Thread: Daily consumer

Pyrex will blow you FREAKING fACE OFF....yO!

The Exploding Pyrex Jug

Ever since I was a kid, we've had Pyrex items in our kitchen and I've always marveled how you could put these glass items into an oven, or pour boiling water into them.
Pyrex. It's one of the most trusted household names for me.
Or WAS, until tonight.

Because my 11 year old son poured some boiling water into our Pyrex jug just as he has done many times before, and it just exploded. (This happened many times before?.Hmmmm....Not very good parenting I would say)

Shards of glass were shot all over the kitchen benchtop. (We had counter tops in my kitchen)

My son was very lucky not to have been injured. (It scared the heck out of him though. And me too.)
After I made sure he was OK, I started to give him the third degree (Gesss lady, he could had third Degree burns for all you knew) - asking him what he had done to make it shatter. He said that he had done nothing other than pour boiling water into it.
So I thought that it must have been cracked or chipped to cause this to happen, and put it down to good luck that my son had not been injured.
Later, I checked the internet - and was horrified to find that it's pretty common to have Pyrex explode like this.
For me, this was like finding out that there was no Santa Claus. Or that Superman really flew with wires. (Didn't he?, I thought so, at least I know Rocketman did)

Pyrex. It's supposed to be good stuff, that you can cook with.
Yeah, well it used to be.
Apparently the original Pyrex was made from a material called borosilicate, which gave Pyrex its unique heat resisting properties.
Several years ago, they started making it out of something called Soda-Lime. (FROM CHINA...AH-HA!!!!!)

I'm no chemist, and don't know the difference. But I guess that it was cheaper. And obviously inferior.
I'll bet that there is quite a bit of business out there for some lawyer to take up a class action against the manufacturers, when there are clearly so many cases of this cookware exploding and shattering when used for the purposes for which it is sold.