Warning...Exploding Glass Tables!!

My patio table exploded!

BEWARE .... If you have a glass table, it could blow up all by itself. I’m not kidding, here’s my story:

I have a large glass patio table and chairs that’s located under a covered patio in my back yard. Yesterday (the 4th of July) I was sitting outside at the table having a beer when the phone rang. I went inside to get the phone, chatted for a few minutes, and went back outside to finish my beer only to discover that the table had shattered into a million pieces. Tiny pellets of glass were everywhere.

I was totally freaked out. How the heck does a tempered glass table just explode? It was 4th of July and lots of people were shooting off fireworks but none of my immediate neighbors were shooting them off.

Then I started thinking, maybe the table was hit with a stray bullet or a kid with a sling shot, but someone would have had to be a well-trained sniper to hit the table under the patio and not break a window too.

What else could be that powerful to disintegrate a glass table and not damage anything else around it?

Then it came to me, (thanks to GLP threads) the table was hit with a scalar weapon and I was under attack! So, I waited for a few minutes to make sure the attack was over before I started cleaning up the glass.

Anyway, regardless of how the table was broken, my 4th of July was pretty much ruined because I spent the next 3 hours, sweeping up glass, running a shop-vac and hosing everything down. Good news is, I only cut myself twice.

After I got everything cleaned up, I started searching online for “exploding glass tables” and discovered that I’m not the only person this has ever happened to. Who knew??

>>Glass Patio Tables Explode Without Warning
Glass-topped patio tables are shattering into thousands of pieces, and federal records show it’s been happening since at least 2004. And, yet, the government has never put out a safety warning.<<
[link to dfw.cbslocal.com]

And then I found this video:


[link to youtu.be]

So just remember, next time you are sitting at a glass table, chances are it's tempered glass that has been weaponized by Chinese manufacturing.

I can understand why your glass table exploded it is composed of tempered glass which might have deteriorated with age or other reasons such as imperfections that could cause explosions with age by any means of stress placed upon the glass just as old Corelle dinnerware upon dropping.

Corelle dinnerware while relatively new might be accidentally dropped and not damaged while older Corelle dinnerware will explode upon impact shattering across a room if accidentally dropped.

Older vehicle windows made of tempered glass would suddenly shatter into a mosaic of pieces sometimes without breaking apart which means that you could park vehicle one night and awaken to find your vehicle window shattered.

Glass breakages into a million pieces have also been noted in older shower and patio doors along with Pyrex products.

Glass furniture can explode suddenly

A procedure to make broken glass safer sometimes causes glass products, including glass-topped furniture, to break without warning.

All glass furniture will likely soon be required to be made of tempered glass. However, the procedure that makes tempered glass safer can also make it suddenly shatter.

[link to www.wral.com]

Sounds of Summer: Martha Stewart Tables Shattering
[link to www.consumeraffairs.com]

Spontaneous glass breakage
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Breaking Glass Shower Doors & Enclosures
[link to chicagowindowexpert.com]

Window Exploding?
[link to ths.gardenweb.com]

Wish I would have seen this GLP thread before I bought a glass table! It was posted in 2011.

Thread: Exploding glass tables

Bad design.

Metal frame hard point stress safety glass to the point that the safety glass shatters.

Shit happened to my oven door. So I got a new oven that is a POS. Turns out the new oven is so shoddily engineered that using the self-cleaning cycle burns out the electronics in the oven.

:9teen: Sheee, and there's me thinking of buying a greenhouse.