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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 clea n 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.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 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 Pryex 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 Pryex 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 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.

And yes I checked Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/pyrex.asp

January 2010

In just the last week I have found two people who have had new pyrex/corning ware explode on them!  This is a very serious situation!

One of them is my daughter who got a new 9×13 dish for Christmas.  She says it had not been in the freezer.  Not even in the refrigerator.  Just room temperature.  But, it blew, big time.

Thanks be to God that she wasn’t opening the door at the time!

The other person’s story is about the same.  She was doing a pie with a new Pyrex pie dish.  Boom … no more pie!

Please, only use the old stuff.  The new is only good for serving dishes.  Sorry, the old stuff was great.  I am very thankful I still have some.

World Kitchens took over and changed things in the mid ’90′s.  So if your dish was born before 1990, it’s should be OK.  Throw the rest away.  Or, maybe new planters?

This is for both Pyrex brand and Corning Ware brand.