove and works well.

What to look for if you want to put a French press on the stove and the best French presses to do so can be found below.

Can You Put a French Press on a stove?

To be more precise; Can you put a French press on a stove to heat water without problems?

In general, most French presses are not suitable to be put on the stove to heat water in. There are a few exceptions we’ll hit on later. What are the problems of putting a French press on the stove? There are a few;

The biggest problem is that the French presses are simply not designed to be used as cookware. The used materials are made to deal with boiling water but nothing hotter than that. Exposing a french press to excessive heat can cause plastic parts to melt, metal parts to discolor/deform, glass to crack and if using a gas burner, you can get dark soot stains.

It’s not that difficult to boil your water in another vessel and then pour it into the French press. You don’t really want to use boiling water to pour on your coffee grounds anyways. In most cases, 94 degrees Celsius is a good temperature for brewing a French press.

Suggested: Can you pour boiling water into a French press?

It doesn’t really matter what kind of stove you put it on either although there are some differences;

The carafe is the most important part that’s going to go on the stove. It’s the part that holds the water which is what we want to boil. So the material of the carafe is very important.

Not sure how to exactly make good coffee in a French press? Click here for my step-by-step guide.

Different French press materials on a stove

Not all French presses are the same. While they all roughly do the same and have the same mechanism to filter the grounds from the coffee, there are many different materials a French press can be made from.

Let’s go over the different materials and their suitability to be put on a stove/heat source. Here we’re only talking about the material of the carafe. Not the lid, handle, filter, etc.

Single-walled stainless steel French presses are the best option to put on a stove or other heat source. It’s the only material that won’t be damaged and also allows the water to be heated properly.

Suggested: How much coffee grounds in a French press?

Handle and lid material

Of course, the carafe isn’t the only thing that makes up a French press. There’s also the handle and the lid/filter assembly. Sometimes there is a shroud around the carafe as well.

Handle

The handle is usually made from the same material as the carafe but sometimes it’s something different. If it’s the same material as the carafe, the same problems apply. The handles that are a different material are often made from some kind of heat-resistant composite. However, these are made to be heat resistant to boiling water.

When you put the press on the stove, especially a gas burner, the handle will get much hotter than boiling water and could melt.

Lid/filter

The lid often has some plastic and/or rubber in it. The lid should be left off the press while its on the stove otherwise it could melt. In some cases, the rest of the filter assembly also has plastic parts which could melt.

Design/shroud

A French press is a simple piece of equipment. To set theirs apart, manufacturers will try to make their designs a bit special. That is often done by a shroud made from metal or plastic that goes around the carafe.

Obviously, if any part of this shroud/design is made from plastic, it can melt. If it’s made from metal, it’s more heat resistant although the heat can still discolor the metal or burn off any paint.

If you can take the shroud off before putting it on the stove, do it.

French press on the stove brewing process

Decided you’re going to boil your water in a French press anyway? Here’s how you can make the best of it;

Suggested: How to make French press coffee stronger?

So the main difference compared to brewing a ‘normal’ French press is that you put in the grounds after the water.

What’s the best way to heat water for a French press?

Presumably, you want to put the French press on the stove to heat the water for your coffee. As you can see above, in most cases that’s not a great idea. But what is the best way to heat the water for a French Press?

Unlike a pour-over brewer like a V60 or similar, you don’t need a fancy gooseneck kettle for a French press. Anything that can pour the water into the carafe without spilling will do. The easiest way to heat water and have something that pours easily is a normal kettle. Usually electric but if you only have a stove available, an old-school one will do perfectly fine as well. Even a small pot can work well although those make it a bit more difficult to pour well.

What about camping?

When you go camping and like to pack light, you probably don’t have a kettle in your bag. However, anything you do have to heat water in will do fine. Usually, a small pot or metal cup is available to heat water on your gas stove. The process isn’t really any different than at home.

If you really want one thing that can be used to heat water and as a French press, there are some French presses available that are specifically made to be used on a stove/heat. You can find them below.

What’s the best way to heat milk for a French press?

What about heating milk in your French press? A French press doubles pretty well as a milk foamer so you can make things like cappuccino and latte.

While you don’t want to heat up the milk much (about 65 degrees Celsius is good to make foam), it’s easy to overheat your milk if you don’t have a thermometer. Aside from all the other problems you can have with putting a French press on a stovetop, burning milk is a massive pain, especially in a French press. The carafes are often quite narrow, especially on the smaller sizes. That means if you’ve got bigger hands, it can be very difficult to clean the bottom properly. And if you burn milk, you get some residue that can be quite difficult to remove.

For that reason alone I’d recommend heating your milk in something else that’s easier to clean. You’ll never burn your milk? Ok, you’ll still have most of the drawbacks as above.

Again if you go camping and you buy the appropriate French press, burning milk is still going to be a problem. So when you’re buying a French press/kettle for camping and making milk foam, make sure the opening is big enough to get your hand into so you can clean the bottom. However, for camping I can understand you want to pack light and only want one item that does everything and don’t want three different objects.

Best French presses that can be placed on a stove

As mentioned above, there are a few French presses that are made to be placed on a Stove/heat source. Most of these are marketed as suitable for camping because that’s where they make the most sense.

Let’s take a look at the best options;

#1 Stanley Adventure

The best option for a French press that can be put on any heat source is this Stanley Adventure. It’s basically a nice-looking stainless steel camping mug with a folding handle. This mug can hold 32 ounces of liquid but a little bit less if you’re using it to brew coffee.

Because the walls of the cup are straight, you can push in the included filter just like a normal French press. The filter assembly looks a bit different than on a normal French press but it works very well. The different construction is there because the lid is actually separate from the filter, unlike most other types.

The filter is a single layer version but quite fine so it’ll keep a lot of the sediment out of your cup. Also, the filter housing fits very tightly in the cup so it only slides down smoothly when the cup is hot. That’s because the metal cup expands while the plastic does not. It shows that this camping French press is very well thought out.

Another benefit of the filter system without the typical rod in the middle is that you can store something inside the cup when it’s empty (but with filter and lid in place). People find you can store a canister of coffee or even gas for your burner inside.

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On top of all that, it’s actually really affordable and backed by the regular Stanley lifetime warranty. There are two other options below but you really can’t go wrong with this Stanley coffee pot. Many people actually like it so much they don’t only use it for camping but also for home use!

#2 Bestargot Titanium French press

If you need the lightest French press, this titanium version can save you some weight since it only weighs 220 grams. It’s a more traditional French press in the way that the filter consists of three layers and is pushed down by a rod in the middle.

The filter assembly can be completely disassembled for more flexible storage. It can brew up to 500 ml/17 oz. of coffee in one go but for other purposes can hold 750 ml/26 oz.

One cool feature of this pot is that it has a handle for hanging so you can easily hang it above a fire. Because it’s made from titanium it’s a bit more expensive than a stainless steel version but it’s not extremely expensive and the difference might be worth it to you.

#3 Moka pot

Ok, this is a bit of a cheeky option but it works well. A moka pot is made to be put on a stove. Moka pots are sturdy and brew a strong, dark coffee that’s almost going towards espresso. It’s a different taste but one you might prefer.

Moka pots can be placed on a gas stove, electric stoves (not induction), a grill or coals. They’re not suitable to be put over a campfire though.

A moka pot has a metal filter just like a French press so you don’t need to bring any paper filters with you if you go camping.