What causes an oven door to shatter?

Some theories -
– the food may have been trying to break out, you should securely cover whatever you put in it from now on
– your oven has a thing against carbs, try fine meat products
– it’s haunted

And some theories that may actually be true -
– the thermostat may be woefully off or broken and your oven could be running much hotter than it should be, did the food you cooked come out normally, or was it extra crispy?
– the door itself may be “tweaked” and is preloading the window with some stress, a little heat may be all it takes to make it crack… was the new door tough to install? maybe the hinge is askew? This could be due to anything from it getting bumped at some point to the foundation of your home settling…

Most ovens have double glass on the front, one pane inside and one out with a decent gap in between. Is your oven the same? Are they both shattering or just one? That may help you locate the cause.

Was the door made in china?

<—-laughing hysterically at the thought of the bread or french fries trying to break out!!

Happens quite a bit, apparently . This article says it’s likely due to tiny flaws in the tempered glass itself.

@Harp Interesting! What are the odds of it happening to the same person twice?!? and in such a short time period, too!

@much2smile4 I certainly hope the manufacturer covers the cost, at least on the new door. Maybe it’s time to think about a different brand of oven…

Tempered glass is created when a sheet of glass is cooled very rapidly, causing internal compressive stresses to be “trapped” within the glass. This makes the glass very strong, but because the external “skin” of the sheet is compressing the “guts” of the glass, a scratch on the skin can create a weak spot that can lead to the rapid release of the trapped stress (rapid as in explosive).

If a flaw in the glass was trapped during the tempering process, you might not even need the scratch to trigger the failure. The repeated expansion and contraction cycle of an oven in normal use may have expanded the flaw. It may have been just the right time for your oven door to fail.

I have a glass-topped coffee table in my living room, top made of tempered glass, that has accumulated a lot of little scratches over the past 7 years. I expect that it will go, and go spectacularly, one of these days. Could be today, could last another 7 years.

Perhaps it was just its time and God was just calling it home.

Also, make certain that the metal oven racks or cooking dishes do not hit the glass when you are closing the door. The impact could be very small, would not break the glass, but could cause the scratches or “irritate” the flaws in the glass, as mentioned above.

Your cooking, OH BURN!!!!!!!!!!.....jk.

HAHA, it’s just really annoying, I think someone is coming out at the end of the week to inspect it… we should find out what’s wrong with it then… I’ll put the reason up when I get it for those interested..

But yeah, I heard about the tempering of glass, but like augustlan said, the odds of it happening twice to me????

It’s just annoying, because you want to use the oven more and more the longer you don’t have it.. haha

Thank goodness it’s summer and we can BBQ otherwise i’d be sooo sick of pasta.. lol

But thank you for all the replies.. :D I am now more knowledgable on tempered glass!