Your product is out of warranty - they're giving you the part for free, but not the labor - issues like this come up frequently - I'm not sure why people expect manufacturers to cover things out of warranty. It's true they don't make appliances like they used to but part of that is people expecting cheaper and cheaper prices - sadly you get what you pay for. While it might be true that another manufacturer might be better about this, if you check threads on this forum, you'll find that most won't.

That's indeed *scary*, and from what I've read, you're not alone (the rep even admitted it). Self-clean seems to be a Pandora's box. I'm getting an oven with no self-clean. Just think what it's doing to the electronics.

You might want to cut your losses and get a stove with no electronics.

How can they market something that has this defect in it?

You should know that it's just the nature of the beast. Glass sometimes breaks when subjected to high heat. I've known of car windshields to break when parked in the hot sun with all the windows rolled up. The tempered glass on one of my fireplace screen doors shattered from high heat. Tis the price you sometimes pay for the look of glass. Best bet is to get an oven with no glass. Or accept that sometimes this can happpen.

Well, it sounds like I'm over reacting.

I realize a warranty is a warranty, but I feel that oven glass should be made to withstand high temperatures, especially when the manual recommends cleaning for 3-5 hrs. But then, I'm no engineer and haven't a clue.

The least a mfg should do is put a disclaimer in the manual stating the possibility of breakage. I'm just glad it wasn't Thanksgiving day when it happened.

Wow Mark, I realize I can't hear your "tone," but "get over it" sounds awfully uncivil to me when the OP was just asking if she were overreacting. It was just a question. She wasn't ranting and raving. She was asking a question.

I also think that glass for an oven should be made to withstand high temperatures, and am surprised that the tech said this has happened before. It sounds dangerous. It almost sounds like grounds for a recall. But then, I guess it didn't explode and make a dangerous situation...

But the thing that really bugged me was that GE actually said "the tech would forfeit his pay for the service call." What?? It has an unsettling blackmailish sound to me. The tech assumes a one-on-one relationship with each service call such that his/her salary is determined by whether or not the consumer pays for the service? Is that typical???

:-O

francy

As a former scientific glassblower, I can tell you that it was NOT the high heat that caused the breakage. All glass breaks by concentrating stress on a weak point, typically a scratch. This scratch could have occurred during manufacturing, during assembly, shipping, or more than likely, during you use. It does not have to be a big scratch, an almost invisible one will do.

I have also seen this happen, with my own eyes. I was doing a catering gig in a church. They had a typical domestic range. We turned the oven on to 350 F to heat some appetizers. About 15 minutes later, when no one was within 10 feet of the range, the inner oven door shattered.

The only way to prevent this from happening is to eliminate windows from ovens.

As to being dangerous, I bet it shattered into hundreds of little pieces, right? That is safety or tempered glass, the best available choice for the job. The glass is designed to shatter that way, to be far less dangerous than a few big shards, like plain glass would do. And I bet the outer glass held, didn't it? So, no danger to anything, except possibly a roast in the oven.

Personally, I think GE is being fair replacing the glass at no charge, except for labor.

You're right, bayareafrancy, "get over it" was a bit over the top - or at least was open to misintepretation. I read the part where the OP expected GE to cover out-of-warranty repairs but missed the "am I making a big deal out of nothing part?". My fault for speed reading.

What I should have said was "Yes, you're overreacting. GE has more than fulfilled its obligations under your warranty." I'd stand by the rest except for that last sentence. My apologies to bedelia.

Better now?

We have a 16yr old Kenmore self-cleaner with a glass window. I love the fact that whatever spills in there can easily be cleaned up after the self-cleaning. The manual states you should clean the glass with a glass cleaner & paper towel. It says to never use oven cleaner in the oven. It highly recommends not using any kind of abrasive product on the glass & the seal around the oven door. Knock-on-wood, we've haven't had any problems. I hope the new glass they put in for you holds up for the life of the oven. Good luck!

Thank you Mark!

:-)

francy

Thanks for all of your comments.

In my search on the internet, there have been instances where the outside glass has exploded also, not to mention glass tops breaking. So I guess I am lucky.

I don't feel like I'm getting much of a bargain from GE, as my appliance store was going to charge $165 for both the part and labor. GE must have a huge markup compared to a store.

I still say they should put a disclaimer in their manual to warn the consumer of this hazard, whether it's due to a scratch or defect.

Hopefully, it'll hold up after replacement.

Funny, I was just reading numerous complaints about this same problem. We have a new GE dual fuel range (not installed yet) and I was beginning to think we had made the wrong choice.

Apparently, it can happen when the oven is cold too. See
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/sears-c15635.html

Apparently, the glass is not tempered glass. Sounds dangerous. See
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/caloric_heritage.htm
These are mixed complaints about GE products, many of which are about oven door glass spontaneously shattering.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/ge_ranges.htm

I had to recently replace a handle on the door of my oven, and in replacing it realized that replacing the glass would be quite simple. I actually did remove the glass and clean it so that I could finally get rid of a drip that had been bugging me since the first week I used it! So you might be able to replace the glass yourself, take a look at the repair manual (I found mine online) and you can see the exact construction of the door. You can determine from that whether it's beyond your capabilities or not.

Whaaa, it's not tempered?! I don't even understand that.

I'd look into what evaperconti suggested. I've taken the glass out of an oven door before, in my case to clean up drips I'd gotten between the two panes. Replacing oven glass is well within the capabilities of a do-it-yourselfer of even modest mechanical capabilities. $165 is a lot to spend on a task that probably won't take the service guy a half an hour. So do it yourself or find a friend willing to take it on.

By the way, on the tempered glass controversy, I'm sure it *is* temepered glass. Their are all kinds of references to shattered glass in ovens online and 99% of the refer to tempered. I'm sure code doesn't allow anything else.

... not to mention glass tops breaking.

Glass tops are a completely different material-they are a pyroceram, not glass.

GE must have a huge markup compared to a store.
Yep, GE is notorious for the cost of repair parts,

As to Apparently, the glass is not tempered glass. Sounds dangerous. See
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/caloric_heritage.htm Yes it was tempered glass. If it was untempered glass, there would have been at most a couple of dozen large shards, like a mirror breaking. As the complainant said "Almost immediately the black glass oven door exploded throwing glass everywhere in the surrounding area." indicating tempered glass. Tempered glass is often called safety glass, because the small particles are round-ish, not long jagged spears, and thus not dangerous.

I still say they should put a disclaimer in their manual to warn the consumer of this hazard, whether it's due to a scratch or defect.

Glass breaking?-seems pretty common sense to me, so a 'warning' seems a bit far fetched. And since no glass escaped he oven cavity, there was no hazard.

I know I am sounding cold, but that's not the case. Glass breaks, and while it was unfortunate that yours broke, that's all it is, an unfortunate event. It is not all that common an occurrence-if it were, the manufacturers would eliminate the glass. If you go through web site that chickadeed provided, you will find that in less than 8 years, there were 11 reports of Caloric glass doors breaking. Caloric must sell tens of thousands of ranges per year, so 11 complaints is not exactly a lot, especially as some ranges were 12 years old.

GE must have a huge markup compared to a store.
Yep, GE is notorious for the cost of repair parts

I'm not sure it's the cost of parts that is the problem here. I went on a couple of appliance parts site and it looks like list price for the inner glass is in the range of $60-$80 for most makes, including GE. In this case, the local guy wanted to charge $165, labor included. GE wanted $165 plus the part. The main rip-off here either way was in the labor costs for a job that should take under an hour for somebody who's done it before - whether it's $100 or $165 per hour for labor, that's a lot. It could be that GE just has one more level of mark-ups on the labor. Anyway, that's why I suggest do-it-yourself.

Once I found out the labor charge, I asked DH if we should do it ourselves. He wasn't keen on it for reasons I won't go into here.

Now if it were me alone, I would give it a try. But that's not the case.

Simple fix... Just don't buy GE again, if they don't give you the life you expect and the service you expect. I think they should stand behind a stove for at least 15 years perhaps 20 assuming there are no signs of abuse.

Wow. I came across this thread while trying to find out how or why my back door suddenly shattered. Aside from the shock of it, it turned out quite beautiful - and some people pay big bucks for that look!

I did find some of the first responses to be totally out of line, unwarranted, and sarcastic. No one likes to ask a simple question and get "attacked" for it. Bad form.

There are PLENTY of companies who do these types of repairs or replacements at no or low charge because they understand that it costs them far less to, for instance, replace a piece of glass, than it does to lose a customer for life.

If you had other quotes that were significantly less ($165 for the entire job and product included vs. $165 for GE's labor alone), then make sure the products and warranties are comparable to GE's and if they are, go with the less expensive quote.

Then, as you have done, lodge your experience online so others know how GE operates and buy your next appliance(s) from another company. It takes a long time, but eventually, GE will get the message - price fairly and satisfy the customer or lose that customer, and others who support that customer, altogether.

It's already working - I won't buy from GE solely because of this post.

Have owned a GE oven for about 2 weeks...only used it about 6 times when the oven door window shatters while making a casserole. Have spent over a week waiting for the replacement part and have had to eat out every day because GE said not to use the cook top. Not happy w/ this piece of trash appliance and will not buy anything from GE again.

I also have a shattered inner glass on my GE stove. My opinion where is the research and design on this product? Glass/heat should not break or they should have a solid door. Big mistake to by a glass door I guess as I never even look thru it. Solid door for me next time not GE. How long will the new one last, and again, you gotta be kidding me, POS.

My glass broke into forths. From that i would assume it is not tempered.

Shirley July 13, 2017

I have also complained to Mabe who supplies GE Appliances. My GE outer oven glass shattered after only having the stove for 2 years. I am awaiting to see if I will be compensated for the repair from the manager.

I was notified via email that there was a new posting on this topic. Didn't realize so many people commented on my original post. The glass was delivered free of charge and we did install it ourselves thanks to online instructions. GE never did bill us for the glass so in the end it all worked out. When I clean the oven now I only do it for an hour or so. Shirley - it is quite easy to install if you can get the glass.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE ADVICE. I AM STILL WAITING TO HEAR FROM THE GE MANAGER AS TO WHETHER THEY ARE GOING TO REPLACE MY GLASS FREE OF CHARGE

If I remember right, the glass would be free of charge if the tech installed it at $165. The glass was delivered to our house, but we never called the tech to fix it, and GE never charged us for it either.

We had only a year warranty, but it broke when it was self cleaning which in my mind shouldn't never happen. Good luck.

This information is so helpful...sitting watching TV and cooked in my GE stove around 2:00 pm and did use it but once today... it’s now 10:00 PM and my front oven glad just shattered all over the floor...never had that happen before...glass is everywhere! LJ

this just happened to me.. i used teh oven about three times and it is less than a year old and the glass just shattered over the floor.

If it's less than a year old I would think it's still under warranty

Yesterday, while baking bread at 425 degrees, the oven glass shattered in my 1 month old GE stove. It appears this has been going on for sometime, like 13 years??????

My 2 year old ge glass door shattered too on self clean. I was quoted $300 from ge for a new glass . She said the price is for a ’special’ glass. A special glass that shatters.. Not good ! Very unfair. Yes this is ridiculous ! There should be a class action suite . The manufacturers knew very well that they produced an inferior product .

There is a group exploring a class action lawsuit. https://www.classaction.org/oven-door-glass-shattering-lawsuits

Oven door glass is tempered glass which has some (rare) inherent instabilities, but that is outweighed by the safety aspect of it.

Spontaneous glass breakage

I was sitting with my grandmother having a snack at her kitchen table years ago. There was a loud POP. Took several minutes to locate the cause. A glass coffee mug in one of the cupboards had exploded.

The very same thing just happened to my 2 1/2 year old GE range! I am getting the part and yes, I will have to pay to have it installed. What I am not happy about is that this is DANGEROUS! When I heard the noise in my range, I opened up the door...thinking a mouse got in there or something and glass was flying around! It is miraculous that I wasn't hurt by flying glass. I would think that GE would be concerned about hurting someone....but no. Next stove...I will go Euro! At this moment I have 3 appliances all under the age of 3 that are broken. A Bosch dishwasher and the worst refrigerator of all times...SAMSUNG! In almost 70 years I have never seen a product this bad! We have given up USA quality. Very disheartening. These things are not cheap!

@mightylev, what leads you to believe that Euro-brands are not susceptible to spontaneous glass breakage?

I am surprised by the level of blasé attitude some writers offer in this thread. An oven door shattering is terrifying and should not happen. If the manufacturer knows this to be a common defect, then they need to address this through materials processing. Glass is a very well understood material which we've been perfecting for 2000 years. As a glass blower I know that there are times when materials are not stable because of processing or impurities in the glass, or what the glass is designed to do, but an oven door should be designed to withstand the high heats which we know it will encounter. It is not the same thing as taking a handblown wine glass and having it shatter in the dishwasher. We know the wine glass will shatter because it isn't made of glass that is able to withstand that kind of contraction and expansion. It is outrageous that GE would even suggest charging someone and treat this as a minimal inconvenience.

My oven door shattered 8 days after installing a brand new GE Cafe double oven. This is unacceptable, full stop. The glass dust which is now throughout the oven cannot simply be vacuumed away with any level of assurance that would ever make me think I could cook in the oven without glass dust circulating. Glass dust as small as .05µm is dangerous. That's like suggesting I should vacuum off the glass bench and be able to make a sandwich on it. This is absolutely outrageous.

If you are a glass blower, then you should understand that the door is most likely made from tempered glass. Tempered glass can resist high heat and is structurally very sound. It's a good choice for this type of application. But unfortunately, it also in rare cases can fail spontaneously. This is an occurrence that can't be avoided completely. And if you sell hundreds of thousands of units that might all have been mishandled in different ways during shipping, a small percentage is going to fail -- and you'll hear all about it, as people will report it in every available medium.

As for the glass dust, that is mostly an issue when you inhale it. It is very unlikely you'll inhale any significant amount, if you have otherwise made a best effort at cleaning the oven. There might be a tiny amount that you ingest, but that should be completely harmless; inhalation is very different from ingestion. And even then, I doubt it'll be more than a few micrograms at most. It is fine to be cautious, but you also need to understand the threat model.

People drop and break glass objects all the time in their households. Sucks when it happens. But after cleaning it up, you move on. An oven door isn't fundamentally different. If it really upsets you so much, you should buy a range with a solid metal oven door. These are less common, as most consumers wouldn't make the same trade-offs, but they do exist.

I read that the tempered glass is not as resilient as ceramic glass. No doubt this improvement might drive the prices up. Safety comes first. I could have gotten hit in the eye when I looked in to see what had happened...to find glass flying around in there. I filed a complaint report with the NYS Attorney General's Consumer Affairs. Change will need to come because of pressure.

This just happened

to me too!!! scary!

I have a frigidaire oven door shattered just out of blue tell pay for glass but I have pay for repair I want another oven without window to break not repaired for it to break again im scared to even have it fixed and use again what if your bending over to put something in oven and decides it wants to explode this is bullshit they should or somebody be sued before someone gets serious