It sounds like you may have used a "newer" version of the Pyrex brand.

Even "America's Test Kitchen," a PBS cooking show which also does product testing said that the best place to buy Pyrex was at a local garage sale looking for the older models of measuring cups manufactured by Pyrex.

Outsourcing saved money; but lowered the quality of the product and the value of that household name in the process.

Luckily you were not hurt!

Thanks so much, Charles. I'm still upset, though, and I have a huge mess in my microwave (I'm not sure if it's damaged), and I'm on deadline today and tomorrow. This means I don't have time to clean it up and can't use my microwave. It just took me a bunch of time to cook crappy tasting kale on the stove. (It's my morning super-food but it tastes like ass if it isn't cooked in bacon grease -- but the grease from my morning bacon went into the Pyrex bowl...grrr...and then blew up.)

They were actually asked by the DEA to change their glass formula. The original products were extensively used to cook illegal drugs.

Amy, I'm not sure if older Pyrex will help. We had a very old pyrex glass dish explode on us in the 80's (it was traumatic - I was about 8).

I worked in a biology lab (read: we put Pyrex employees' kids through college). Every so often something would just explode - no microwave necessary. Mind, that would be about once every 5-8 years, but still.

Pyrex is great stuff.. until it explodes. When it does, it really sucks.

Microwave cleaning tip: Once you've as much of the glass out as possible, put in a bowl of water and boil it for about three minutes. The steam softens food in the interior and you can ptrett much wipe it clean. Follouw up with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and it will be as good as new.

About five years before reading a life changing Advice Goddess blog on low-carb diet, I baked a potato casserole in a Pyrex dish. When it was done I set it on a counter and walked into another room to chat with some guests, and it exploded. Pieces of it struck every wall and the ceiling in the kitchen.

My 3 year old charcoaled some popcorn in our micro a few months ago. It took MONTHS for the smell to clear out,and I never could get the stains off no matter what I did. AT least Pyrex doesn't smell, hopefully.

Yeah, the hot water trick is a godsend. I'll tell you another thing you never want to do - drop a Corelle bowl on a tile floor. It didn't just break, it EXPLODED. Everywhere. Luckily it was empty but still, I was finding pieces of it for DAYS.

Daghain,

Why do you say never? Sounds like the perfect thing to do if you don't like some one... unless they have kids. Then the perfect thing is to bring over lots of glitter.

LOL! I guess I should have said, "Never do when YOU have to clean it up"

My exploding Pyrex experience was baking a ham in a dry glass pan. I set the ham on a slightly cold, damp heat pad. I had a perfectly ham shaped Pyrex that was tow pieces.

The rest looked like Amy's pic.

Dumped the ham into a second Pyrex with some syrup. Served a T-Day ham and turkey, no problem. Guests never caught on.

Paratropper:

They were actually asked by the DEA to change their glass formula. The original products were extensively used to cook illegal drugs.

Don't think so. They still make laboratory glass out of the old Pyrex - which is what druggies would use.

It's simple greed.

Real Pyrex is a high-silica glass with very low thermal shock (that is, it doesn't expand and contract very much based on heat/cold).

But it takes higher temperatures to melt.

So now they use regular soda-lime glass, and temper it (tempering = chilling the glass immediately after forming it, so the outer surface shrinks. This sets up stress that toughens the glass).

This is how tough glass dishes like French Duralex are made. And for tableware it does work.

Well-tempered auto and window glass also falls into cubes when shattered, rather than dangerous slivers.

Unfortunately the microwave or set-hot-dish-on-counter scenarios involve a large temperature gradient = explosive stresses.

People that bring glitter to my house deserve to be tied to a chair, naked and covered with honey, and set on top of a fire ant mound.

momof4,

I know how you feel, but the ants here don't sting so I'm left with the best recourse of taking glitter to the offender's house (also, those teensy tiny beads for making jewelry).

Last year, Grandma sent finger paints. I told her I'd make sure to bring them whenever we visit.