JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We have new information in our investigation involving glass oven doors literally shattering.
Since our story aired last week, we’ve heard similar situations from other viewers and found out about hundreds of cases being reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
New pictures of ovens left in pieces were sent to us from viewers around Northeast Florida.
One viewer explained that her mother “just turned the oven on to preheat, then BOOM! the oven door and oven were no more.”
Alicia Baker told News4Jax that her oven was on self-cleaning mode when it exploded.
“I hear my husband downstairs go, ‘The oven exploded,’” said Baker. “I went rushing down the stairs, and when he said that, I was picturing that it had exploded and it went to the next room. And I was really concerned because we do have dogs. I was concerned about their safety because they don’t know not to rush to something like that.”
RELATED: Is your oven an explosive appliance?
We’ve now heard back from the CPSC on its records, and from 2015 to 2018, it received more than 700 complaints of oven doors shattering or “exploding.” In some cases, people we’re injured enough to have to receive stitches.
Jason Haraldsen, a physicist at the University of North Florida, says these incidents likely occur when heat is combined with microfractures in the oven’s glass.
“And those are really, tiny micro-sized cracks. You can’t see it with the naked eye, and it could be there, and most people wouldn’t notice it,” said Haraldsen.
He says those cracks can occur when moving an oven or slamming the oven door on a rack.
Even though there have been hundreds of reports, the CPSC says they have not issued recalls or warnings in recent years.
“There are standards in place for consumer products that use glass which should lead to the glass breaking into nuggets and not shards, if the product shatters,” said CPSC.
Essentially what the CPSC is claiming: Tempered glass will cause less harm if it breaks, but if it does happen to you, they want to hear from you. You can report it at saferproducts.gov.