Exploding Pyrex - This Stuff is Dangerous!
74Pyrex Jug + Boiling Water = Disaster
The Exploding Pyrex Jug
Ever since I was a kid, we've had Pyrex items in our kitchen and I've always marvelled how you could put these glass items into an oven, or pour boiling water into them.
Pyrex. It's one of the most trusted household names for me.
Or WAS, until tonight.
Because my 11 year old son poured some boiling water into our pyrex jug just as he has done many times before, and it just exploded.
Shards of glass were shot all over the kitchen benchtop.
My son was very lucky not to have been injured. (It scared the heck out of him though. And me too.)
After I made sure he was OK, I started to give him the third degree - asking him what he had done to make it shatter. He said that he had done nothing other than pour boiling water into it.
So I thought that it must have been cracked or chipped to cause this to happen, and put it down to good luck that my son had not been injured.
Later, I checked the internet - and was horrified to find that it's pretty common to have Pyrex explode like this.
For me, this was like finding out that there was no Santa Claus. Or that Superman really flew with wires.
Pyrex. It's supposed to be good stuff, that you can cook with.
Yeah, well it used to be.
Apparently the original pyrex was made from a material called borosilicate, which gave pyrex its unique heat resisting properties.
Several years ago, they started making it out of something called Soda-Lime.
I'm no chemist, and don't know the difference. But I guess that it was cheaper. And obviously inferior.
I'll bet that there is quite a bit of business out there for some lawyer to take up a class action against the manufacturers, when there are clearly so many cases of this cookware exploding and shattering when used for the purposes for which it is sold.
61 pages of consumer experiences with Pyrex shattering
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/pyrex.html
Why Pyrex Bowls Explode (complete with dodgy video)
http://consumerist.com/consumer/pyrex/why-pyrex-bowls-explode-232474.php
Have you had any Problems with Pyrex Items?
Leave a comment below.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Soda lime glass is the WORST choice they could have made!
Glad your son was not hurt!
Chef Jeff (who will no longer trust newer Pyrex!)
From http://www.lenntech.com/glass.htm about glass:
What is glass and how is it produced?
Glass is a hard material normally fragile and transparent common in our daily life. It is composed mainly of sand (silicates, SiO2) and an alkali.
These materials at high temperature (i.e. molten viscous state) fuse together; then they are cooled rapidly forming a rigid structure, however not having enough time to form a crystalline regular structure.
Depending on the final use and application the composition of the glass and cooling rate will vary to achieve the adequate properties for the specific application. These are the common ingredients to obtain glass:1. Sand (SiO2 silica)In its pure form it exists as a polymer, (SiO2)n. 2. Soda ash (sodium carbonate Na2CO3)Normally SiO2 softens up to 2000°C, where it starts to degrade (at 1713°C most of the molecules can already move freely). Adding soda will lower the melting point to 1000°C making it more manageable.
3. Limestone (calcium carbonate or CaCo3) or dolomite (MgCO3)Also known as lime, calcium carbonate is found naturally as limestone, marble, or chalk.The soda makes the glass water-soluble, soft and not very durable. Therefore lime is added increasing the hardness and chemical durability and providing insolubility of the materials.
Other materials and oxides can be added to increase properties (tinting, durability, etc.), produce different effects, colors, etc.
Main properties of glass
These are the main characteristics of glass:
- Solid and hard material
- Disordered and amorphous structure
- Fragile and easily breakable into sharp pieces
- Transparent to visible light
- Inert and biologically inactive material.
- Glass is 100% recyclable and one of the safest packaging materials due to its composition and properties
Glass is used for architecture application, illumination, electrical transmission, instruments for scientific research, optical instruments, domestic tools and even textiles. Glass does not deteriorate, corrode, stain or fade and therefore is one of the safest packaging materials.
These properties can be modified and changed by adding other compounds or heat treatment.
Types of glass and market application
The main types of glass are described below:Commercial glass or Soda-lime glass: This is the most common commercial glass and less expensive. The composition of soda-lime glass is normally 60-75% silica, 12-18% soda, and 5-12% lime. A low percentage of other materials can be added for specific properties such as coloring.
- It has light transmission appropriate to be use in flat glass in windows;
- It has a smooth and nonporous surface that allows glass bottles and packaging glass to be easily cleaned;
- Soda-lime glass containers are virtually inert, resistant to chemical attack from aqueous solutions so they will not contaminate the contents inside or affect the taste.
Whereas pure glass SiO2 does not absorb UV light, soda-lime glass does not allow light at a wavelength of lower than 400 nm (UV light) to pass.
The disadvantages of soda-lime glass is that is not resistant to high temperatures and sudden thermal changes. For example, everybody has experienced a glass breaking down when pouring liquid at high temperature, for example to make tea.
Some of the use of soda-lime glass is primarily used for bottles, jars, everyday drinking glasses, and window glass.
I recently hads one blow up too. Never had any trouble before with any others. I think it was because I put a frozen chicken pie to cook in the oven on it. It seemed like the temperature difference made it shatter. It was a huge mess. I guess I won't do that again. I usually would use a cookie sheet. But the pyrex dish was already out. I'm glad everyone is ok.
Wow, I never head of that. I'm glad to know about this because I have some pyrex. Thank you. I'm glad you son is ok. That's scary.
Theold Pyrex I have is 1960's stuff, so I guess it is OK, but I set aside the new stuff I bought recently. They should change the name since Pyrex means pyro-resistent and has that reputation. Shame on them for misleading us into danger!
Does anyone know what year or years they changed the glass formulation? We have some older pyrex also... and i wanted to know if it is OLD ENOUGH to be the older style.
Even back in the 90's I knew pyrex could be weakened over time. I was baking a pie in a pyrex glass pan for baking, and it exploded in the oven.
This is new to me. I'm like many in the fact that I've had these products all my life. They have always been dependable. When they have a good product, they should leave a good thing alone.
For the most part pyrex is still more dependable than some other glassware on the market. I was reading recently how you have to be careful when exposing it to different heat extremes. I have even had glass coffee carafe explode the second time after I used it, and it was definitely not pyrex made.
That's scary - good ol' Pyrex that we trusted blindly?
I thought that "in god we trust" and Pyrex came a close second. What a scary experience. I shall never view Pyrex the same way again!
Good hub Eric.
I had that happen to me once, I placed a Pyrex, that had just came out of the oven, and placed it on the stove top. Too late I realized that some cold water was in the hollow of that plate, needless to say it shattered and an entire Casserole ended up almost all over the tiny kitchen.
I now always try and place any pyrex onto a dry kitchen cloth, when working with hot liquids or solids and Pyrex, even corning ware gets the same treatment.
Thanks for the hub.
Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the kitchen.
The Pyrex can handle some heat change but if it's sudden the glass cannot take the stress and it shatters all at once
I have used Pyrex directly on a gas flame in the way you would use a saucepan.
My friend boils his coffee this way every morning in a Pyrex coffee maker. both our Pyrex items are very old, does this mean the old stuff deteriorates or that it is only the later type that is dangerous? I am a bit confused by some of the comments.
Hi Earnest,
The older pyrex glass seems to be fine.
It's the newer stuff that is inferior.
Cheers,
Eric G.
What an odd thing to happen - I have not experienced this but wouldn't be a happy little vegemite if I had... glad your son was not hurt - cheers
ps like your new avatar...
Thank God your son didn't get hurt. I never heard this kind of thing before. I'll be careful now. Thx for posting this.
Chef Jeff took my 546 answers
I thank you too for doing a hub about this. I had no idea there was a change in pyrex or that there is a risk of it exploding/breaking. What a shame. I think most of mine is rather old, but I'll still be careful from now on.
I can't help but wonder if all pyrex still will do okay if it's allowed to heat gradually instead of filling a cool dish with boiling liquid. Do you know what I mean? At any rate, better safe than sorry. ;)
Thanks Eric!
I'd like to copy and paste Pam's comment here.
That's scarey stuff, and even scarier that I had no idea.
Thanks, Eric for letting me know!
That is horrible and I am glad your son was o.k. thanks for enlightening me as I am always pouring hot water etc. into Pyrex and my gut always tells me that one day this thing is going to explode, I will now be more cautious and definitely not let my son anywhere near it.:)
The older Pyrex is not fine. It has a life that's limited to about 35 years. Pyrex was a favorite wedding and shower gift for those doing that thing in the late sixties to mid-seventies. Among my friends, Pyrex started shattering about 5 years ago.
I lost one lid in an oven disaster, and got rid of all of my glass pieces. Many friends experienced the same thing at around the same time. Including one friend with a suite of burgundy stove-top and oven-proof glass. After 30 years, it started blowing up, one week at a time, until my friend finally threw all of it into the recycle bin.
If you have old Pyrex glass, use it for the fridge, but don't put it in the oven or on the stove top. And God forbid, not in the microwave.
Good awareness Hub.
And never ever place hot pyrex on a glass table. We thought we were being bombed. Very scary, but we were not hurt due to being cowards, we all hit the floor and hid behind furniture.
=)) good advice!!
I had a 9 x 13 Pyrex casserole explode in my oven the other day, about 10 minutes before company was due for dinner. Luckily no one was hurt (the oven door was closed), but what a mess to clean up...glass and peach cobbler all over my oven.
I had a chemistry teacher use a Pyrex beaker to show how alcohol was clean burning, and it was the fumes that ignited more quickly than the liquid. She did this by coating the inside of the shaped beaker with a thin layer of alcohol and setting it alight.
It flashed, everyone jumped, and thought it pretty darn cool. Apparently this was one of the older Pyrex glasses she'd been using for well over a decade. It just so happened that the class she taught after mine was the one where the beaker finally exploded.
Everyone was quiet. And the teacher was glad no one was hurt. Then one kid pointed to another and said, "you're bleeding." Then another pointed to another kid and said the same thing. This kept going on as apparently the tiny, sand granule sized shards that sprayed the room created fine cuts on the exposed skin of the students, almost too small to see save for the broken capillaries in the skin that began oozing blood all over the place.
The nurse was called and it looked like everything was going to be okay, but a few kids were hysterical at the sight of blood. One of them whipped out his cell-phone and made a tear-filled, frenzied call to his father. The only problem is that the boy's dad was the County Sheriff. Police Cars, Ambulances, and Fire Trucks came rushing up to the high school, sirens blaring. Scared the living daylights out of the entire school, we all thought there was a bomb scare or a shooting about to happen.
The entire school was evacuated; the kid was suspended for inciting panic, and the teacher ended up almost losing her license. She was exonerated, as that little experiment was supposedly a part of the teacher's manual she'd been using for years. She never used Pyrex after that though.
Wow this is scary, scary stuff. I thought Pyrex was nearly invincible!
I feel bad for all of you people who have experienced this breaking. However, it seems like a lot of them are caused by doing something that isn't supposed to be done. I am not meaning to be mean, but it seems a lot of these incidents could be prevented by reading and following the instructions. Of course, like anything else, there are always exceptions to the rule.
Hi Heather.
Perhaps you're right. Do the instructions for Pyrex now say that you can't put boiling water in it? and that you can't put it in the oven?
The point of this hub is that the name "Pyrex" has long been associated with a certain type of cookware, that had incredible thermal properties that allowed you to safely use it a wide range of temperatures.
What appears to have happened is the new owners of the company have used cheaper glass to cut costs, but still want the benefits of being associated with the original product which was of much better quality.
cheers, Eric G.
My wife and I recently received a set of Pyrex baking dishes as a wedding gift, I had it sitting on the counter last night with another dish in it, neither of them were hot. When I woke up this morning, the bottom dish had shattered and was ALL over the kitchen, it looked like it had exploded, but what is weirding me out is that neither of the dishes were hot, so it shouldnt have been thermal shock. Anyone have any experiences with this?
I was making steak in my 9x13 Pyrex and had just pulled open the oven door to check the meat when it exploded. Thankfully, my mother taught me that you always stand to the side when opening an oven as the heat can burn you. Had I not been off to the side I would have sustained facial cuts. As it is, I cut my neck and arm and was burned on my leg from the sauce on the meat that blew all over me! They say they do not explode but they are WRONG! They are dangerous and I will never cook with them again. I am thankful my inuries were minimal all in all and that one of my children hadn't checked the oven for me!
According to Snopes (link above) Pyrex started using the soda lime glass back in 1946! What really chaps my hide is knowing that Pyrex is still making the borosilicate glass bakeware (ORIGINAL version) right here in the USA but it is ONLY available to overseas markets.
So far I have not experienced any Pyrex explosions but now that I know my bakeware is all the soda lime stuff I'll be doubly cautious in the future.
Interestingly - in Europe they still do make Pyrex out of the borosilicate glass. In Australia (where I am) - I checked out the Pyrex is the shops - and found both the 'Made in the USA' (World Kitchen) and the 'Made in Europe' (ARC) stuff. The main differences - the ARC Pyrex is labeled 'Genuine Pyrex' and comes with a 10 year warranty, and very few instructions on what not to do. The World Kitchen stuff only comes with a 1 year warranty, and a large page of dos-and-donts for its use. I'd say from this that the ARC pyrex would have to be much better quality if they are guaranteeing it for so much longer. So if you want Pyrex - buy it from Europe!
I had a pyrex pie plate explode and sent pieces of hot glass all over...burning the wood floor in the kitchen and it burnt holes in my braided rug. Luckily there wasn't anyone in the way of the explosion.
Well, we had pyrex when we were newlyweds in the 70's. Our first thanksgiving, we invited both sets of parents over for dinner. I had never made giblet gravy, but wanted to impress my new husband. We lived in an upstairs apt in not the greatest part of town. Old stove. I boiled the giblets in the pyrex dish. He was sitting around the corner when the "fireworks" went off!! That dish exploded and the whole kitchen was coverd with glass and giblets (even the ceiling). He ran in the kitchen because he thought it was a gun shot!!!
On November 19th 2009, I used my 9''x13'' pyrex pan to bake stuffed peppers (stuffed with rice and ground beef tomato sauce). After about 1 hr of baking, I opened the oven to remove the pyrex pan to find out that the pyrex shattered into multiple pieces. Fortunately, I was not injured however it destroyed my dinner as I had to throw this away, I found small glass pieces in the food. I have been using this pyrex pan for years and this is the first time I have ever had this problem. This is very disappointing, as I am seeing multiple recent complaints about pyrex exploding in and out of the oven. I did nothing different from what I used to do before this happened which reinforces that there is something wrong with this pyrex pan, as multiple other consumers have reported.
Just had a 9x13 dish EXPLODE in my oven....put fresh fish in the pan and broiled it for 10 minutes - I was just heading to the oven to check on it when the EXPLOSION happened! What a mess and lucky I didn't open the oven door 2 seconds earlier! If this isn't a safety hazard I don't know what one is! Consumer Safety Commission should be ashamed of themselves!
Bob Ewing says:
12 months ago
No problems but also grew up with Pyrex, thanks for posting this.