As I was starting to boil water for pasta tonight in my cheapo 10 quart “Denmark, Tools for Cooks” stock pot I placed its tempered glass lid onto the pot. As the water barely started to show bubbles the top basically disintegrated into many small shards of tempered glass, most going into the pot, but a fair amount onto my stove and the floor. Given that I thought that tempered glass was rather strong and durable, the exploding lid gave me quite the shock. The pot and lid were probably about 10 years old, but I probably only used it every other week and mostly just for boiling water.
After cleaning up the glass and putting a new pot of water into a different pot with a steel lid I searched Google to see if my experience was common. I was quite surprised to learn that such an event is well reported. The ones I read typically said their pots were celebrity endorsed cookware.
At least, tempered glass is not the most dangerous, but some of the pieces I picked up had sharp corners and some sharp edges. But not wanting to experience such an explosion again I will obviously no longer use such lids, and I urge others who have such lids to think twice about using them.
Let’s be careful out there.
Tempered glass can break. While rare, it can happen.
Usually b/c of some manufacturing defect, or mishandling that stresses the glass from repeated use or exposure to high heat.
Glad you’re ok.
That sounds traumatizing!
Yes… I made a mistake with a glass lid a few months ago.
I had fried something in my smaller cast iron skillet and wanted to finish it off in the oven. For some reason, I wanted to cover it. I didn’t have the appropriate sized metal lid, so I grabbed a glass one from another baking dish.
Although, I only had the oven set to 375 (F), I guess the cast iron skillet had quite a bit of heat stored in it. Not long after I placed it in the oven, the glass lid shattered.
Going forward… The next time I want to cover that cast iron skillet (in the oven), I’ll use a piece of foil.
I own 3-4 Mauviel 1830 glass lids, and so far so good - but I wouldn’t want to use my glass lids for boiling anything, only for when I have lowered the temperature and things are simmering away under the glass lid.
Glad you’re ok.
