Why do oven doors break?
“There are two scenarios for why oven glass may break spontaneously,” says Mark Meshulam of Chicago Window Expert. “There is a family of furnace glass that is soda-lime glass, which is window glass, and it is heated and cooled quickly to temper it. That is a type of glass used in oven doors. Another type is borosilicate glass. It is most commonly used in laboratory glassware or old Pyrex glass, and tolerates heat and cold very well. So, the change to soda-lime glass has caused an increase in this type of breakage because it is not as tolerant to the thermal cycles that the glass will go through.”
But it’s also possible that the explosions are caused by a small defect in the glass called nickel sulfide inclusion. “It is only a tenth of a millimeter in diameter. “That little ball has some strange properties.” Meshulam said, adding that “Over time, he struggles to get out. And sometimes a high-temperature event, like cleaning the oven, can finally cause that spontaneous failure that was there.”
Still, Meshulam tells people that the ovens’ self-cleaning feature is safe. He said: “Most people will survive their entire lives using the self-cleaning function and won’t really encounter this problem.” Additionally, he believes ovens explode when not turned on due to small chips and defects. But the scariest thing about this possibility is that the door could break long after the first damage.
Prevention Tips
These small damaging spots can occur during production, shipping or installation. Homeowners can’t always prevent these things from happening, but there are things they can do to keep their homes safe. For example, some everyday actions can leave small chips or scratches on the glass. Some of these are aggressive cleansing methods and put too much physical stress on the body.
