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Flip
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Fuck "Pyrex"
This is ridiculous. Ridiculous! I have to vent on you guys.
So I set up a water bath in a "Pyrex" brand dish on a corning hotplate set to heat level 4. Inside the dish is a mason jar with EtOH i'm just doing
a metal replacement reaction. Anyway I get the temperature of the bath up to about 70 C and not wanting the EtOH to boil out I dial down the heat.
So i'm sitting around just relaxing and watching a movie, when..
BOOM!!!!!!!
The dish explodes!! It sends hot water and shards of glass flying three feet in every direction! One of which found it's way into my leg!
Surprisingly, the mason jar and it's contents remained intact as the dish blew out from underneath it, leaving it sitting on the plate as if there had
never even been a bath underneath it. All in all, I was pretty fortunate that the incident was not worse.
Now how can this company market a brand called pyrex and put a pyrex logo on the fucking thing if it can't even withstand slowly cooling from
temperatures under 100 C without violently exploding!!
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Sauron
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There's a lot of phony "pyrex" around that is not borosilicate.
This is particularlytrue of household glassware.
Where did you buy this?
What were the markings?
I am sure it was not made by Corning.
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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chemrox
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There are also mechanical stresses that can be caused by the heating element. This is one reason those little copper wire star shaped rings are sold.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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Flip
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Yeah, it was a baking dish from the local grocer. The word "Pyrex" in big letters embossed on the glass. If it had the company or location of
manufacture that evidence is in shards right now.
What took me was just how violent the pop was. Here I am, unsuspecting, sitting not three feet away. Got my heart racing and a nice little band-aid
on my leg. I've had glass crack, but i've never seen it explode!!!
Corning may not have manufactured this, but I still blame them for selling out their trademark. The appeal of the Pyrex brand is it's temperature
resistance. Now that brand name appears to have been prostituted to cheap imitations. Damn them!
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Magpie
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My wife placed a hot Pyrex brand clear glass cooking dish in the sink and poured cold water on it. It exploded into hundreds of pieces.
I think Pyrex brand lab glassware is still borosilicate glass and can take some thermal shock. My understanding is that the Pyrex brand cookware,
however, is no longer made of borosilicate.
I think this is deceptive and dangerous use of the Pyrex brand, as anyone with lab experience is likely to be misled by it's use on cookware.
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User
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Well I've been after pyrex glass for a while.
The funny thing is that not all pyrex stuff is made out of borosilicate.
I found some old pyrex glass at a second-hand store and it said it was made out of borosi.
It is "very" resistant to thermal shock.
Lately I've been reading about glassblowing and stuff...
When the glass doesn't not harden out evenly there will be mechanical stress points.
Which will be exposed during hars condition.
Although these conditions you describe aren't to be called that way
It could be that this was just a manufacturing error.
Still, exploding is just f*cking ridiculous.
If i was American I'd say sue those bastards 
What a fine day for chemistry this is.
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not_important
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Pyrex is a trade name, not a type of glass. Labware was labeled Pyrex borosilicate, as was the early Pyrex cookware. At some point in the past Pyrex
cooking ware stopped being borosilicate in all cases.
You're not alone with your problem. There's a defensive page on the Pyrex site:
http://www.pyrexware.com/thetruthaboutpyrex/index.htm
and a consumer protection site has a section on problems with Pyrex
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/pyrex.html
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Flip
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Up to today I have understood Pyrex and borosilicate to be synonymous. The very reason that the Pyrex brand name took off was that it WAS
borosilicate glass, the tough stuff. Looking at their wiki page, Corning sold their consumer products division in 1998 (fairly recently, in the
history of the brand) and that is when they began using this soda lime glass shite.
Yeah before it happened i heard that sound you hear when something boils to dryness, as if you had just spit on your hotplate. I heard it several
times in succession before the pop of the explosion.
So i'm thinking that it started with a small stress fracture that allowed small amounts of water to begin vaporizing underneath the dish. I don't
know much about the physics of this, but I'm guessing that it was this vapor that blew it apart.
The funny part is that the mason jar I used withstood those same temperatures just fine, I was actually able to go much higher. So the glass from
Ball Co. and I would wager even my pickle jars is actually quite superior to what they are passing off as pyrex these days.
In any case i was spritzed with water and glass shards, which I notice have given me a few nics around the legs, and one on top of my head!
Thankfully I was wearing glasses. You know I pride myself on lab safety and being responsible in the laboratory. It's what I am paid to do. After
this happened I just couldn't feel more foolish. Damn them!
[Edited on 4/27/09 by Flip]
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Sauron
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Pyrex is a trademark of Corning
Kimax is a trade name of Kimble
Both are borosilicate
DO NOT USE COOKING WARE IN LAB even if labeled Pyrex
For your own safety do not buy dodgy eBay glassware
Sic gorgeamus a los subjectatus nunc.
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watson.fawkes
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The following is at the
bottom of most all the pages on the site pyrexware.com: | Quote: | | PYREX® is a registered trademark of Corning Incorporated used under license by World Kitchen, LLC |
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watson.fawkes
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Reading this page, it was apparent that
Pyrex-branded cookware is made with tempered glass, because of its mode of failure. The Wikipedia page on Pyrex concurs. A reasonable introduction to tempered glass is on Wikipedia at Toughened glass. As an example, Prince Rupert's drops are made of tempered glass.
Apropos of the present situation, failure of tempered glass may occur long after the damage that caused the failure. A tiny scratch can take quite a
while to propagate inward. No proximate thermal stress need be present, either. I once had a piece of glass explode inside the kitchen cabinet,
spontaneously.
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Flip
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Apparently thousands of people over the last ten years have had their Pyrex (TM) bakeware explode during regular use, causing various damage to
kitchens worldwide. It appears also that hundreds have been injured.
I, for one, will not be using these products anymore. Bakeware that violently explodes in the dishwasher? On the shelf at room temperature? It used
to buy that you buy your bakeware and you can keep it 20 years. What kind of investment is Pyrex? It's like a glass shrapnel time bomb.
In lieu of an online grassroots campaign for a world-wide class-action lawsuit, can someone then tell me what brands out there are still borosilicate?
I have to replace my bakeware and i'll be damned if i'm going to buy more Pyrex.
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smuv
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borosilicate can be distinguished from soda lime glass by looking at the cross section of the glass, if the color is blue/green it is soda lime; if it
is nearly clear then it is borosilicate.
That being said, before this, I would have totally trusted any pyrex bakeware on a hotplate without thinking twice.
[Edited on 4-27-2009 by smuv]
"Titanium tetrachloride…You sly temptress." --Walter Bishop
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User
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Well the old fashioned coffee pot is still made boros. i have 2 that are actually made by scott.
What a fine day for chemistry this is.
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hissingnoise
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I have some heavy pyrex jugs and viewed edge-on a cool blue tint is very noticable; any hint of green should raise suspicion when buying this stuff.
My jugs can handle any heat thrown at them. . .
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unionised
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Is it just me or is there a difference between thin glass used in lab beakers and thick glass used as cookware?
BTW, re. the title
http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/store.cfm?cat=13
[Edited on 27-4-09 by unionised]
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hissingnoise
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Fuck Pyrex cockware indeed, unionised. . .
All they're missing is a phone in the base---a hotline!!!
Let's just hope they don't shatter under stress
[Edited on 27-4-2009 by hissingnoise]
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GoatRider
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I think those had better stand up to heat too...
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hellfire23
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I'd find the guy and sue him for endangerment.
EDIT: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/03/pyrex_panic.ht...
[Edited on 27-4-2009 by hellfire23]
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jmneissa
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Hey has anyone else noticed that pyrex scratches really easily. For example the other day I was using a clean beaker and was stirring the mixture with
the thermometer I was using and when I was done and washed out everything when I held it up to the light there was a ring of scratches in the bottom
half. I think from no on I am going to wrap the end of my stir rod with a small amount of Teflon tape. But has anyone else noticed this?
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Saerynide
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Yeah, I had a brand new beaker. After stirring, it looked like it was scrubbed with steel wool -_-
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tryptamine
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Well what would you expect when you are using the dish outside of the manufacturers stated uses.
Normally I would be the first person to use an item for other than its intended use but I try to know enough to determine if an item is suitable.
Pyrex baking dish, thick, lots of stress on differential heating, meant to be heated in an oven where the whole unit is at the same temperature, not
meant to be cooled quickly in water or used on a stovetop.
Pyrex labwear is not only made of low expansion borosilicate but it is made of very thin walled glass, this is not for cost savings, this is to
minimize stresses when the glass is differentially heated. This is also why I call bullshit on people that say thin glass is cheap and dangerous. The
only dangerous labwear is that which is scratched, nicked or made with imperfections.
You did something foolish and have no right to be pissed off, but you did learn something.
In my line of work in a research/industrial setting I've seen engineers buy perhaps 30 pyrex baking dishes to store 100 degree calcine as it exited a
furnace. After the first one blew up in the hands of an operator the rest of the dishes ended up in the trash bin.
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hissingnoise
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Quote: Originally posted by tryptamine  |
Pyrex baking dish, thick, lots of stress on differential heating, meant to be heated in an oven where the whole unit is at the same temperature, not
meant to be cooled quickly in water or used on a stovetop. . |
My Pyrex cookware seems to be immune to stresses and changes of temperature---as genuine Pyrex should be. . .
If it fails, it isn't Pyrex!
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TheOrbit
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bad pyrex 
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hissingnoise
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You mean bad pseudo-Pyrex. . .
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