Why pyrex bowls explode

Firstly, gingerest has a pretty fine explanation. Except that I think it applies to borosilicate pyrex as well - because that was annealed or tempered too. Secondly, to repeat what I think I said in the thread pinback just linked, flaws and cracks develop over time. Every time a piece of glass kitchenware gets bumped on a bench or tapped with a spoon, you've got the potential to create an internal crack.

These spread. Then, eventually, tiny vibrations or variations in temperature are enough to trigger a big crack or "explosion. Whether those are manufacturing flaws or have developed over time is kind of irrelevant. They've all got the potential to produce larger cracks and shattering. Secondly, if you want really borosilicate, I think there were a couple of French brands made by Arc or Durand mentioned in the thread pinback linked. Or you could buy vintage, but soda lime really was introduced a long while ago and age brings flaws, so you're probably safer buying it new and online.

Pyrex kitchen glassware manufactured for sale in the United States is made at the World Kitchen facility in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Pyrex products for the European Union are made at a factory in France.

EU products and laboratory glassware continue to be made of borosilicate glass. So your solution is to buy Pyrex when on holiday in Europe, or use Amazon. Happens sometimes, but has for most of my lifetime. My family has lots of Pyrex stuff bought over the last, shoot, forty years? A really long time. We've had two crack, and both were older judging from the fade-out of the measuring lines.

It was a "sudden bump" thing, not directly connected to a recent temperature change. As long as it's made of glass, this is a potential problem. The Pyrex Collective has some reports of exploding newer Pyrex doing that, including reports that don't involve any temp changes.

I've also read at least one case of vintage Pyrex exploding in the cupboard, although in that case the bowl was at the bottom of a stack and the blogger thought pressure might have been a factor. Search for and buy "Pyrex flameware" on ebay. That's the real stuff from the 's. Dusty blue color and goezinta the microwave. Rub it in spicynuts, rub it in.. On just a little bit of a tangent, seemingly spontaneous shattering happens to art and studio glass as well. The examples noted in this thread on the Glass Message Board are a real mix of glass formulas.

Some are obviously temperature related, but some not. Ivo Haanstra's opinion re annealing a few comments down is distinctly authoritative. He writes books about this kind of thing. The brown stuff turns up in thrift stores all the time, but the cranberry coloured items are a bit rarer, and you'll probably need to buy them off ebay. Then there's Corningware. It's another vitro ceramic and it really is tougher than just about anything except metal, but it doesn't come in clear and I've never seen round bowls.

Ebay again. Regarding the recommendations to "buy Pyrex when in Europe" — in France, it is not only sold under the brand name "Pyrex" but also under the brand name "Arc" or "Arc International".

Easy enough to identify since it's glass, though you do want to stay away from cheaper knockoffs generally easy to identify since they're also noticeably thinner — the good stuff has a real heft to it. You can find it in regular ol' supermarkets and on Amazon. I love mine, FWIW, never had a problem in 12 years of use. Corining no longer makes pyrex and the formula has been changed. I had a 9X13 pyrex pan explode on me.

It is my understanding if you want "real" pyrex, purchase the old vintage white glass pyrex. I have since thrown out pyrex that was "designed" for oven use. Now that I am reading your question I will start to work on replacing my other pieces. Did the chicken come out of a refrigerator? That might be the source of the temperature change.

I had this happen last year with a piece of borosilicate Pyrex from the 50s or 60s. I left it sitting on the kitchen counter empty after it held some cashews for snacking or something like that, no temperature changes from cabinet to use to counter and an hour or two later I heard a terrible noise and it shattered. In a demonstration, NBC Responds brought two brand-new baking dishes. One was Pyrex brand, made of soda lime glass, and one was a different brand, made of borosilicate.

Using sand, which is common in this type of demonstration, glass expert Mark Meshulam filled both baking dishes and put them in a standard oven at degrees. Though this is an extreme condition and not advised, Meshulam said it can and does happen.

The same thing can happen, he said, when a cool glass dish goes into a preheated oven. Pretty scary. As soda lime glass heats up, Meshulam said, it grows and expands.

If you put it on a cool surface, "that movement is retracting suddenly. The surface quickly absorbs the heat, creating thermal shock. The first pie pointer, suggested by Sam Worley , instructs home bakers to freeze a shaped pie shell for some time prior to baking. The second, from Rhoda Boone , suggests preheating a sheet pan in the oven, then setting your pie plate directly on top of the hot sheet pan as it bakes.

Both tips are meant to help home bakers achieve the crispest crust possible, so I thought, why not combine the two? But just as I was about to place my ice-cold pie plate on the burning-hot sheet pan, I had a serious moment of pause. I was using a glass Pyrex dish, and something in my brain told me that if I placed it onto the scalding metal, it would shatter—and send my precious pie into the air. Looking into it further, I saw that Pyrex doesn't specifically warn against placing cold glass on a hot surface.

But the company is pretty adamant when it comes to the reverse.