Willie Mae Truesdale was jolted by a deafening blast emanating from her kitchen. Hastening to the source, she was met with a startling sight: her once-intact glass oven door lay shattered across the floor. “It was truly unbelievable,” she recounted, emphasizing the sheer shock of the scene.

“It was as if the unthinkable had happened. Glass everywhere, without warning.” Adding to the perplexity, her oven remained dormant during the incident. Yet, Truesdale’s experience is not isolated; she joins a disconcerting roster of homeowners whose oven doors have met a similar fate.

Thus unfolds the enigmatic saga of Exploding Glass Oven Doors.

Cheryl, a suburban mother, found herself in a similar predicament during the COVID-19 quarantine. Despite her efforts to bake brownies, they emerged soggy in the middle, signaling a discrepancy in her three-month-old oven’s temperature, which was off by approximately 25 degrees. Following the quarantine period, she enlisted a professional to rectify the appliance, opting to initiate a self-cleaning cycle beforehand. However, as the cycle drew to a close, a thunderous explosion reverberated through her kitchen, leaving the inner glass of the door shattered within the oven.

Michelle Wheat, too, faced a harrowing ordeal when her oven door shattered, scattering glass across her kitchen. Mirroring Truesdale’s experience, Wheat’s three-year-old oven remained inactive during the incident, sparing her four young children from harm. Notably, while Cheryl’s oven hailed from  Bosch, Wheat’s came from Frigidaire, underscoring the widespread occurrence across various brands. Indeed, reports to the Consumer Product Safety Commission have tallied around 450 incidents since 2019.

Regrettably, all three women encountered challenges with the manufacturers following the incidents. Truesdale, despite her oven being under warranty, faced blame from Frigidaire’s technician, compelling her to shoulder the cost of a new door. Fortunately, Bosch replaced Cheryl’s oven after NBC intervened. In Wheat’s case, her warranty had expired, leading to additional expenses for glass replacement, with Frigidaire recommending an extended warranty as a preventive measure.

The root cause of such explosions is twofold, explains Mark Meshulam of Chicago Window Expert. Firstly, the shift to soda lime glass, prone to thermal stress, has increased instances of breakage. Secondly, nickel sulfide inclusions, microscopic flaws within the glass, can lead to spontaneous failure under high heat, such as during oven cleaning cycles.

Meshulam reassures that while the self-cleaning feature is generally safe, microscopic damage incurred during production, shipping, or installation can predispose ovens to such failures. Therefore, adopting gentle cleaning practices and minimizing physical impact can mitigate the risk of damage at home.