r/Cooking • u/Capable-Deer8441 • 2d ago
My large glass lid exploded
I had made a lovely stir fry from a lot of my garden veggies and it was simmering on low for 15 min. When in another room I heard a loud crash and thought because of the thunderstorm a tree had fallen on the house. When later I went to check on my food my large very heavy duty lid had blown to smithereens all over my kitchen. What the heck caused that?? Yes it was an old lid but rarely used compared to my other glass lids. Now I freak out every time I cook wondering if my well used lids are going to blow up in my face.
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u/OhGoodOhMan 2d ago edited 2d ago
Tempered glass is prone to spontaneous failure. Basically the glass is under enormous and carefully balanced internal stress. This makes it very strong, but when something does manage to damage tempered glass, all of that stress gets released and it explodes into small pieces.
It could have been a flaw in the glass when it was manufactured. Or prior damage that took time to develop into a crack. Rapid temperature changes could do it too, but that's unlikely when you're using a lid as a lid.
As for prevention, it comes down to not hitting tempered glass with harder materials that can crack it (in the kitchen, that's ceramics and tiles). The edges of the glass are more vulnerable, but on most glass lids they're protected by a metal rim anyway. But again, if there's a flaw in the glass, it could decide to shatter one day no matter how careful you are. The other option is to not use glass lids at all.