The glass panel on our kitchen exhaust fan exploded today with a loud bang and with such a force that the laminate floor underneath it got a few dents and small shards of glass flew 10 ft and ricocheted off the walls. Explosions like this one are potentially lethal; luckily, no one was in the vicinity at the moment and I still have both eyes.







Looks like it exploded on its own. Only one gas burner on minimal setting was used at the time. The motor, the body of the exhaust were cold. After the explosion it works normally, as it's supposed to. A manufacturing defect?

The glass broke into pieces of all sizes: from large chunks to tiny fragments and dust. It took about four hours to clean the kitchen and the adjacent room of all the glass dust.

Can I make the vendor or the manufacturer pay for a replacement exhaust fan and for new floor? Could FTC help here? Would appreciate any suggestion. Thanks, h.

 

You should be able to search to see if there have been similar reports on that fan unit. But at some point you will need to talk to both the mfg and the vendor to see how much they will get involved. Keep notes and copies of all communications. In most warranty wording they disclaim any related damage, but CA may do things differently.

Now, I have had experiences with safety glass, those little pieces say that is what it was. Anything from a scratch, a defect, or simply being clamped in too tightly can result it breaking and sometimes violently.

As for damage beyond just getting a new fan, contact your home insurance company. For one, they have access to a lot of damage information, but they may cover extended damage and then go after the mfg. A lot boils down to dollar amount and your deductible.

Bud

 

It is possible that the screws attaching the cover to the fan were too tight or the fan housing slightly distorted putting pressure on the glass.
It is highly unlikely the glass broke without there being any instigating force.

The same thing happened in my workplace to a neon tube that was improperly installed.
The person installing it thought that it would be ok to slightly shift tube to line up and rest against an opening.
It took a few weeks for the tube to "spontaneously" shatter.

 

Bud, Greg, thanks for the responses. The fan was installed two-three years ago. If the screws might have been too tight? Hard to tell, don't think so, the glass was heavy and sat on the housing by itself, no need in much tightening, just enough to secure it.

 

This happened to me. Kenmore Elite glass oven door exploded spontaneously. I reported the problem as a safety issue, but I was not reimbursed for the new door.
I was OK with that, my main goal was to report the safety issue.

I forget who, but someone on this forum knew quite a bit about glass. Apparently, there are flaws in the manufacturing process that cause this to happen. From what I remember, the flaws are undetectable, even by the manufacturer.

And of course, like mentioned, if any screws were over tightened or gaskets/cushions were missing, it's an accident waiting to happen.

 

Thanks Handyone. I doubt I tightened the screws more than necessary. That glass had a curve on it, which probably means locked in tension and strain.

What I've found is that the housing surface the glass sat on has two unfiled, sharp edged burrs that stick out of the surface more than 1/32".





This is how the housing parts were welded together. The glass at some point, due to padding wear or something like this, might have come in contact with the burrs. The burrs are symmetrical and only in the front, which is consistent with the after-explosion pictures of the glass.

 

Common Causes of Spontaneous Breakage | Glass Education Center by PPG

Above is an interesting link from PPG regarding how glass can spontaneously explode. The article refers to architectural glass, but the same principal applies.
Read the part about the tempering process.

 

Thanks for the link. Was wondering if what I have experienced could also be called "breakage". It felt more like an explosion sending glass shards and glass dust around the kitchen.

 

Regular glass will break, but tempered glass will, by design, sound like an explosion as all the energy in the tempering process is released in less than a second. You will note the shards of glass are not sharp and hold some form and shape once the dust settled. It is also by design. You can bang on tempered glass in the middle and it will most likely not break. But if you tap on a corner of the glass with a light metal object like a pocket knife, and it will break into a kazillion pieces.

 

Yes, you experienced "breakage".
Like I said, I reported my incident but I doubt anything will ever be done, or can be done to prevent the explosions.
I would "assume" it's a rare event, considering all the glass appliances out there.

 

Thanks again! Well, yes, the seller refuses to have anything to do with the explosion. However, they sent us the "certificate" as a pdf from the manufacturer. It looks quite fishy to me. First, it was created July 8, 2016, 7:45 pm -- more than six hours into the future from when it was received. (This, of course, could be due to Adobe Acrobat showing the time of creation in local time etc.) Second, it has traces of editing right in the document. What kind of certificate is it, if it can be edited by the manufacturer or seller? Third, this "certificate" neither names any certifying authority, nor involves any third party at all. Fourth, what is the date of the inspection/certification? Please see the photos. I believe we haven't been heard out by the seller so far, mostly ignored. It's really confusing, are "certificates" like this one normal? Thanks, h.

 

Just the fact that I see Chinese (?) writing on the cert. tells me it's worthless. Chalk it up to chance and buy a replacement glass from a reputable glass dealer.