Exploding Pyrex cookware:
 

I have been reading about this today....

It is very alarming!

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/pyrex.html

Anyone here have an experience?

I've used glass Corning cookware for most of my life.
I had one explode upNorth about 10 yrs ago. But no others.

Granted I don't bake in ovens much anymore, but now I wonder.
Snopes.com says only the newer Pyrex is affected, not the older versions. A Chinese company is making a different form of this glass and using the Pyrex logo and name. So do be careful if you use glass bakeware.

There are reports of this glass just exploding sitting at room temperatures as well as sitting in cupboards!

I've not heard about the pyrex.

I still have some pyrex from years and years ago. The work they've done over the years is amazing and never had any problems. I'm talking 25/30 year old pyrex.

I've heard about drinking glasses bought from the dollar stores here exploding/shattering for no particular reason.

I've also heard about glass cooktops exploding. (and even oven doors).

Great excuse to not cook! ;)

I haven't ever heard of this but it's interesting. I have two or three older Pyrex dishes and two Pyrex measuring cups. I use the glass dishes mostly to store things in the refrigerator in. Sometimes use them in the microwave.

Evidently this problem has escalated recently. The old Pyrex from years ago was a borosilicate glass.

The new Chinese Pyrex (WalMart is a main outlet for it) is
soda lime glass...which is less heat tolerant or temperature safe.

What is alarming is that the reports, and I only read a smattering of them since there are SO MANY.... report explosions with new product at room temps and some just sitting on the counter!

Snopes.com--
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp

I've always used glass, Pyrex and Visions because there they are not metal, and supposedly safer for less contamination of food.

Now I don't know what to think anymore! All of mine are OLD as well, like yours Lara.

We also used Pyrex and Kynex glassware in the labs when I was in college, in chemistry. Nothing ever exploded there, but then the glass was thinner than a baking dish. We used to expose that glassware to all sorts of temperature changes too. I would call the use by most of the students rather "abusive" in fact.:rolleyes:

I guess NOTHING is safe anymore!

I checked some of mine.

Strangely enough the newest Pyrex I bought says made in the USA. It's a see-through glass pie dish.

Another little casserole dish with a glass lid is one which must be about 20 years old and has a star like symbol and the name Corning P4 but says "cerammed" in Australia.

I did some reading around briefly after you posted and it sounds as if it's the impurities in the product that can cause it to explode or shatter. Not very good is it?!

Those old vision saucepan sets were great. They didn't seal very well I thought but I really liked using them, thinking they were the healthy alternative at the time to what we aussies call Aluminium.

One article mentions that the "inferior" Pyrex has a faint greenish tinge where the glass is the thickest.

Evidently the Chinese owned Pyrex is made in USA...this makes it very difficult to identify as "different". Corning sold the patent.

One article also mentions micro cracks that may develop which then absorb water, and then burst when heated. But that does not explain the bowls that burst sitting at room temp -- the water bowls for pets and the one that burst sitting in a cupboard!

I've used Visions on the stove now for almost 20 yrs...the only one that broke was the one my husband dropped a heavy thing into by accident, and it broke in half. But he knows a gal at work who claimed her Visions pot blew up on the stove cooking.
I typically use mine for stews, soups, and pasta. I'll pour out the hot liquid and leave on the gas stove burner to cool off. I don't move them to a counter, I leave them on the hot burner so that both can cool down together. When I stack them for storage I put bubble wrap between them. But I don't put bubble wrap in my Corelle bowls or smaller visions glass dishes when stacked which we use to nuke the veggies in the microwave. Those are really handy and never exploded on me. 2 minutes in the wave, doesn't seem stressful enough? Frozen veggies heated up and nothing explodes. :Dunno:

I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I buy these sweet little soy candles in glass containers. One would have to wonder about what type of glass they're in now.

If the dollar shop glass shatters sitting in a cupboard sometimes, and the supposedly high quality glass shatters for unknown reasons, then how safe are these candles we all buy that are in what is probably poorly made glass. Just a thought.

I suppose if the glass is not made properly, little gas bubbles may be in there too tiny to see.

You know I am reminded of a show I saw on one of the science channels about building tall skyscrapers.

It went into the glass making in detail. Did you know, according to this show, that when it is vertical..as in a window, glass actually "flows" over time to the bottom of the pane, and becomes thicker there? When this happens the pane may crack and break all by itself!

So what we see as a solid, is actually a very slow moving liquid!

I don't really favor candles much. I am a bit afraid of them. And given our cats that live with us... it is too easy to have an unexpected accident.

I am reminded of this funny story to illustrate that. UpNorth, we have these black flies that come out in droves before a rain to bite you. They come down our chimney too, after a fire to get to the warmth of the house. One year I bought a sticky tube, and hid it on the sill behind our dining table by the window where these pesky flies tend to congregate trying to get back outside. Well one night in the dark Tippy managed to slink back there and get her hind end stuck to the tube (it is like the tube in a roll of paper towels). She burst out screaming and knocked over a kerosene lamp which spilled all over...and luckily did not catch fire. It happened oh sooooo fast..and without electricity it was hard to see what she was so upset about. We followed her up the loft where she hid, carrying on something awful, and I urged her out of from under the bed, holding my flashlight. Then I saw what the problem was! Getting it off her was a huge problem, and unsticking her, with mineral oil, then got all over her and she ended up vomiting the next day several times trying to get the oil off herself.

So ever since then I don't have candles. Hubby likes them, but I think the risk with having cats, is just too great! :o

You bring up a good point however. I think most of heat is going up in the short candles. But I recall some tall ones in the past, but our few ones then never broke that I recall.

A couple of years ago I roasted a pork roast in a pyrex dish...DH was making gravy on the stove top in the dish when it exploded...very scary!!

Exploding glass tables

I meant to post this the other night after I saw this.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonig...atch/27287084/
7 - Today Tonight

Holey Moley! What a mess.

Thanks for the video. We have a small round glass table on our back porch. It is out there in all kinds of weather for years. I has not exploded yet! (It is a 4 seater size).

Wait til hubby gets up! I'm going to show this to HIM.

Seems alot of stuff from China is faulty! food, drugs, milk, toys, glass, what else?

... pet food

Scary stuff! All mine is old...and after reading this I wouldn't dream of replacing it. Must tell my sil, who has a glass top table on her balcony. :eek:

The US may have different standards for glass furniture imports. I don't know. These ones were all made in China as we don't manufacture them here in Australia. That's why the standards are so lacking. That will change now hopefully.

Thanks for this, Lara!

I was then drawn to watch a few more news videos... and especially enjoyed the "Retailers' big budgets" - showing clips of Australian retail stores advertising Christmas. Its difficult for me to imagine the difference in our seasons and this really helped me see how much fun it can be to celebrate the "Magic" of Christmas, no matter the season :) (I'm not one to get caught up in the Christmas decorating anymore... just special little things are put out for Grand-Addy...but that doesn't mean I don't love seeing what others do).

And that said, don't buy any glass tables for Christmas gifts! :eek:

Oh yeah! :D

Just checked mine.. green tint on handle of measureing cup. I cook in the large one a lot.

This whole exploding Pyrex urban myth/rumor bears some factchecking; it has been debunked. These are the FACTS:

• A Chinese company does NOT own the Pyrex trademark.
• Pyrex products are manufactured in the U.S. - in Charleroi, Pennsylvania
• The "recipe" change is not recent, and was required by U.S. environmental law.

http://stats.org/stories/2009/explod..._oct14_09.html
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp
http://www.worldkitchen.com/the-truth-about-pyrex.html
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/m...ware/index.htm
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/vall.../s_766181.html

The link above in BOLD (including all internal links) is, IMO, the most informative (detailed) and thoroughly researched (credible).

Doc

Thanks for all that extra information.

I guess glass doesn't actually "explode" then, it just shatters, but sounds like an explosion when it happens? :wink:

Pyrex used to be made in Australia and other countries. Products called "Pyrex" are also made in China.
e.g.
Pyrex Glass Baking Dish
http://cnjiaotong.en.made-in-china.c...king-Dish.html

Not all Pyrex is made in the USA.

What are Agee Pyrex & Crown Pyrex? Who made Australian Pyrex?
http://www.corellecorner.com/company...australia.html
What are Agee Pyrex & Crown Pyrex? Who made Australian Pyrex?

There are a couple of possibilities for China (which has never counterfeited anything, right? :rolleyes:) 'Pyrex' in this case (as in the case of heat-resistant glass made elsewhere) may be a genericized trademark (e.g. kodak, kleenex, xerox, zipper, aspirin, et al), and just be synonymous with borosilicate or heat-resistant glass.

Shattering pyrex To Show A Massive Weakness In Trademark Law

'Australian Pyrex' isn't PYREX® or Pyrex®; it's Australian Pyrex—not the same. Same for Crown Pyrex. I don't deny there could be confusion, but I don't know enough about the (legal) histories of the trademark & various corporate interplays to comment. That said, Australian Pyrex et al were/are to my knowledge not part of the urban myth.

My point is that the urban myth regarding the Chinese owning the PYREX® or Pyrex® trademarks, PYREX® or Pyrex® being made in China and no longer made in the U.S., and the change from borosilicate glass to tempered soda-lime glass being recent and/or for profit sake—has been debunked. Those claims are not factual.

Doc

Hmmmm. Very interesting. I'm just seeing this now for the first time.

I'm in Europe... I think most of our tempered glassware is original Pyrex, but I'm going to have to check if anything new has been bought in the past few years. We don't bake much these days, and the baking dishes are certainly from the US anyay, but not so sure about the measuring cups we use to microwave things sometimes.... yikes.

(There is a LOT of Chinese counterfeit stuff in circulation here!:eek:)

Lara, I'm sure anything you have that's truly made by Corelle is fine. If a product does not have their seal, or if its origins are somehow suspect, then you might worry. The problem we see is with products (any sort) which bear "original" brand names which have been faked. It can be hard to tell the fakes from the imitations, and the price isn't always telling.

waves

They shouldn't be a problem as long as you use common sense and don't subject them to thermal shock.

Doc

I had a pyrex baking dish explode when DH was making gravy on the stove top in one…didn't realize they can only take so much heat…never again!!

It's the sudden heat change that does that. Another thing not to do is take a hot dish out of the oven and put cold water in it. I don't actually put any water in them right away; I let them cool first.

I checked our cups. They are all bear the PYREX(R) branding, and say, "Made in the USA". They also say "Safe for microwave use", and "Not for stovetop use". I don't know if the bakeware says that, but I'd assume the same rule, unless otherwise stated. In the oven, the temp goes up only gradually.

waves

:I-Agree: They were never intended for that kind of abuse—even the old borosilicate glass. I found another site debunking this myth:

A Warning that Pyrex Glass Cookware Can Explode- Mostly Fiction!

...which includes posted instructions from the PYREX website.
Unfortunately, World Kitchen has revamped their entire site since that (2009) article, and I cannot locate the same information on their new site. :confused:

I can clearly remember my mother teaching me about the proper use of pyrex bakeware from a very young age—as a matter of course with everything else she taught me about cooking, baking, etc. so it used to mystify me how so many people abused the stuff out of ignorance/assumption/misinformation, but then I learned...

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
—Albert Einstein

Doc