Why Do Oven Doors Shatter and How to Prevent It
Willie Mae Truesdale was startled by a loud explosion coming from her kitchen. Rushing to investigate, she was shocked to find her glass oven door shattered into pieces, scattered across the floor. “It was unbelievable—you had to see it to believe it,” she recalled.
“It was like, ‘What in the world just happened?’ Glass everywhere, all over the floor.” To make matters worse, her oven wasn’t even on at the time. And the terrifying reality: Truesdale isn’t the only homeowner to experience an oven explosion like this.
Cheryl, a suburban mom, had a similar shock during the COVID-19 quarantine. While attempting to bake brownies, she noticed they came out soggy in the middle. Though her oven was only three months old, she realized its temperature was off by about 25 degrees. After quarantine, she called a professional to repair the appliance. But before that, she decided to run a self-cleaning cycle on the oven. As the cycle neared its end, a loud explosion rang out, and the inner glass door shattered, falling into the oven.
Cheryl’s was Bosch, Truesdale’s oven came from Frigidaire, but other brands also have reports of exploding glass doors. In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has received about 450 reports about this occurrence since 2019.
What Causes Oven Doors to Shatter?
“There are two main reasons why oven glass can break spontaneously,” explains Mark Meshulam of Chicago Window Expert. “One type of oven glass is soda-lime glass, which is essentially the same as window glass. It’s heated and cooled rapidly to make it tempered. Another type is borosilicate glass, commonly used in laboratory glassware or older Pyrex products. Borosilicate glass is much more resistant to extreme temperature changes. The shift to using soda-lime glass in modern ovens has led to an increase in these types of breakages, as it’s less tolerant of the thermal cycles the glass undergoes.”
However, oven explosions are also likely caused by a nickel sulfide inclusion—a tiny flaw in the glass. “It’s only about a tenth of a millimeter in diameter, but that little ball has some unusual properties,” says Meshulam. “Over time, it’s trying to break free, and sometimes, an event like the high heat of a self-cleaning cycle can trigger that spontaneous failure.”
Despite this, Meshulam reassures homeowners that using the oven’s self-cleaning feature is generally safe. “Most people will go through their entire lives using the self-cleaning function without ever encountering this problem,” he explains. He also believes that microscopic chips and flaws can cause ovens to explode even when they’re not on. What’s particularly concerning, though, is that the door may shatter long after the initial damage occurs.
Prevention Tips
While some microscopic damage may occur during production, shipping, or installation—factors beyond a homeowner’s control—there are steps you can take to prevent damage at home. A few everyday habits can contribute to the development of tiny scratches or chips on the glass. These include using harsh cleaning methods or applying excessive physical impact to the oven door.
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