Pyrex Baking Dish Explosion with pic's

Not sure if any of you have had this issue but last weekend it happened to me. I was making DrBBQ's Chicago style Italian beef sandwiches.http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=785965&postcount=10

My first step was to sear the roast a for 30 minutes at 450*. Then remove from the oven and add the gravy. Then return the roast to the oven and finish the roast. This is when things went bad.

I had paced my roast and a small wire rack into a 9"x13" baking dish. Before picture here.


After the 30 minutes I removed the roast from the oven in the Pyrex dish and placed it on the stove top . I then started to slowly pour the gravy into the dish. I made sure gravy was at room temps because this dish is a glass dish and I did not want to have an issue with it breaking. I believe what happened to me after doing some research was thermal down shock. Meaning that the temps of the glass dish and the liquids were not happy!

Well after a few hours of prep work my cook went to **** in a heartbeat. Boom my dish exploded and my meal was wrecked. Here are a couple pictures of what happened on my stove top.




I can not even explain how this scared me when it blew the fark up! I was literally right in front of it and I had glass almost 15-20 feet away from the stove. Not to mention when it happened my wife was walking our Sheppard/lab/mutt. My son was in his room and came walking in barefoot after he heard it explode. I yelled at him to get back in his room and not come back in until he had shoes on. I clean up the floor a bit so the entry way was clean and safe for the dogs paws. Per my wife's return she was like *** just happened! I told our dog to get on his blanket! He just went to his blanket area in our living room and stayed there until we told him it was OK! Good dog! I guess he's not a totally dumb mutt! LOL

After about an hour of cleaning we had our kitchen back to normal. Well then I headed out to get another roast and a heavy foil pan for the next go around at this great recipe! I'll save that for another thread!

I have done similar cooks with this exact same dish in the past and never had this happen. Needles to say a metal roasting pan is in my future plans or I will just use a heavy aluminum pan for easy cleanup.

After doing some research it seems that with these dishes exploding is not uncommon. Also it seems that there are many different causes for this to happen. I really love my corning ware and these dishes but sorry to say I am afraid to use them. I read that people have had them break even while cleaning them. One case I read it was after it had been in the dishwasher overnight and a lady went to put it away. She picked it up to place into her kitchen cabinet and boom! I could not believe all the horror stories that I read in the link below.

The reason of this post is for the safety of our members here. If you are not aware of the dangers of this dish please read the link below. I spent almost two hours earlier today reading and I also read some of the other links listed on the page listed below. If you feel that this is all bull then more power to you. I have used these dishes for years and never once thought this could happen. Well it did and now I'm scared to use another one. Please read the link below. Thank you for reading. Vince

http://www.consumeraffairs.com...s/pyrex.html[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the heads up Vince!
What a mess!
Glad to hear that no one was injured.

WOW Vince, thanks for the info.
We also have a few of those baking dishes, which won't be used again.
Glad no one was hurt.

What a mess is right.

"I made sure gravy was at room temps because this dish is a glass dish and I did not want to have an issue with it breaking."

I've cracked a hot windshield with cold water from a hose I bet 17 summers ago. I didn't write off windshields, BUT I've learned to not do it again.

You'd better throw away all your casserole dishes, crockpots, coffee maker carafe's, ramekins, etc while you're at it.

BTW, you don't want to use pyrex on the stove top to make your omlets, either.

Thanks for the pic of the 'splosion, I've never seen that before.

LOL Clint I see your point. I just wanted people to be aware of the dangers of these dishes. After reading through the link I posted it seems that with these you need to take caution when using them. I would think that being a cooking dish they should not explode. Just throwing it out there so people are aware of the situation. Vince

Yeah, pyrex isn't meant for dry roasting. Next time just put an inch or so of water in the bottom while you roast. Pour off the water just before adding the gravy. Should be no problem. I'm glad it's something you can laugh at now; must've been a heckova shock at the time.

It makes me want some safety goggles in the kitchen. It also reminds me of tempered glass... hit it in the middle with a bat & no prob, tap it on an edge & it can explode violently like Vince's pyrex.

Wouldn't the situation have been avoided if the gravy was warm?

I was dredging eBay for old D-handle style measuring cups without metric. (The metric side is invariably printed on the side I look at when I hold a measuring cup by the handle, meaning I have to hold it by the bowl to see the English measurements. Also, the new nesting Pyrex measuring cups are oddly sized, and hard to measure in accurately. And I like the D handle.) I was looking for the good old Pyrex measuring cups.

In the process, I discovered that what is currently called Pyrex is not the same type of heat-resistant glass that was the Original Pyrex.

The original Pyrex was manufactured by Corning from thermal shock resistant borosilicate glass.

In 1998, Corning sold its consumer products division. Pyrex kitchen glassware manufactured and licensed for sale in the United States is now made of tempered soda lime glass.

According to the Pyrex website The Cookware Manufacturers Association considers soda lime an appropriate material for glass bakeware.

My guess is you'd join the group that begs to differ.

From wikipedia:

In May 2008, in a report broadcast on a Chicago TV channel, Pam Zekman reported that people have complained that Pyrex bakeware has shattered or even exploded during ordinary use. US Senator Dick Durbin and US Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky from Illinois have called on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to find out if there is a problem with Pyrex Zekman's segment did not include any reports on actual laboratory tests of Pyrex glassware. The segment went on to say that none of the US hospital emergency rooms surveyed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported treating any injuries in 2005 or 2006 that were due to breakage of Pyrex glassware. The CPSC has nonetheless received a number of reports of failures directly from consumers. The company has a web page devoted to these and other consumer issues.

Click to expand...

Here's what Snopes.com has to say.

Good snop'n Steve. Thanks for the info. And I like your new avatar: R2-WSM.

We were at a friends house for a cookout one night and my friend had a Pyrex plate explode on his grill. I used to use Pyrex on my grill a lot too but not since that night. Luckily we were in the kitchen preparing some other stuff and the grill lid was on so nobody got hurt. Needless to say we went out to eat that night.

We had the same thing happen at a buddy's house. Pyrex does fine in the oven but doesn't seem to like the stove top....

I was baking bread once and I thought it would be a good idea to put a pyrex dish on the bottom rack to preheat and then pour water into it when I put in the bread. I started pouring in the water and BOOM, glass everywhere.

Everytime a Pyrex deal comes up on slickdeals.net, there is discussion of pyrex exploding. Scary. Glad to hear nobody got hurt.

How scary. I had a glass mug explode in my hand once just seconds after it was handed to me. Some idiot poured cold drink into a mug right out of the dishwasher and it apparently took a minute to build up enough stress to fail.

That's a shame they've messed with Pyrex - the whole point of Pyrex was that it was made out of a material that doesn't have the same expansion issues.

I'm impressed you took pictures. I'd been too angry to even think of pics.

I've had both a pyrex and cornel white dish break in my hands in the past, been using metal, cast iron or stone since.

Glass is a poor conductor of heat. So it would not normally be a substitute for metal and vice versa.

Wow,

Pyrex used to be (marketed as) a product that could go from freezer to oven.

Maybe cold to hot is not a problem - but hot to cold is?

Never had a problem doing ANYTHING to Pyrex lab equipment (beakers, flasks, etc.) - but maybe they've cheapened the consumer stuff while keeping the right stuff for lab equipment etc.??

I think Pyrex labware is still borosilicate glass. I know they are resistant to thermal shock but haven't tested the flasks I have between freezer and stove/flame.

I shattered a pyrex measuring cup while homebrewing. I had measured out some malt extract and after adding it to the boil I decided to add some of the hot wort to the measuring cup to get the last little bit of extract out and POP! Right in my hand! I wasn't hurt either but it scared the crap out of me.

All the appliances came with the house we purchased. Most were new and in good condition. The exception was the stove. I wanted to get rid of it, but I am practical and decided to wait until it died.

It wasn't long before the dials cracked. We would slide them back on, but unless you paid attention, you could get them on in the wrong position. Coupled with what I am sure was a seriously out-of-whack calibration in the oven, temperatures were wildly off.

My mother was visiting. My wife prepared a lasagna. Into the oven it went. At some point we heard the explosion. Ouch!





Needless to say, I got a new oven after that.