I knew someone that had this happen to him. He said a few days before it happened, he remembers when he tried to close the oven door, some of the cooking trays he keeps inside it for storage (big metal ones) had hit the glass really hard. Because the door is sort of on a notchy hinge like a car door, it wasn't easy for him to control the door hitting it. In any case, he thinks he damaged it a little bit and when it was hot from baking at a very high temp, closing the door caused the glass to shatter.
Most modern day ovens have a small mesh in them now though, so I don't think this happens to people with newer ovens. You should at least always have such appliances with this mesh.
Once safety glass is damaged, it can shatter really easily. Or even moisture dripping onto the glass can cause it to shatter when it is at high temp (this is why chefs put towels over the oven door).
Eh? I worked as a (pretty crap) chef for a few years, in lots of restaurants (more than most chefs, because I often didn't last more than two months in any given kitchen), and I never saw an oven with glass parts.
I hung towels on the oven doors so I'd have a dry towel handy for taking hot things out of it.
Perhaps you should record it? That won't have any draw backs... Honest
I've never seen this happen myself, but a friend did mention something similiar happening to him a few years. I pooh-pooh'ed him at the time, but I'm guessing I was wrong..
I think you're on to something here, we should all mic up our ovens and record each time we use them, just incase this should happen Heck, we could even start webcams! Who needs to look at webcams of baby eagles when you could look at an oven!
Ah but we would probably need to shut down such service pretty soon as healthy officials will get alarmed by rapid increasing of overweigt in population
No no, putting the towel over the inside of the door when you pull it down. Just something I've been taught when you have food that is dripping with moisture as you pull it out --over the door-- to cool.
So you mean you put it between door and door frame so that oven is bit open? European oven doors have hinge mechanism that allows this without towel, or used to have before safety department did run over things
Ehhh. I can't believe I made this so confusing..... Here is simple explanation:
Open oven door.... it now lays flat. Lay towel on door covering the glass. As you take your food out, the towel prevents from any moisture dripping down directly onto the glass.
All to do with sudden change in temperature of the glass from expansion (thermal shock). Never thought I'd be talking about ovens here, I give up.
In glass, damage can accumulate. Small hits appear to have no effect, but there is damage, invisible to the naked eye. The glass may break at a later time, after what seems to be a light bump.
Oven doors are from hardened glass, which has an internal tension. The tension is intentional (caused by the production process). This makes the glass extra rigid, and when it breaks it will shatter into relatively harmless "crumbs". This tension also makes the breaking extra spectacular.
No I didn't let harjun touch my oven. And even if I did, ovens don't need thermal paste anyway. I can't imagine what one would achive with a 300 degree oven anyway. I'm not about to go into brick manufacturing.