Original Pyrex was not like that. American Pyrex was switched to a cheaper type of glass a fairly long time ago, in other words Pyrex is now just ordinary glass. If you want to buy real Pyrex today, find the brand made in France that looks suspiciously like a skillful knockoff of the real thing - because it IS the real thing, and the Pyrex name-brand is actually the cheap knockoff. (Pyrex once had a factory in France, and the French factory never quit making the real thing.) Or, anything that advertises itself as borosilicate glass and looks legit to you.
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Better yet, pick up vintage Pyrex at thrift stores or yard sales. I refuse to use the new stuff, and have none of it in my kitchen.
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So scary! I’m glad you’re ok. Curious… Was this an offer dish or a more recent purchase? I didn’t have a lot of Corelle, but I do have a few ancient plates (from the 70s/80s) and then a small casserole from the early 2000s.
It can be hard to tell. One certain clue of what not to get at the thrift store is glass that’s supposedly clear but has a slight blue-ish tint. Borosilicate Pyrex (the good stuff) is truly colourless. But there can be batches of the cheap new stuff that are close to colourless too.
I know that some good ones are all-capital “PYREX” and some cheap ones are all-lowercase “pyrex”, but is that a 100% reliable way to tell them apart?
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I probably bought these bowls in 2011 to 2014… Typically I use them for soup or salad… Just because they are large bowls. I have a few select pieces of nice corelle and had planned to aquire more… i grew up with the stuff. And really liked the simplicity.
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It’s actually pretty easy @DavidPF - the new custard cups are much thicker than the old, and they also made a lot of stylistic changes to other pieces. The hand holds most especially give it away.
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We’re using Corelle that was bought primarily in the mid-1970s and have been used daily since then. (We use our good set only for Passover Seders.) A few of the bowls have chipped rims but that’s about it for damage.
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That’s good when you already had the old ones - my little guides can help when looking at a shape you haven’t seen before.
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There are scads of old posts about Pyrex and thermal shock on Chowhound. It’s happened to me as well. Another factor is putting a hot vessel onto a wet/damp surface. Corelle is a Corning product, as, originally, was Pyrex. Now, whenever I use glass, I set it into a metal pan before putting them, together, into the oven, and don’t remove the glass vessel from the pan until it has cooled.
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i’ve read somewhere (I thought here, but doesn’t look like that’s the case) that the old Pyrex made in the USA was much sturdier and stable than the more recent product that’s now being manufactured in China. I don’t know if it’s fact, since everybody sems to love bashing China these days, but given cost containment and all, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
I have been in contact with “corelle” and they know about all the problems… They were very cool and offered me a replacement accident waiting to happen and $30 of credit to buy more $#!÷
NO FUCKING THANKYOU!
IMAGINE A CHILD AT EYE LEVEL…
In china they don’t give a shit humans are dime a dozen…
This company sucks and does not care about a couple hundred serious injuries… when weighted against millions of dollars in profit… cost of doing business!
It’s definitely not anything to do with China. The American company made an American decision to cheap out and use ordinary glass instead of the real product. It wouldn’t matter who made it.
In fact I would bet there are Chinese factories making real Pyrex now, that is better quality than what the Pyrex company is willing to pay for.
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Well, that didn’t take very long.
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Dude, this is an American company. Sure there’s politics over making stuff in China, but if that’s happening it was the American owners’ choice to do so. Nobody forced them to shut down their US factory - if that’s even what they did, I haven’t checked.
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Thanks for the input, I was wondering if what i’d heard was part of the rabid anti-China sentiment, although it was several years ago I read it. I’m not antichina, BTW, but there has been lots of poorly produced stuff and questionable manufacturing practices for several years. Along with some really high quality production, too, of course. Seeing stuff made there doesn’t automatically turn me off, and I don’t boycott them.
Whatever way Chinese production is involved, making glass to a special formula was never something they would have had a problem with. But if the client asks for the cheap stuff instead, then that’s what they’ll get.
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I happened to use my (newer, cheap version) Pyrex measuring cup yesterday, so I looked closer. Definitely the inferior version, definitely Made In USA. It’s not the country, it’s the stingy corporation.
My cup is not that new, I don’t know where they’re made today.
Recently, H ordered some tempered drinking glasses of Duralex and one glass in the parcel was shattered inside the box during the transport (it wasn’t very well protected and delivery guys here like tossing things around), the broken glass was in hundred bits and pieces but not particularly sharp, more like tiny pebbles. The one I have here are made in France.
Just read that Duralex, in financial difficult since Covid, was bought by the competitor, Pyrex some 3 weeks ago.
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Duralex drinking glasses from France are often seen in Canada too, probably the US but I don’t know. I don’t think they advertise being heat-safe, do they?
Tempered glass for drinking glasses is tougher and much less likely to break than normal glass, and if it does break it usually makes pebbles like that.
I hope Duralex’s new owners let it continue as before.
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