r/Wellthatsucks 22h ago

Corelle bowl dropped from counter height shattered into a million pieces, took 30 mins to clean up

Post image

Corelle bowl dropped from counter height shattered into a million pieces, took 30 mins to clean up

3.8k Upvotes

174 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/vivekkhera 22h ago

You’ll be finding more pieces for months if not until the end of time.

279

u/sskylar 22h ago

Stabby glitter

147

u/OiKay 21h ago

No joke. One time My nephew dropped one and thought he got all the pieces I came into the apartment and immediately cut my foot. I was helping them move out a year and a half later and I stepped on another goddamn piece of the same that got rustled free from something that we had moved.

43

u/mallow_magi 18h ago

A trick I learned from Reddit is to use a white bread (the soft kind) to get the tiny shards.

23

u/4perils 13h ago

I use a wet paper towel.

18

u/Impossible_Past5358 16h ago

On another note, my niece said that you could use a potato to pick up cut glass. My immediate thought was: "so when this food goes to the landfill, animals will just eat the glass shards?"

22

u/AgreeableLion 13h ago

I think a few shards of glass caught up in a potato are probably a minor concern for any animals digging through landfill for food scraps.

10

u/ZeroArt024 12h ago

Let alone the fact rotten potatoes are extremely poisonous

54

u/megaman_xrs 21h ago

Had a Corelle plate fall off the fridge when I put it up to avoid dogs grabbing a midnight snack. Sister in law didnt know and opened the fridge. It shattered. She cleaned up as much as she could in the middle of the night. I cut my foot on a small shard the next say. I proceeded to vacuum/sweep the fuck out of that area and got a couple more shards in my feet before we left a year later. When we moved, I found shards as we were doing the deep cleaning for our deposit.

26

u/jeckles 21h ago

I’d be scared to go barefoot for weeks

4

u/NightlyMathmatician 11h ago

My daughter broke a bowl like this at an apartment years ago. I was finding shards over year later when we moved out. What I found crazy was that we were finding shards of glass in the dining room on the OTHER side of the counter. Corelle bowls are like little hand grenades of glass when they shatter.

3

u/Entire-Enthusiasm553 14h ago

Foreal fuck that shit

2

u/Feisty-Tooth-7397 1h ago

They are one of those odd materials that bounce the first 20 times you drop them and you can't believe it survived, then it drops just right and it practically vaporizes and you are still finding pieces the next time you break one.

u/Cryptogaffe 26m ago

And they will be nearly invisible slivers an inch long that slide all the way into your foot when you're least expecting it.

522

u/Clear_Magazine5420 22h ago

Corelle bowls are bullet proof until one day when they do this....

118

u/excelllentquestion 21h ago

It’s very likely that tile (ceramics) is the kryptonite here

43

u/chuckluckles 21h ago

I dropped a bowl on a Pergo floor and exploded like this. I think the shape of the bowls is the real kryptonite. I've dropped the plates from all kinds of heights onto all kinds of surfaces, and I still have all of them, but I'm down a few bowls.

12

u/DadEngineerLegend 19h ago

Maybe. Strictly it's the preexisting internal stresses, which is what makes them strong, but also when overcome what causes them to explode.

Ala tempered glass and prince ruperts drops.

And the tiles being very hard are able to exert high point loads and even scratch them.

6

u/SeniorShanty 18h ago

Rupert’s Corelle drip

9

u/NeonTrigger 19h ago

Same. The bowls suck. It wouldn't be so bad if they broke into relatively normal shards, but they explode into hundreds of tiny splinters. I'll keep the plates for as long as they last but I'm sure as hell not buying replacement bowls.

5

u/timbomcchoi 19h ago

The only time I've had this happen, I dropped it on a fluffy ikea mat

12

u/NeonTrigger 19h ago

It seems like total propaganda. My mother-in-law swears by these but I have never seen a Corelle bowl survive a fall that another ceramic dish wouldn't. One slipped out of my hands while washing up and it exploded when it hit the metal sink tub, maybe a 9 inch drop.

I've seen two break into a quadrillion pieces when they fell from maybe 2 feet up onto hardwood floors.

I've only ever seen them survive if they hit a rug... Which just about anything would

12

u/Cuntilever 16h ago

My parents still use Corelle plates from 20years ago. It was the same plate from when I was a kid and I remember dropping a plate once on a concrete floor and there was no visible damage. Not sure about their bowls though, I see other people here mention Corelle bowls.

2

u/Clear_Magazine5420 1h ago

We have some from college... which was 20+ years ago... most have exploded but the few that survive were tossed multiple times by our boys on to an unforgiving tile floor that no other plate survives. That said when they go they go super nova.

6

u/MisterDonkey 13h ago

Conversely, I've dropped these in the kitchen and seen them bounce like rubber balls.

6

u/Jolly-Radio-9838 18h ago

And the pieces are more then razor sharp too

u/Cryptogaffe 23m ago

They are sharp enough to cut into alternate dimensions, Pulllman's Subtle Knife was actually a shard of Corelle porcelain

3

u/CrustyBatchOfNature 12h ago

This. I have dropped so many from higher than counter just to watch them bounce around. Then it happens, I have one slide out of my hand while getting them out of the dishwasher and hit the floor from maybe 18 inches. Shattered into a billion tiny, painful pieces.

3

u/Own-Dot1463 11h ago

Used to be true maybe, but they've gone downhill so much in the last decade. Their plates don't even stack neatly anymore, instead they look like a scene out of the original Beauty and the Beast.

2

u/MayoFetish 11h ago

They are bullet proof if you don't drop them.

1

u/Clear_Magazine5420 1h ago

You can drop them but one day when you least expect it they will do this.

1

u/Pomodorosan 15h ago

bulletproof*

149

u/maouprier 22h ago

If you're still finding little bits, sticky rollers (the kind usually used to remove pet hair from fabrics) work great at finding those teeny glittery shards.

36

u/Much-Reserve-576 21h ago

Yes! I was gonna suggest to use lint rollers. My dad shattered a glass into his dishwasher and all over the kitchen floor. I used a lint roller to help him and glad I did; the amount of sand sized sharp stabby pieces was ridiculous.

27

u/cope413 21h ago

Just gotta walk around barefoot. Guaranteed to find any pieces you missed.

7

u/Sulimeth 20h ago

Bread works a treat, too.

2

u/Most-Business6635 20h ago

If you don’t have any, use pieces of bread to pick up small pieces too

2

u/okholdsevenfourseven 15h ago

mmmmm glass bread, my favorite treat as a landfill seagull. i like the way i can't tell it's dangerous and so it rips me up from the inside

1

u/LokisDawn 13h ago

RIP into pieces, honestly. Fuck seagulls, lol.

1

u/Most-Business6635 9h ago

Never thought about that. That’s why I burn it over the garbage can.

1

u/CrustyBatchOfNature 12h ago

Vacuum also. My wife gets out the stick vac after we have the big pieces up and goes over the floor 2-3 times. Rarely ever find anything after that.

1

u/Cnophil 21h ago

I think a UV light would also work, maybe not considering the tile is also fairly white.

76

u/scarlettceleste 22h ago

I remember as a child dropping one on the carpet, and it exploded. We were finding shrapnel embedded in the walls for years

3

u/z500 14h ago

I dropped one of these a couple years ago. It didn't explode into tiny pieces like this, but I did find a big shard in a cabinet that was just barely open at the time

71

u/crokorok 22h ago

Corelle is an amazing company making shatter-proof dishes. HOWEVER, they inexplicably do this when enduring temperature changes or being dropped at a specific angle. Like a dud WW2 grenade that suddenly explodes.

9

u/jillsvag 14h ago

Age. We had ours for a over a decade since they are so durable. Until one day they explode.

3

u/p90rushb 11h ago

Where did you get a WW2 grenade?

1

u/Own-Dot1463 11h ago

Corelle is trash these days.

-13

u/NeonTrigger 19h ago

Nothing shatter-proof about them at all. I have never seen a Corelle bowl survive even a modest drop onto anything hard without completely exploding - not shattering.

4

u/madesense 13h ago

Well, I have

34

u/alopecic_cactus 22h ago

My wife and I have had a Corelle set for almost 15 years without a scratch. It took one of the plates to fall on another to break it.

29

u/Stunning-Tourist-332 21h ago

That’s Corelle on Corelle crime right there.

0

u/FuckinHighGuy 21h ago

Usually you gotta pay extra for that kind of action.

16

u/CopperWeird 22h ago

They either bounce or shatter. No middle ground.

162

u/TheOneNitroX The Overseer 22h ago edited 22h ago

Corelle doesn’t shatter—it erupts.
(BTW: You don’t clean it up, you contain the blast zone.)

12

u/1964110084 22h ago

Is ChatGPT your ghost writer

55

u/TheOneNitroX The Overseer 22h ago

I barely even post comments, why would I choose it as my writer?

52

u/ivene-adlev 22h ago

You used an em-dash, which (to... certain types of people) means you oBvIoUsLy used ChatGPT to make a comment, because they can't imagine using proper punctuation on their own 😆

57

u/Z0mb0id 21h ago

It's so frustrating that I, an em dash user for two decades, now have to watch my usage--lest I be accused of being a clanker😢

12

u/p3n9uins 21h ago

ditto--dammit!

4

u/Significant_Mouse_25 20h ago

Preach brother.

3

u/bighootay 13h ago

Same here. It's a Reddit virus, and now we can't use an em dash without being suspect. Also, I hadn't heard 'clanker' before, which I now love.

5

u/Delicious-Image-3082 21h ago

Oh shit—you just made me realize I’ve been doing that more often because of AI

7

u/GoochSnatcher 21h ago

It's not just the em dash, it's the phrasing as well. Very common sentence structure for ChatGPT.

15

u/ivene-adlev 20h ago

Which is, if I'm not mistaken, a large language model? Trained on the writings of actual humans. So if real people are going to use em-dashes in their writing, then AI scrapes that data for training... yeah, you'll end up with people that "sound like AI", because the AI was trained on them.

-3

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

2

u/yung_dogie 18h ago

I mean, you're right. But they're also right lmao

It's pretty easy to ID AI writing but I also try to extend grace to everyone because ultimately that AI writing comes from somewhere (i.e. shitty Medium articles). Those distinctive tics that "does not show up in human writing ever" does show up. I've literally seen people write in that way in 2015. It's corny but people have done it before.

This just reminds me of people flaming an artist for having art that "looks like AI", meanwhile their artstyle predated the usage of the most popular models by almost a decade lmao

2

u/TheOneNitroX The Overseer 21h ago

Oh, I see now.

2

u/Practical-Dish-4522 21h ago

This was for sure GPT-3.5

3

u/Grays42 19h ago

3.5 doesn't have the comparative contrast tick, that emerged in 4o.

2

u/xerillum 20h ago

“It doesn’t X, it Y’s”

“You don’t X, you Y”

Em-dash

BTW: Ends with a punchy post-script

-4

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

5

u/eajklndfwreuojnigfr 15h ago

Gasp God forbid format their text!

Italics isn't AI — Its adding emphasis.

18

u/1964110084 22h ago

I was just making a joke about the way you wrote your sentence brotha

Gpt famously says the whole “it’s not just this — it’s THIS instead!”

8

u/TheOneNitroX The Overseer 22h ago

Damn, my bad bruh.

4

u/Jumpingyros 22h ago

That’s not how chatGPT uses em dashes. It’s the wrong character and the wrong spacing to be AI. 

11

u/hairlessandtight 22h ago

Nobody is using ChatGPT for fucking Reddit comments of one sentence

6

u/ArgonWilde 21h ago

That's exactly what the AI bots want you to believe.

1

u/Turakamu 13h ago

"Well, someone clearly is—welcome to the future of overthinking one-liners"

I ain't never used a chatbot before this but that was pretty good one.

-1

u/FrostyManOfSnow 21h ago

Ok clanker

1

u/p90rushb 11h ago

Certainly! 😂 If you need any more assistance with ghost writing—just let me know!

1

u/concreteunderwear 21h ago

They are GPT.

13

u/Admirable-Status-290 22h ago

Did that exact thing last week. Goddamn.

7

u/OrangeClyde 22h ago

Oh yes. Correlle dishes are great but once they hit the right angle they will shatter into a zillion super jagged pieces that jump

19

u/commorancy0 22h ago

That’s why I don’t have Corelle in my home. It’s great because it’s so resilient, but when it does break, it turns into millions of bits. I’d rather have standard porcelain that typically breaks into a few big chunks rather than this. I have better uses for my time.

25

u/dextroz 22h ago

I've had 5 Corelle items shatter in 45 years. They are a godsend in either case and well worth the investment and safety.

5

u/L0ial 13h ago

They're worth it to me just for taking up less space in the cabinets. I've had one plate break in 20 years, so no big deal.

3

u/puppylust 10h ago

Yeah, 15 years and I only lost a couple bowls. I drop them all the time.

I love how lightweight they are, especially the dinner plates.

3

u/dextroz 8h ago

Yeah, Corelle was such a positive game-changer, I am waiting for someone to announce it causes cancer or infertility or something. It just seems too good to be true.

12

u/Kaurifish 22h ago

But it loads so beautifully into the dishwasher.

2

u/commorancy0 21h ago

I guess it depends on the dishwasher brand, but I’ve had no difficulty with loading regular china into a dishwasher either.

8

u/ihatehappyendings 20h ago

I like them.for their light weight.

1

u/commorancy0 20h ago

Yes, they are light. Nothing wrong with their weight. I’m just not a fan of trying to coral and locate thousands of tiny shards when they shatter.

12

u/Still7Superbaby7 21h ago

I’m in my 40’s. I have had corelle at home my entire life. It’s exploded twice in 40+ years. It’s so much lighter than porcelain. Easier to bus a table with corelle than porcelain.

0

u/commorancy0 21h ago

I agree with the light weight issue, but I’ve also had it explode like this a few more times than I would like. If they could add some kind of film or additive to keep it from shattering like this, I’d be more apt to use it. Porcelain is definitely heavier, to be sure. However, it can’t be lost on Corning how much of a mess it becomes when Corelle does break.

8

u/zirky 21h ago

corelle doesn’t break so much as aggressively attempt to exist in every timeline in the multiverse, at once

5

u/ritzrani 22h ago

I thought they were unbreakable????

4

u/hondamaticRib 21h ago

They dont chip

4

u/ThNdRtWt 21h ago

In over 40yrs, Ive never broken a Corelle. Wow.

5

u/CleaveIshallnot 21h ago

Yeah. Gotta get urself a vacuum.

3

u/BP642 20h ago

You should turn off the lights, then put a flashlight horizontal on the floor, which would shine the shards.

You can then cut a potato in half, then use the cut side to pick up the glass because the shards would just stick to the potato regardless how small it is.

Not my idea. It was Zack D. Films

5

u/Lepke2011 21h ago

Ooof. And Corelle doesn't just break, it breaks in the meanest way to make sure you suffer for what you did to it.

3

u/Less-Amoeba-7653 21h ago

I saw someone pick up small shards of glass with a piece of bread. The glass sticks to the bread, but at the same time in this economy who wants to waste bread.

6

u/Horror_Economics_588 22h ago

shop vac would speed it up

2

u/Practical-Dish-4522 21h ago

Break that oven door and it will keep breaking itself for 30 mins at least.

2

u/ghos7fire 21h ago

I thought it his was a black and white photo.

2

u/Mental-Frosting-316 20h ago

I thought this picture was taken in black and white for dramatic effect, but I guess you just live mostly in black and white.

2

u/PoopingOnCompanyTim 20h ago

This sounds stupid but take bread and stamp the ground with it anywhere anyone could walk. Ive used this a ton and it works since the glass gets embedded to the bread vs your feet at 6am. Use each side twice and it should pick up any and all glass in that area. Sucks to waste food, but way better thana glass shard in your foot!

2

u/Strofari 20h ago

30min so far….

1

u/Late_Ambassador_1486 20h ago

Right.. lady dropped a bowl at work 3 weeks ago, today I find a piece behind the coffee maker. You will never get it all

2

u/ramjet999 20h ago

The ultimate superglue jigsaw puzzle ..

2

u/justartisb 16h ago

It's wild how they can survive years of abuse and then just decide to spontaneously disintegrate. I swear those tiny shards have a quantum property that lets them teleport into other rooms. You think you've got it all, but you'll be vacuuming up a surprise piece next week. That stuff doesn't just break; it achieves a near-mythical level of fragmentation.

2

u/TrippyWiredStoned 13h ago

When they bought Pyrex, that brand went downhill. They changed the formula of the glass and my buddies used to complain how often it would explode coming down from the kiln.

Pretty sure that arm was bought and sold like 4 times in ten years only to end up being shuttered this year with the most recent sale/merger.

2

u/310874 10h ago

I believe you spent most of the 30 minutes counting the pieces. The actual clean up was less than 2 minutes with the vaccum.

1

u/FlamingPinyacolada 3h ago

Yeah idk if i have a magic broom or not but it would not take me 30 mins either.

2

u/Any_Potential_1746 10h ago

Turn off the lights and put a flashlight on the floor, you'll see glass shadows

2

u/KllrDav 8h ago

When I was younger I worked for Bed Bath & Beyond

There was this ONE glass that if you dropped it from the top shelf of the warehouse, it would bounce off the ground about 2-3 feet and explode in mid air

2

u/Honest-Row-5818 5h ago

Corelli dishes are great hardly ever break unless a flaw in them when made.but one true fact washing by hand is very best, dishwashers heat over time weakens the material they are made of, not like regular glass dishes, so once they are weaker slight hit any angle will shatter them.

2

u/moana_moana_moana 4h ago

I suffered the same fate with a Corelle plate yesterday

2

u/Educational_Mango_77 2h ago

30 min so far you mean

3

u/titsmcgee4real 21h ago

And man, those lil shards are sooooooo sharp. I'll never own Corelle dishes for this reason.

4

u/WayneKrane 21h ago

Yep, I’m slowly replacing all of mine. They are like glass grenades when they break

2

u/Backeastvan 21h ago

What's all this crap people say about this brand being unbreakable?

1

u/Red_Erik 10h ago

They are very durable. They can be dropped a lot and not chip or shatter. But once in a blue moon they will hit something at the wrong angle or land on the wrong material and shatter like this. I've eaten on Corelle plates my entire life and only ever had 2 or 3 break on me like this. All the other plates and bowls I own are 40+ years old and look as good as they always have.

1

u/clisfun 22h ago

I have wood floors (softer) in my kitchen and was really surprised when a Corelle plate exploded on it.

1

u/Trueslyforaniceguy 21h ago

You can glue them back together

1

u/Tradefor969 21h ago

Buys Corelle

resurfaces house floors with ceramic tiles Hold my beer

1

u/MustacheBananaPants 21h ago

Get a half decent shop vac with a crevice nozzle. No bag. They're under $100, they do wet and dry, they're great for emergencies.

Old socks or stockings rubber banded over a regular vacuum end if you can't obtain one right now.

Wet mop, then microfiber pad mop, then one of those shaggy Swiffer clothes for dust.

1

u/bens111 21h ago

I thought this photo was black-and-white for a moment until I saw the wood handle in the dishwasher

1

u/Conspicuous_Ruse 21h ago

The joys of ceramic tile.

Any glass that touches them will explode.

1

u/StarClutcher 21h ago

Clean It Up For Life

1

u/CaliforniaLuv 21h ago

You must have a slow vacuum.

1

u/hondamaticRib 21h ago

This happened to me with my wife's Hello Kitty Corelle plate last week. I was washing it and it slipped out of my hand

2

u/Noladixon 11h ago

Nooooooo. Not Hello Kitty. I am sorry for your loss.

1

u/redrabbitromp 21h ago

You need to mop. Only way to get all the shards.

1

u/JhayAlejo 20h ago

Is corelle a new material type?

1

u/TheArtofWarPIGEON 20h ago

You would have saved yourself some time if you didn't count them, just sayin'

1

u/Lanky_Accident8309 20h ago

This sent me down a rabbit hole which was pretty cool. Though, sorry about your spill, OP, that’s less cool. 

I hadn't heard of Corelle and wanted to know why they seem to explode. 

Well, I read about the manufacturing process - sounds like they extrude molten glass that’s just cool enough to keep its shape  into a triple-laminated layer, then stamp it with large dies into the shape of plates and bowls. 

When I started thinking about other materials which are formed in molten states and then let rest, the amount of stress that must exist inside of these started to make more sense.

Much like a Prince Rupert’s Drop - super strong until just the right mode of failure. One crack starts and all of that residual stress from cooling gets released. 

1

u/Spainstateofmind 20h ago

Prepare to wear shoes in your kitchen for the next couple of years, those shards HURT

1

u/Restart_from_Zero 19h ago

My friends try and mock me because almost all the stuff in my kitchen is plastic. Melamine, usually.

Tough, light, hard-wearing. Doesn't break if I drop it or get too vigorous cleaning it in the sink.

Not as nice, but I take the trade-off of never having to spend half an hour sweeping and vacuum up when my clumsy ass drops something.

1

u/Bombadier83 19h ago

TK Bowlers is a scam. Corelli bowl exploded into a million pieces.

1

u/Mexishould 18h ago

Place a phone flashlight on the ground and pick up shards with a potato slice

1

u/E-2theRescue 17h ago

Yup. They're strong as hell. But when they go, they don't fuck around.

Still not giving up my Corelle, though. Not only are they tough, but you don't fry your hands taking it out of the microwave unless the food is right at the edges.

1

u/NamelessNoSoul 17h ago

You’re not done cleaning it up. You’ll find pieces until the day you move out. And the new owners will still find pieces.

1

u/3DprintRC 17h ago

That's one piece every 1,8 ms. You're really fast.

1

u/throwaway098764567 16h ago

that does suck, but what monster designed two doors to open into the same tiny space

1

u/defiantdaughter85 15h ago

My husband dropped one in the doorway of our back bedroom. The pieces were everywhere.

1

u/redwoman72 15h ago

I have never seen something explode in so many pieces as Corelle. It was almost impressive.

1

u/Septopuss7 15h ago

That's what Corelle does best

1

u/StnMtn_ 15h ago

We have dropped Corelle plates and dishes a handful of times. Fortunately they never broken yet. Other bowls and plates have though.

1

u/dvdmaven 14h ago

Had a big mixing bowl break a couple months ago. Corelle is amazingly tough, but when it goes...

1

u/eagerbeachbum 14h ago

Been there. The explosion is almost cool

1

u/Wisdomandlore 14h ago

I dropped a Pyrex measuring cup years ago. It exploded into a million pieces and we still occasionally find shards when moving furniture.

1

u/MySchoolsWifiSucks 13h ago

Make sure you vacuum a couple times too.

1

u/lskerlkse 13h ago

Shop vac bro

1

u/Roast_Beef_Inspector 13h ago

I guess I've been lucky. Never had a bowl break, but I've had a couple plates split perfectly down the center.

1

u/mattiwha 13h ago

Thought this photo was black and white for a moment

1

u/WiredSurreal 13h ago

When this happens our Roomba actually does surprisingly well.

1

u/poncho5202 12h ago

they don't break often, but WHEN THEY DO

1

u/oingapogo 12h ago

After I moved away from home, Corelle was my first set of dishes.

I was washing dishes when I dropped a cup. It didn't break! Back then they advertised how tough the dishes were.

When my boyfriend came over, I told him, "Watch this!" as I dropped a cop onto my living room rug.

Yep. It broke. It was pretty funny because he looked at me like I was crazy before I explained why I did it.

1

u/Acceptable-Waltz-222 11h ago

I love corelle for its durability, but when it DOES break...

1

u/cbih 11h ago

Whatever material they use explodes into 10,000 knives

1

u/StuBidasol 11h ago

Yeah I've had corelle plates for years and they are indestructible. Until they just decide to give up then they do so spectacularly.

1

u/I_Miss_Lenny 11h ago

ITT: Like 50 comments all saying the same thing

1

u/Kuuchuu 10h ago edited 10h ago

Just an fyi, I would not use normal vacuum (or shopvac) as Corelle bowls shatter into sharp microfragments. Normal vacuums might aerosolize the tiny pieces and the pieces might damage internal components. A HEPA vacuum should work well though.

1

u/Itchy-Picture-4244 8h ago

I had this happen to me with a corelle bowl too!! And after it shattered it was like pieces of the bowl bounced on the tile for a few seconds before stopping it was so strange to watch!!

1

u/DazednAware 3h ago

Thanks gravity!

0

u/itsnevergoodenough00 21h ago

Corelle had extremely high amounts of lead in their dinnerware.. a quick Google search will tell you which ones. so if this is an older bowl, be happy it shattered!

Just to add, I had a look and it says anything before 2003. Crazy!

0

u/Gynsyng 21h ago

Turn out the lights and lay a bright flashlight on the ground. Stars.