WARNING!!!
I checked this out in Snope and Truth or Fiction, and it appears to be true.
Betty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
True, according to Snopes.
Got any new Pyrex dishes in your cooking utensils? This
is a must read.
I Checked at Wall Mart and all the warnings are there.
About 5:30 PM there was a loud bang from the oven. Sylvia
opened the oven door and the Pyrex dish had shattered into a
million pieces. The roast beef (our first in many months)
was peppered with small shards of very sharp glass.
Normally, I am quick to inform Sylvia she did something stupid.
However, this time she was nowhere near the stove when it
blew. I shoveled the glass and the now mashed potatoes
into a bucket with two putty knives. I then sucked the
remains with the shop vac. I let everything cool down
and then scrubbed the oven with Simple Green and some hot
soapy water. It took over an hour to clean up the
goo. Upon completion I ran the oven empty to see if the
temperature controller was working okay. I suspected the
oven got too hot and the dish simply blew. This was not
the case however. The oven came up to temperature and
cycled normally. We threw a disgusting frozen
pizza in the oven and it cooked okay.
What is going on?
I Googled exploding Pyrex dishes and got ten million hits.
Exploding Pyrex is very common.
Here is the story.
A long, long time ago in a country we all know and love was a
company named Corning. They made Pyrex dishes.
The material they used is called borosilicate glass.
This stuff is indestructible.
But like everything else, the Bottom Liners had a great idea:
Sell the technology to another company.
The Chinese discovered that using soda lime
glass was almost as good as borosilicate glass and a lot
cheaper. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest
distributor of Pyrex products. Corning not only sold the
technology to a company called World Kitchen, they also sold
the rights to the original Pyrex logo. Seamless.
The consumer will never know.
Now it seems people are getting hurt using soda lime Pyrex.
We were lucky because the dish broke while the oven was
closed and the damage was limited to the oven cavity.
Others have been less fortunate. Some dishes explode
when they are lifted from the heating rack in the oven with
devastating results. Some people are heavily
scarred. World Kitchen is in denial. They say that
the dishes are another brand, not theirs. Contrary to
their denials the victims usually have more than one of these
dishes and the Pyrex logo is clearly visible.
If you buy a Pyrex dish beware.
The label on the front says oven safe, freezer safe, microwave safe. The
instructions on the back tell another story. You cannot
move a soda lime Pyrex dish from the freezer to the oven and
expect it to survive. The fine print goes on and on
about what you are not allowed to do with the Pyrex
dish. The fine print has prevented World Kitchen from
being sued because e they have warned the consumer that their
Pyrex dishes are junk from the get go. And they are the
same price as the original Corning dishes. What a
bunch of losers we all are for buying this crap.
What to do?
If you own borosilicate Pyrex dishes no
fear. They have to be more than 25 years old to be sure
they are indeed Corning dishes. I am not sure if the old
Pyrex dishes have anything stamped in them that indicates they
are made by Corning. You may continue to use the soda
lime dishes for holding stuff. Just do not attempt to
roast or microwave with them as the hazard is very clear.
The reason the soda lime dishes let go is that over time they develop micro-cracks.
Once a few micro-cracks are present and once some liquid finds its way
into the cracks you have the bomb situation. The liquid
is like shoving a crowbar in the dish and pulling it
apart. Super heated liquids expand rapidly and it is the
super heated liquids that force the soda lime glass to shatter
into tens of thousands of shards.
Since Corning no longer makes Pyrex and Sylvia proudly holds a large
collection of the soda lime Pyrex, we decided that one bomb in
the kitchen is enough. The Pyrex dishes will go bye-bye
in this week’s trash. I do not know what we will use for
cake and pie dishes going forward.
If you have some suggestions we are listening.
I strongly urge you not to use the soda lime Pyrex for the oven, stovetop or microwave.
The slightest invisible crack is all it takes to have a mess and a possible injury.
As to World Kitchen: them and their cheap dishes. In case
you are wondering: World Kitchen is not a USA company.
Betty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
True, according to Snopes.
Got any new Pyrex dishes in your cooking utensils? This
is a must read.
I Checked at Wall Mart and all the warnings are there.
About 5:30 PM there was a loud bang from the oven. Sylvia
opened the oven door and the Pyrex dish had shattered into a
million pieces. The roast beef (our first in many months)
was peppered with small shards of very sharp glass.
Normally, I am quick to inform Sylvia she did something stupid.
However, this time she was nowhere near the stove when it
blew. I shoveled the glass and the now mashed potatoes
into a bucket with two putty knives. I then sucked the
remains with the shop vac. I let everything cool down
and then scrubbed the oven with Simple Green and some hot
soapy water. It took over an hour to clean up the
goo. Upon completion I ran the oven empty to see if the
temperature controller was working okay. I suspected the
oven got too hot and the dish simply blew. This was not
the case however. The oven came up to temperature and
cycled normally. We threw a disgusting frozen
pizza in the oven and it cooked okay.
What is going on?
I Googled exploding Pyrex dishes and got ten million hits.
Exploding Pyrex is very common.
Here is the story.
A long, long time ago in a country we all know and love was a
company named Corning. They made Pyrex dishes.
The material they used is called borosilicate glass.
This stuff is indestructible.
But like everything else, the Bottom Liners had a great idea:
Sell the technology to another company.
The Chinese discovered that using soda lime
glass was almost as good as borosilicate glass and a lot
cheaper. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest
distributor of Pyrex products. Corning not only sold the
technology to a company called World Kitchen, they also sold
the rights to the original Pyrex logo. Seamless.
The consumer will never know.
Now it seems people are getting hurt using soda lime Pyrex.
We were lucky because the dish broke while the oven was
closed and the damage was limited to the oven cavity.
Others have been less fortunate. Some dishes explode
when they are lifted from the heating rack in the oven with
devastating results. Some people are heavily
scarred. World Kitchen is in denial. They say that
the dishes are another brand, not theirs. Contrary to
their denials the victims usually have more than one of these
dishes and the Pyrex logo is clearly visible.
If you buy a Pyrex dish beware.
The label on the front says oven safe, freezer safe, microwave safe. The
instructions on the back tell another story. You cannot
move a soda lime Pyrex dish from the freezer to the oven and
expect it to survive. The fine print goes on and on
about what you are not allowed to do with the Pyrex
dish. The fine print has prevented World Kitchen from
being sued because e they have warned the consumer that their
Pyrex dishes are junk from the get go. And they are the
same price as the original Corning dishes. What a
bunch of losers we all are for buying this crap.
What to do?
If you own borosilicate Pyrex dishes no
fear. They have to be more than 25 years old to be sure
they are indeed Corning dishes. I am not sure if the old
Pyrex dishes have anything stamped in them that indicates they
are made by Corning. You may continue to use the soda
lime dishes for holding stuff. Just do not attempt to
roast or microwave with them as the hazard is very clear.
The reason the soda lime dishes let go is that over time they develop micro-cracks.
Once a few micro-cracks are present and once some liquid finds its way
into the cracks you have the bomb situation. The liquid
is like shoving a crowbar in the dish and pulling it
apart. Super heated liquids expand rapidly and it is the
super heated liquids that force the soda lime glass to shatter
into tens of thousands of shards.
Since Corning no longer makes Pyrex and Sylvia proudly holds a large
collection of the soda lime Pyrex, we decided that one bomb in
the kitchen is enough. The Pyrex dishes will go bye-bye
in this week’s trash. I do not know what we will use for
cake and pie dishes going forward.
If you have some suggestions we are listening.
I strongly urge you not to use the soda lime Pyrex for the oven, stovetop or microwave.
The slightest invisible crack is all it takes to have a mess and a possible injury.
As to World Kitchen: them and their cheap dishes. In case
you are wondering: World Kitchen is not a USA company.