Three years ago, Consumerist told you about the possible shattering risk of so-called “oven-safe” Pyrex bakeware. And for the last year, our investigative siblings at Consumer Reports have been combing through complaints to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and testing Pyrex and other glass bakeware in the CR testing facility.
For its article in the current issue of Consumer Reports, the magazine investigated 163 incidents of glass bakeware that shattered suddenly:
In some cases it was in the oven, while cooling on a countertop or even while they were holding it, sometimes sending shards of hot glass flying and causing injuries. Only some of the cases seemed to involve clear violations of the bakeware’s instructions. While hundreds of millions of glass dishes are used safely each year, we saw enough incidents to raise concern.
In the CR labs, the magazine tested not only Pyrex and Anchor Hocking brand glass bakeware sold in the U.S., but also European-made Pyrex and Arcuisine Elegance glass bakeware. As we reported back in 2007, Pyrex sold in the U.S. is now made of soda lime glass instead of the borosilicate that had been used for decades and which is still used in Europe. They even managed to scrounge up some old borosilicate Pyrex made in the U.S. for comparison.
In the video below, you’ll see that when the soda lime bakeware is exposed to extreme heat and then placed on a wet granite counter, it shatters instantly. The borosilicate bakeware from Europe fared better, though it still shattered after being heated in ovens at 500 degrees. However, the older borosilicate Pyrex didn’t even shatter at that temperature.
As a result of its investigation, Consumer Reports has called on the CPSC to look into the problem of shattering bakeware. And when you buy glass bakeware, be careful to read over the manufacturer’s instructions for handling the product.
FOIA requests examine glass bakeware that shatters [Consumer Reports]
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Almost all the Pyrex in my kitchen is vintage, with the exception of some measuring cups. I’d considered buying some new pieces a while back, but found them to feel lighter and cheaper in my hands than the older pieces do so I held off until I could thrift some of the old ones.
All my vintage pyrex was from thrift shops! It’s so incredibly cheap that way and apparently is safer as well.
Some thrift stores price it up even if it’s in terrible condition, but plenty still have it priced right. Pyrex pie pan for a quarter? I think I will!
I had no idea Pyrex was no longer borosilicate. So, where CAN you buy the good stuff nowadays?
Any kitchen supply websites from Europe, based on logic from reading the article..
looks like it still made, just not under the pyrex name
http://www.amazon.com/Marinex-5-Piece-Bakeware-Set-Gift-Boxed/dp/B0016LPX6I
Thanks for the link Mike. Just because something is a “major” brand does not mean all brands use soda lime. Is there another way (besides weight) to tell the difference between glassware made from these two differing materials?
I find mine at thrift stores, usually. Also, my grandmother passed away recently and I got all her old glass bakeware. So, yeah. Dead grandmothers? Heh.
I am slowly stealing all of my grandmothers too.
The other few odd pieces I have I have gotten at thrift stores.
You shouldn’t assume that the Pyrex pieces you find in thrift stores are necessarily going to be the borosilicate stuff. The switch to soda-lime glass was long enough ago (apparently over 50 years ago) to where it’s a good bet any pieces you find in a thrift store is also going to be soda-lime.
hehe this happened to us right in the middle of having friends over for dinner once – it exploded all over the kitchen after we set it down on a still-cooling electric stove top (which makes it somewhat our fault). made for an entertaining story.
Inwish I had read your story before posting my own. But in my case the stove top was off, not cooling like in yours.
Same here. I took it out of the oven and placed it on a cool stove top. It exploded before I even let go of it. Thank goodness I was wearing a thick sweater at the time. We found shards over 30 feet from the stove, and there were several embedded in my sweater.
Did the same exact thing. Horrific mess, horrific clean up. Ugh. Those shards are wicked sharp too.
When I was preggers with kiddo number one, I had the worst craving for Ramen (health nazis, please save your snarking, kthx) one night. I put the water on to boil, then went back to my movie. I completely forgot about the water I’d put on…unfortunately, I’d also made cornbread in a Pyrex dish earlier in the night, and set it on the ceramic stove top to cool. Guess which burner I turned on? Not the one with the pot of water on it.
As I’m sitting there engrossed in my movie, I hear this loud explosion from the kitchen. I ran in and there it was…an incredibly messy and dangerous pile of Pyrex/cornbread debris. I can now state for the record that a Pyrex dish of cornbread cooked (unintentionally) on the stove top has about a 3-foot blast radius.
I guess I can’t use Pyrex in any of the meals I cook at 500 degrees. I need to find a different container for making charcoal.
The US made Pyrex was breaking at 450 degrees, not an unheard of cooking temperature.
The only time I ever had a piece of Pyrex break on me was when I didn’t do what it says and used it on the stovetop. Well, rather, my mom did, and there were beans EVERYWHERE.
My fiance did that once. He was following a recipe that said to put a baking pan w/ a lump of lard in it on a burner to melt the lard. He chose to use one of my Pyrex pan, and as soon as he walked out of the kitchen it exploded- glass everywhere and an awesome fireball!
Suddenly, I’m glad I have the slightly-OCD habit of putting my Pyrex pans down on my Rock-Maple cutting board, rather than directly onto the counter.
Confound you Thermal Shock.
I get all my Pyrex bakeware at estate sales. Test of time, and all that. Also at $2 or $3 bucks a pop, I’ve got a whole kitchen full of dead people’s stuff.
That’s cool. I have a kitchen filled with dead people.
I have a freezer filled with dead people.
What should I be looking for if I see this used, is there a datestamp or something that may indicate the old glass?
Green is bad Blue is good. They are straight up different colors viewed end on. Also if you want with polarizing filters (even poloraizing sunglasses) and a single light source you can see the quality of a temper.
Impure borosilicate can be green, and I wouldn’t describe pureish borosilicate as blue.
I had a newish Blue Pyrex that shattered after I placed it on the stovetop after baking mac and cheese. This was last Thanksgiving
..
I had a Pyrex measuring cup explode in my cabinet. We were out of the house for a couple of days, came back, and glass chunks all over the inside of the cabinet. No thermal shock that I can imagine…
“Failure to follow instructions”.
Nobody keeps the instructions handy for decades. They should be built to everyday kitchen usage tolerances – which includes taking hot bakeware out of the oven and putting it on a standard kitchen surface.
But not a cold, WET surface. And even if you don’t keep the instructions for years, using it is pretty good at making you remember HOW to use it. In 20+ years of cooking, I’ve never had anything break in any manner other than dropping.
I have, pyrex in fact.
I was taking a bowl out of the cabinet, and it just shattered.
I had a glass baking board crumble beneath my hands when I picked it up. I’ve never seen anything like it. Grant, it was over 20 years old.
I now have a maple baking board.
Not that I’m blaming anyone here, but seriously – simple basic logic says that hot things coming in contact with cold things means that Something Bad will happen. That’s just how physics works.
> which includes taking hot bakeware out of the
> oven and putting it on a standard kitchen surface.
I dunno. I’ve always intuitively understood this to be something that you should NEVER do.
It just seems like something bound to damage the surface in question. Nevermind the bakeware.
My personal favorite pyrex shenanigan is trying to put water in a pan that was at about 650. The results of that were worthy of the Mythbusters. Needless to say, that pan was toast.
“hot bakeware out of the oven and putting it on a standard kitchen surface.”
If the kitchen surface is at a low enough temperature (sometimes even room temperature will suffice), you get to blame laws of physics instead of the bakeware manufacturers.
Holy cow, when he turns the dish over at the end the video to highlight the warnings and instructions for use I could not believe how much was there! You’d think you were buying fused cluster bombs.
This was really useful though, I had no idea of these risks. Good job, CR!
Actually had brand new Pyrex shatter in the oven on the first use. And we didn’t pre-heat the oven, so the Pyrex was not exposed to sudden heat changes. And was under 400 degrees.
If you read the warnings on the Pyrex website, it says you should ALWAYS put the bakeware into a pre-heated oven.
Why is pyrex safe going from cold to very hot quickly (room to pre-heated oven), but not slowly (heating up in the oven)? Seems counter-intuitive.
I, too, would like to know this.
a pre heated oven won’t have the element on when the dish is inserted. The heating element in an oven is many hundred degrees warmer when on than the average temperature of the oven. During the baking cycle your ovens temp will rise and fall over and over. Each rise is because that heating element is hotter than you want the oven to be and each fall is because the element is off. This is why Alton Brown recommends putting unglazed quarry tile in the bottom of the oven to even out the heat cycle somewhat.
“And we didn’t pre-heat the oven”
And that is why it broke. Read the instructions: http://www.pyrexware.com/index.asp?pageId=30
I have a nice early 70′s Pyrex pan that I inherited from Mom. Sure, the color scheme is awful, but I know it’s the good material.
Holy crap! This makes so much sense. Was making an enchilada casserole thing a while back. Took it out of the oven and set it to cool. Three minutes later – *BAM* – shattered glass and cheese shrapnel everywhere. Had someone been in the kitchen at the time someone could have been seriously injured. Couldn’t figure it out at the time for the life of me…I thought it was a freakin’ poltergeist.
Any word on Corningware? I imagine that can take the heat better. I just with that after several decades, they’d figure out how to add handles and a top that fits more securely.
And what about Anchor Hocking?
Ok, I saw that the article said they did test Anchor Hocking, but were the test results the same as Pyrex? Now I’m afraid to use glass bakeware, PERIOD.
yes… same results for anchor hocking. I don’t know if they tested any other U.S. brands.
About thirty-five years ago, I was microwaving a cold piece of meat in a Pyrex bowl when it shattered in a spiral pattern. I happened into a department store just as a Pyrex company sales rep was there and I told him of my experience. He explained that since the glass had gotten cold from the meat, but the meat sitting against the glass was suddenly getting hot, the thermal difference caused the shattering. He suggested that in the future I do those jobs in Corningware, since it’s a different product, which he termed “pyro-ceram.” And he handed me a replacement bowl.
I’ve used Corning exclusively for heating since and have never had a problem.
I’ve had plenty of Corning go under routine use. If hot and cooling, you want to be very careful about even a gentle knock. I think it relieves uneven stresses all at once and BAM. There it goes.
Corning is also much more likely to chip in the cabinet. While I have lost three pieces of Pyrex to thermal shock as described, none have ever broken in storage, while Corning breaks at the drop of a hat.
This happened to me; I bought some Pyrex bakeware, a long rectangular glass pan to bake cornbread in. It was hot, and I set it down in the kitchen, and turned to do something else (I think something funny had just happened on the Simpsons!), and it didn’t just shatter, it exploded like a damn grenade, big thick chunks and little spritzy sparkles of sharp glass pattered all across the back of my head!
Had I not been distracted, I could very well be blind right now.
Must have been an old episode of the Simpsons.
+1, sadly.
You can see and feel the difference in the Pyrex glass. The measuring cups and baking dishes in my kitchen are from two different eras and the thinner, bluer ones stand out in comparison to the heavier, more clear or even ever-so-slightly greenish ones.
For measuring cups I really don’t care, except for the very rare occasion when I might be pouring boiling water into one. But I do sometimes worry about my baking pans…
Am I the only one who has always been generally wary of oven proof glassware and stay away from it?
I had a friend that set a pyrex casserole pan on an electric burner that was off. I guess the burner sucked heat out of the pan. First we heard a small crack, then the whole thing shattered.
Glass at 450 degrees shatters when you put it in contact with cold water on a cold granite surface? That kinda falls in the “duh” category for me, but then again I’m an engineer and have been cooking most of my life, so maybe I’m more knowledgeable than the average cook. I always set hot pans (metal, ceramic, or glass) on my glass cooktop, a metal rack, or a wood or cork trivet.
Of course, where are we going with this? Pulling all glass cookware off market and forcing everyone to cook using metal pans (which simply don’t work as well for some things) because there are possible dangers? Nanny state!
To be fair, they admitted it to be an intentionally harsh situation for the pans. It’s just an extreme stress test to see how the glassware holds up against the most extreme conditions. And it showed that the borosilicate glassware is much more hardy than the soda lime.
Much more hardy for temperature effects, but I would have liked to see CR drop a few and see if the sodalime was actually more durable as claimed by the manufacturer.
When I worked in a bio lab, we used pyrex flasks. Heated directly over a bunsen burner, straight to the sink for rinsing. Breakage was rare.
The point is that the company is using less reliable materials. To prove the point they used an extreme situation. (They also used wimpy lab techs that can’t seem to hold on to the cookware even with safety gloves and glasses)
But it sounds like even that’s no good compared to the old stuff. THAT’S what I want.
I had a pyrex baking dish, one of the round casserole ones, shatter while in the oven. Such a pain to clean, but at least nobody was endangered by it.
I had a loaf pan filled with a very sweet pound cake batter explode in the oven. What a mess. Nothing like having all that sugar burning onto all the walls and door of the oven while encrusted with glass shards.
Mine was a square one, in the oven, with a chicken roasting in it.
Silly me, I poured some warmed beer in over the chicken. The dish just disintegrated into little itty bitty pieces. Grease from teh chicken caught the oven on fire. It was not a fun night for me, though the husband thought it was the funniest thing ever…
So Consumer Reports readers send broken items to the magazine? Broken glass?? That’s intense
This happen to us, but we were using it inappropriately. We heated it over a glass top electric stove at low heat (2-3 setting out of 0-9) to make gravy (something that had been done by the family by decades, albeit with the older and less cheap version of pyrex), and shut off the heat and let it sit there. As it sat, it exploded into a million little pieces sending graving and glass bits for like a 10 foot radius. It was scary and clean took like 1-2 hours.
Anyone know about Le Crueset bakeware? I’m in the market for something that won’t shatter and make it look like I decided to kill myself while baking a lasagna.
Le Creuset baking dishes are a type of stoneware which will crack under misuse (not shatter) Le Creuset pots which cost hundreds are cast iron.
If it’s only with misuse, that’s not too bad. I have a couple of their dutch ovens already, so I know they’re product is worth the cost.
Check out anything you buy thoroughly–LC, sadly, seems to either whore out the name or have some REALLY shitty Asian factories; I’ve bought a couple of not-iconic items (teapot and stockpot, to be precise) that are pieces of junk.
FWIW, though, I do have two little LC gratin dishes that I’m really happy with.
My Pyrex bakeware is from 1992. I think that’s probably not old enough to be made of borosilicate so that stinks. I’ve taken it out of the fridge and placed it directly in a hot oven many, many times. I think I’m gonna stop doing that.
“I like chocolate milk.”
- Cheese
While it’s true that borosilicate was used for decades, the switch was made quite a while ago; if this were a huge hazard, I would have thought it would have been noticed by now. And all glassware will break down quickly once a crack starts, and the heat of cooking REALLY accelerates that process. You ever watch your windshield go completely to shit about 10 minutes after a crack starts (and you don’t remember hitting anything?)
Hot glass on a cold, wet, granite countertop? Yeah, I wouldn’t try that with any glass pan…
I had a plastic snowman bowl crack/explode due to thermal shock once. I like my tomato soup hot hot, like almost a boil. I poured it in the bowl and the bowl literally jumped up from the table as it cracked. Never saw plastic do that before.
500 degrees? Who cooks at that temp regularly? i admit i don’t cook as often as i should, but i’ve only cooked at 500 degrees once, and that was for a 20-minute-or-less recipe. i found it rather distasteful (both the recipe in general and the 500 degree oven in my tiny little kitchen), and doubt i’ll do it again. Most dinners i put in the oven are around 350-425, rarely above 450.
How about some tests in more regular conditions? i’ll also admit i haven’t watched the video (work, while flexible, doesn’t mesh well with video watching), but if the tests were only done at extremely high temperatures, i’m wary of the results. i know CR is a thorough tester, but i’d like to hear more about the tests done at lower temps.
If you have something under the broiler (browning meat or cheese, for example), it can hit 500.
They don’t make ‘em like they used to. Literally.
There is a good use of overstressed government resources at the CPSC…CR calling on the CPSC to investigate glass bakeware that shatters when used improperly. What’s next, Calling on the CPSC to investigate electrical outlets that cause an electric shock when a screwdriver is inserted, or NHTSA to investigate automobiles that cause crashes when people let go of the steering wheel?
An informative cautionary story but DUH!
Add me to the list of Pyrex-grenade owners. I was well clear of the blast radius, but to this day, I completely freak out around just-out-of-the-oven Pyrex.
This happened to me too a few years ago. Shattered as soon as I took it out of the oven. I am so lucky it was just me and DH in the kitchen not the kids. I just use metal pans, I’m too afraid of the glass and oven combo now.
I’ve seen one shatter when a friend attempted to use it to make macaroni and cheese… on the stove top. However, my most recent pan shattered as well, under regular usage. Thanksgiving, I simply took the dressing out of the 350 degree oven, sat it on my wooden countertop and BAM. Splinters everywhere.
About thirty-five years ago, I was microwaving a cold piece of meat in a Pyrex bowl when it shattered in a spiral pattern. I happened into a department store just as a Pyrex company sales rep was there and I told him of my experience. He explained that since the glass had gotten cold from the meat, but the meat sitting against the glass was suddenly getting hot, the thermal difference caused the shattering. He suggested that in the future I do those jobs in Corningware, since it’s a different product, which he termed “pyro-ceram.” And he handed me a replacement bowl.
I’ve used Corning exclusively for heating since and have never had a problem.
This has happened to me while using the glassware according to instructions. I was making mac and cheese and baking it at only 375. It shattered without any warning, shooting glass shards inside the oven.
My oven only goes up to 450. I can’t even get paper to spontaneously burst into flames.
I read about this a few years back and have avoided Pyrex ever since. I’m still trying to dig up the link, but there were a ton of stories posted about Pyrex exploding even when used per the manufacturer’s directions. There was also mention of Pyrex not actually making their own stuff anymore; they just license the Pyrex name out to other manufacturers.
This Consumerist article from 2007 explains thermal shock and why Pyrex literally isn’t what it used to be: http://consumerist.com/2007/01/why-pyrex-bowls-explode.html
i know that a company called World Kitchen makes Pyrex and other glass baking dishes. The company i work for has installed several machines in a plant near Pittsburgh, Pa.
I’ve actually done this. It was my own fault and certainly not the fault of glass cookware. I placed a dish that had just come out of a 350-degree oven on the cold counter and it exploded into a million pieces. No one was hurt, but I felt really stupid and embarassed. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out how it could happen. I sure wouldn’t blame the cookware!
I once dropped a Pyrex measuring cup that was still hot from the dishwasher. For future reference those things can cover surprising distances when they shatter/explode. I was finding bits of that cup as far away as 30ft.
I thought I’d do a little digging and see what Anchor Hocking had to say about the differences between the two types of glass.
http://www.anchorhocking.com/Bakeware_Facts.html
High points…
“Annealed borosilicate is substantially weaker against mechanical breakage caused by dropping, striking against hard objects, and use of sharp utensils…it breaks into a number of pieces, most relatively small (some may be larger). Unlike non-tempered glass products, these pieces generally lack sharp edges when it does break, resulting in a lower likelihood of severe cuts from the broken glass”
-Backed up by this report
“It [soda-lime-silicate glass] is thermally treated or tempered to more than double the mechanical strength of annealed borosilicate….Anchor Hocking’s testing demonstrated a 40% improvement in thermal shock resistance for its tempered soda-lime-silicate glass. “
-Contradicts this study.
“Anchor Hocking experienced a greater than 90% reduction in its replacement rate due to breakage during the first 10 years of tempered soda-lime-silicate production.”
————————-
I think we need a more thorough test. Anchor Hocking’s position seems to be that these finding are incorrect and that there are zero advantages of borosilicate glass. Didn’t concede any anyway. What about these failure rates and other aspects? Who’s right?
Pyrex is owned by Corning, so anything they make that is heat resistant will be of the soda-lime variety.
Personally, I have had one of the measuring cups (soda-lime) break on me. It was filled with boiling water and I pulled it out of the microwave and set it on something wet. It did break into smaller pieces if I remember correctly. Other than that I haven’t had a problem, but I have used the bakeware.
Pyrex is owned by Corning, so anything they make that is heat resistant will be of the soda-lime variety.
I saw the version of this report on the local ABC news. According to it, “Pyrex” is now made by a different company (not Corning) and it is the same type of glass Anchor-Hocking uses.
I hope Matt Stone and Trey Parker read this story. Exploding Pyrex sounds like a great story line for South Park.
“Oh my god the maccaroni and cheese Pyrex dish killed Kenny — You bastard!”
I had my Pyrex 9×13 dish shatter on me. I was baking ribs at 350 and set it on the counter and it shattered as I was across the room getting a towel. I was still finding glass in weird places two weeks later. Was a wedding gift from my grandmother too.
Early one morning my wife turns on the wrong burner on the stove, heating the bottom of a Pyrex (or similar) pan which held cookies atop a paper towel. The exploding pan and flaming towel caused her to scream for me to get out of bed and coming running. Unfortunately, she did not also have time to utter something like “watch out for the molten hot glass on the floor under your bare feet.”
Mine was a square one, in the oven, with a chicken roasting in it.
Silly me, I poured some warmed beer in over the chicken. The dish just disintegrated into little itty bitty pieces. Grease from teh chicken caught the oven on fire. It was not a fun night for me, though the husband thought it was the funniest thing ever…
Holy crap – putting a hot, glass (even borosilicate) vessel on a cold counter top is a recipe for disaster anyway. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to put hot glass under cold water? This is essentially the same problem – you’re causing the glass to contract and deform at an uneven rate. I would lay odds that this is both the result of “cheaper” pyrex and the transition from non-stone countertops to all these natural and manufactured stone countertops.
It probably happened a lot less in the 60′s and 70′s because most countertops were laminate or wood – and putting a hot pyrex dish there (without a barrier) would usually end up in damaging the countertop and not the dish itself.
This is common sense 101 – obviously many people don’t have common sense.
A lot are saying to blame the surface/physics… where *would* you set a pan out of the oven?
Cold, wet marble isn’t great… but a lot of the stories mention countertops and stoves that are off. I doubt a cutting board is any better than those (and no warmer)… If anything, I’dve thought the stovetop to handle the heat a bit better than most kitchen surfaces. That’s where I see most people set food out of the oven (if the stovetop is empty).
Solution: Pyrex needs to put durability over profits.
You know, I’ve had several pieces of Pyrex shatter and never thought anything of it. Most recently, a casserole in a flat dish similar to the one above was cooling in the oven after baking. I heard it crack, knew just what had happened. Had to throw it out. That was the third piece in the last five years–looking back over my experiences, they definitely do have a problem.
Just had this happen to me, it was in a 350 degree oven and shattered. I am assuming that I was with in the manufacturer’s instructions. Its going to be great fun cleaning the oven.