We’ve all heard about exploding washing machine doors. In fact, a few years ago, the Which? Convo community helped us compile hundreds of examples of exactly that happening. But what about oven doors?
Recently, a number of you have told us about the alarming experience you’ve had of your oven door shattering or even breaking explosively onto the kitchen floor. And in some cases, as with washing machines, the oven wasn’t even being used at the time.
One member wrote:
‘A few weeks ago, I went to open the bottom oven door to put away some baking trays and, as I touched the handle, there was a loud bang and the door shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor. Gave me a real fright. I had used the oven about 3 hours earlier so it was quite cold.’
Another said:
‘The oven had been on cooking a roast and was cooling down. I was in the kitchen when there was a loud bang and I felt something hitting the back of my legs. When I looked around, the outer oven door was shattered, with small pieces of glass scattered around the kitchen with a pile of small pieces lying on the floor underneath the oven door. We measured that the small pieces had travelled 11 feet from the oven door.’
But mostly, the oven has been cooking, when the incident has taken place:
‘Today, without warning and whilst cooking a roast meat joint, the inner glass door exploded forcing open the outer glass door and ruining the roasting meat and making a huge bang and depositing minute pieces of glass all over the kitchen floor.’
Are any brands worse than others?
When we looked at shattering washing machines doors in our May 2016 issue, the brand Beko cropped up more often than you’d expect, considering its market share.
But so far, when it comes to ovens, no particular manufacturer stands out – in fact, more than 20 brands are on the list from Which? members’ experiences.
So what’s causing oven doors to shatter? While we’ve never had an oven door shatter during our testing, we are currently gathering information from oven engineers, industry experts and manufacturers on why oven doors – inner or outer – might shatter.
So far, potential culprits include:
- incorrect positioning of glass after cleaning
- use of abrasive cleaning materials that score the glass
- build-up of grease causing the oven to overheat
- glass has been knocked
- a wet towel hanging on the oven door
- a dish touching the inside of the door while cooking
Over to you
While it’s unlikely that your oven door will shatter, if it does, it isn’t something you’ll forget in a hurry.
So, we’d like to hear from you if the glass of your oven – whether part of a cooker or a built-in oven – has ever shattered or exploded.
Let us know what happened, including any response from the manufacturer. And if you’ve taken any pictures, please send them to conversation.comments@which.
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