@sjhockey: The surprise is (a) that it shatters without any apparent reason, and (b) that it doesn't just break. If you wake up at night because your shower door explodes with a loud bang, or a shelf that you touch with a damp sponge explodes into thousands of tiny pieces flying for 15 feet and 8 feet high and showering you, you might find it a wee bit unusual. Granted, the pieces are not as sharp as regular glass, but they were still sharp enough to cause numerous cuts and get stuck in my legs.
The strange thing is that it was like a time warp, with what seemed like pieces flying for a while, so I ducked and closed my eyes. I also had to dive for the stupid dog, who always hangs around waiting for things falling of the counters, to stop her from gobbling them up

Here is a link that might be useful: video

This post was edited by nosoccermom on Thu, Jun 5, 14 at 17:08

Well, when my espresso machine exploded, I had just turned my head to look at a noise out the window. But that's one of my long, (I think, hilarious) stories.

I thought tempered glass didn't really break unless you tapped it on its edge!?!

How's the dog?

So sorry that happened. At least GE isnt going to quibble with you about it, and hopefully it arrives sooner rather than later.

Hope your pup is okay.

The dog is not traumatized. She's used to being dragged away from yummy looking stuff. Of course, also oblivious that this may have been her last supper. She's a hunting dog, who unfortunately doesn't get to hunt, so the loud bang and crackling only made her more interested. But who knows what goes on it that dog brain?

Rear windows of Broncos also have a reputation for doing that I unfortunately had to learn.

Automotive glass isn't bad though--I assume shower doors are also safety glass?

On the bright side, at least the dog didn't eat much glass?

Never mind.

This post was edited by IowaCommute on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 1:21

Auto safety glass and tempered glass are two different things.

I had this happen to one of our cafe style drinking glasses about six months ago. Luckily, it was in the dishwater and that contained most of the exploded bits. However, I started thinking about a glass exploding on one of my young kids....I put them all in the garbage can that day and purchased real glass drinking glasses. Lesson learned.

So sorry that this happened to you, OP.

" put them all in the garbage can that day and purchased real glass drinking glasses"

What do you mean "real" drinking glasses?

Nosoccermom,
I'm glad you did not sustain serious injury.
With the injuries you got plus all the broken stuff you already had on that refrigerator, GE should have just delivered a new refrigerator to you.

They offered a discount on another fridge.

Wow- that is quite scary! Glass is glass but obviously should not shatter whole just doing almost nothing!
I have an elux and frequently clean the shelves - guess I better pull out my safety glasses for the next round.

Husband tried to help me by wiping up a mess on the bottom of our Frigidaire refer ... he said he touched the shelf with a sponge and it exploded ... very scary for him as he was 'just trying to help'

Geeze!! And here I was considering a glass paneled staircase. That's SO scary!!

Yikes, this is not the post I needed to see when I have to clean the fridge tonight. (And it's a french door GE lol)
I do need to scrub the shelves but I'll be paranoid and wear safety glasses and shut the dog in the bedroom ;)

I just read your fridge incident and saw the video about the glass table shattering. Very scary! How has everything been with your fridge since that happened?

The sliders for the bins and bins are very inferior plastic material and are partially broken. As far as cleaning glass shelves --- I don't :) Seriously, very, very carefully. I don't take them out anymore.

BERNIE

THIS HAPPENED TO US TWICE WITH OUR WHIRLPOOL REFRIGERATOR-- ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO AND 3 DAYS AGO AGAIN. THE LAST TIME WE ORDERED A NEW PIECE OF GLASS FOR $28.00 --NOW THE PRICE IS AROUND $80.OO WITH SHIPPING

I WENT TO LOWES ANDHAD A PIECE OF LEXON CUT TO FIT THE OPENING. IT

WILL NEVER BREAK. THE PRICE WAS AROUND $35.00.

In my 50+ years of being a 'housewife/homemaker', I have never heard of such a thing! It's horrific as well as damn scary! I've always used a wet cloth/sponge to clean, and have even sprayed Windex directly on the shelves. I was going to clean my fridge last week but didn't have time, now i'm scared straight! Don't have safety glasses, so will wear my glasses thst do not have glass lenses.

Add me to the people now afraid to clean the fridge! This is really scary- I never knew.

Wow my tempered glass to my fridge just exploded in my hands. I too looked this up to see if it has happened to others. I have a whirlpool side by side fridge freezer and I had taken all shelves and glass out to wipe down. While finishing wiping down the inside of fridge I went on to do shelves crisper veggie/ me eat tray and when I was finishing my fourth piece of tempered glad it blew up in my hands. Tiny prices shattered up to 8 feet including it the air landing on window sill stove dish drainer counters floor.

I understand it's designed to shatter into small pieces but it should not explode causing small cuts on arms face and legs very alarmed. What should I do besides contact whirlpool?

Are you injured? Had they warmed to room temperature and it still happened?

I thought the purpose of tempered glass was to keep the glass from flying - shattering it into a broken sheet that stays together, not flies around.

This just happened to me at my 1 year olds birthday party!! GE Monogram Fridge. I was pulling something out and the shelf combusted and glass flew EVERYWHERE. I had over 10 toddlers here that could have been near when this happened. I had shards of glass all over my body, easily could have been in my face. I am so upset by this. if i had of been holding my baby like i usually am when we are looking to cook her food she would have been seriously hurt. No one is helping me from Appliance place i purchased and GE has been no help. My Fridge is less than a year old.

I also own a GE side by side refrigerator. . I was cleaning it out and took out the glass shelf over the crisper. As I was about to rinse it ( did not even touch the water yet,) it exploded. My kitchen and my shirt were covered in glass. Glass flew about 12-15 feet. I was luckily not injured. When I called GE to replace it, they sent the wrong size. When I called them, they said it was the wrong parts number and mind was special order. I had to send the other part back, at my expense. The next one would not arrive for a month. Then when it didn't arrive, a lady said because it was special order, it took longer. (They already said that a month before.) I waited two more months. No shelf. I called them again and after a woman searched for my order, said they didn't make them anymore and someone should have called me. They finally refunded my money (just for the part.) this was three months!!

i also had a Pyrex glass baking dish explode several years ago as I was taking it out if the oven. I did get some minor cuts from that not to mention hot food all over. Be careful of these tempered glass items.

This just happened to me too.. I have a whirlpool fridge with the glass shelves. I am taking it out to wash with soap and water and as I'm taking it out of fridge it exploded into million pices if square glass pieces..I didn't drop or tap it on anything .. it was in my hands when it just started breaking.. I did get cut but not too bad but the mess is astonishing..

Same thing happened to me- glass in my eye even. Sears has never heard of this happening. I learned it is "cut glass" which I will NOT put back in our fridge ever again. I had to clean because raw chicken juice leaked on it. Like you, I did not use hot or even warm water. It was full dried and was like 20 or 30 minutes after being out of fridge when I picked up (it hit nothing), just holding in my hands getting ready to put back in fridge and it exploded everywhere cutting my hands and leaving a huge mess that took me hours to clean up, glass continuing to pop on the ground like with your glass. I am trying to find wire or a safe glass (plexi glass?) to put in the fridge. Do not care how it looks, just want that never to happen again!

I am a little late to reply, but since this thread has been going on for some time...

NEVER use wire glass in any safety application. Wire glass is not a safety product and is actually very weak and not safe to use pretty much anywhere. the stuff is flat out dangerous and has been restricted or even banned in many areas and applications.

If you want to avoid tempered glass in your refrigerator shelves then use laminated glass instead. Laminated glass meets the applicable codes and it is much safer than tempered glass for most applications.

Laminated glass is not appropriate to use for oven door or anywhere involving high heat however.

You local glass store should be able to get you the appropriate laminated glass to replace the tempered.

Plexiglass (acrylic) or Lexan (polycarbonate) can also be used in some applications to replace tempered glass, with the understanding that any plastic is going to scratch a lot easier than glass and will look pretty bad in a relatively short time.

We had Corelle dishes until a plate exploded. Shards everywhere and some were sharp. Two years later bits were still occasionally turning up from I don't even know where. Nope, not keeping those in the kitchen.

exploded before I could send it down

Just happened to mine

eded .

This happen to my GE refrigerator shelf as well got many cuts on hands and feet how do I contact the company to order a replacement I live in Trinidad and Tobago. And can the other glass shelves shatter too?

Top shelf in a brand new Samsung just shattered. I simply opened the door and it exploded, glass fell/flew throughout the fridge. A very scary& exhaustive experience. Intend to followup w/the manifacturer!(Fridge is less than a month old) Scary!

Ive had Two shelves explode on seperate occassions for no reason. ive had the fridge around 5 years and thought we were just unlucky the first time it happened but after being out shopping yesterday, i came home to a fridge full of glass. its so strange that this can just happen without being knocked or anything. 🤔

I have a brand new frige not even have much inside and freezer glass shelf exploded

My Sears fridge shelf just exploded on my daughter last night. Exactly as you all describe it. Fridge is 6 years old. She took the glass shelf that goes over the drawers out, laid it gently on the counter, walked away (thank goodness) and as she stepped away it shattered - 8 feet in the air with shards flying 15 feet away. Most of it was little cubes of glass, but there were enough sharp shards to literally kill somebody. We cut wood to fit the shelf. Will paint it thickly so we can wipe it and it won't absorb spills. No more glass for us.

Go to your local glass shop and order a sheet of laminated glass to use as your shelf. Laminated is what's in your car windshield and it doesn't break into tiny pieces like tempered.

Among other applications, building codes are changing to require laminated rather than tempered glass for high rise balcony railings for that reason.

I have a new GE refrigerator that I bought less than a year ago. This happened to me tonight. I’ve been cleaning glass refrigerator shelves for decades. NEVER had this happen before. It exploded with multiple popping sounds as the shelf completely disintegrated. Pieces flew into living room at least 15 feet away. What a mess! Even worse, I never realized this could even happen.

Same here!

My fridge was 10 years old and the main glass shattered for no reason.

Last night my husband and I were cleaning the shelves on our two-year-old GE refrigerator. He took a shelf to the sink to wash it, and before he put any water on the glass, it shattered, sending tiny pieces of glass throughout the kitchen. It was quite a mess! It took us hours to clean it all up. A Google search led me here, because he didn't know that it could happen. After reading all the comments, I'm not sure we want to replace it with glass - we'll probably get plexiglass or something similar, unless GE offers to send a replacement shelf for free.

Terrifying! I wonder if this happened to glass appliance parts and household objects when everything was made in America?

It is terrifying because it randomly shoots shards of glass everywhere. So glad my grandchildren and our pets were not underfoot as they normally would have been

Almost exactly the same thing happened to me except I did use a pretty warm wet sponge to get sticky syrup off my glass. It did not hit anything. Glass shattered into thousands of pieces. Thankfully I wasn't cooking because these pieces went flying everywhere. Its common to need very warm water to clean a refrigerator. GE should not have such sensitive glass. Somebody could easily receive a dangeroys eye injury.

Just happened to me. The worse part is I am on blood thinners and not sure how to get this cleaned up. Glass had been out of fridge over hour before I picked it up to move to sink. Have a few small cuts from it exploding. I was just placing on top of sink and it blew no water had touched it.

Same here! Mine exploded at 1am. I thought someone broke into my house.

GE tempered glass shelf exploded on me too, but while inside the refrigerator! I had the door open for about 5-10 minutes as I was rearranging items and as I placed a small bottle on the glass shelf, it literally combusted as if hit with a sledgehammer. I would not believe it if it didn’t happen to me. Glass went everywhere, cut my hand, and I spent an hour sweeping and vacuuming and I still can’t get it of it. This is incredibly dangerous and happened without any warning. Be careful - I think it has something to do with temperature change of the glass (removed from refridgerator or door open for period of time). Google search led me here, I couldn’t believe it.

Same thing bappened to me!!! i just took it out of the fridge ans set it down wjen the thing exploded!

my Samsung fridge is like 18 months old. I took out the shelves and set them in the sink the empty sink. The SECOND the shelf touched the sink, it EXPLODED.

I don’t mean that it cracked or shattered. I mean it EXPLODED. Thank goodness I was wearing my glasses or I would probably be blind right now. The tiny bits of glass got all over me, my clothes, my hair, and my kitchen. So, I had to clean up the kitchen. Then, I had to strip off my clothes because I didn’t want to shed bits of glass throughout the house and go STRAIGHT to the shower to get the glass out of my hair.

Honestly, this is INSANE!!! Below here you can see the sides of the shelf and most of the glass that I swept off the floor. (please disregard the dog hair).