Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased this French press to replace the one with a beaker I had accidentally cracked. I selected the Sterlingpro model based exclusively on price and what appeared (from the reviews) to have satisfactory quality. I have been using it daily now for a month, and I write this review to report on my use of this French press. I have used a French press for over 40 years. Overall: this is an excellent product for the price. Characteristics of this press which attract my attention: "Tightness:" There's probably a better term for this, but I'm referring to the way everything fits snugly together, especially the lid (while brewing) and the screen as it is depressed via the plunger at the end of brewing. Also, when cleaning the plunger, I partially unscrew the housing which holds the screen. The machining of the parts is accurate, resulting in a tight-fitting assembly which comes apart for cleaning without exhibiting any wobbliness. Position of the stainless steel housing: the beaker is held in place by two stainless steel rings, fastened to four vertical bands which extend below the beaker to form small feet. In French presses I have previously owned, one of these vertical bands is sometimes positioned so that it is exactly opposite the handle. This positioning is a design flaw. My Sterlingpro press avoids this error. Here's why it makes a difference: no French press - including the Sterlingpro - will ever ~completely~ remove particulate matter from the brewing. Even the most coarsely ground coffee will contain fine bits of coffee which the strainer simply will not remove. For French press fans, this is NOT a problem! We love the earthy, robust punch of a French press brew. HOWEVER, the very fine silt that is still present sinks to the bottom of the beaker by the time the brewing is finished, to lie calmly on the TOP of the screens. If one decants the resultant brew ~carefully~, almost all of this silt can remain in the beaker. Here's where the positioning of those bands is critical: if one of them is directly opposite the handle, then it lies immediately below the beaker as it is being decanted. This makes it very difficult, mostly impossible, to see the residual sludge as the beaker is being decanted. The Sterlingpro, however, does not place a vertical band of stainless steel in this position, allowing one to easily see the small amount of sludge remaining as decanting is coming to a conclusion, and so enabling the brewer to stop decanting just before this sludge departs the beaker. Yeah, I know - picky, picky, picky. But, I've been using a French press for about 40 years now. Plenty of time to develop all sorts of pickiness. The screens: this product uses a dual screen, the first press I've run across that does this. Additionally, the box contains an EXTRA pair of screens. When I first examined these I wondered if they were too much of a good thing. But, the plunger depresses without any muss or fuss, and except for the inevitable micro-bits of ground coffee which no screen system will every remove, the resultant brew is totally free of visible grounds. The screens clean easily. After brewing, I run hot tap water over the screen assembly, unscrewing it six or seven turns - enough so that the plate over the screens can rotate and I can flush larger pieces of ground coffee away from the screens. I do not need to totally disassemble the plunger to perform this cleaning. Running hot tap water is sufficient, and this avoids damaging the very fine screens. Overall, the design of this press is excellent. Also well done is the execution of that design. I've though hard about what is do not like about this product, or what suggestions I might make for improvement. French presses are not complicated things! Every press should be as well done as the Sterlingpro, but many are not. So, I recommend this one without reservation. By the way, I paid for this product myself. It was NOT provided to me by Sterlingpro.