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It’s 2am and I am lying in bed half asleep as it’s a hot night then I hear a high pitch sound followed by an explosion. Then I hear crackling in the bathroom and find the shower door glass had exploded! Bits of glass everywhere. Google shows it’s not an unusual thing to happen but frightening nonetheless and grateful that no one was in it at the time. It was a curved door.
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Happened to me last year when I took the shower door off to refit.
It cut my legs in places. Glass was thrown 10 feet away in every direction. Still find the odd glass fragment in hard to reach parts. Scared the sh!t out of me when it happened, and it was a right royal palaver to clear up.
It’s not that common, you’ve been unlucky . There are tiny invisible flaws within toughened glass Called nickel sulphide inclusions which can cause this effect. The safest option is to fit a film to the glass to hold it together if this occurs.
Just curious, was the high pitch before it exploded the glass contracting or expanding which then causes it to explode?
Same thing happened to me in a hotel, it was one of those one-pieced hinge things that goes above the edge of the bath and I found it upon returning to my room.
I did get the impression from the staff that it wasn't the first time they'd had this happen.
R
My son has just started his second year apprentice as a plumber, he was asked to hold a glass roof window the other day from what I can tell it was a big triangular thing, he said he was just standing there holding it point down and it exploded. Gave him the fright of his life! His boss just laughed and said it happens with toughened glass.
A few years back, I fitted two large projects simultaneously with 12 mm toughened glass. One in Liverpool and one in Manchester.
Two different contractors but the glass was supplied by the same manufacturer. Over the following years there were a number of incidents where the glass was exploding. Sometimes it would be three a week , other times nothing for months. The job in Manchester has been almost totally removed and replaced with heat soaked glass ( which is far stronger than ordinary toughened) , the one in Liverpool is ongoing. They have manifestation on every panel which holds it all together but Im still called out to replace as and when they go.
The Mcr One is still subject to an investigation by the Glass and Glazing Federation and the HSE.
I do regularly get called to situations like this but it isn’t always attributed to the nickel sulphide. Most times it’s been caught , banged or slammed.
Very common and it happened to me too, while I was sitting on the loo next to the shower.
No high pitched noises, just the 'shotgun bang' when it exploded, followed by being hit with a very heavy shower of glass fragments on my head. Lucky really as I barely had a cut on me.
Inherent stresses within the glass from the toughening process is often the cause, along with a tiny defect/stress point of some sort.
I've seen it twice, once at home & once in a holiday Villa.
The one at home happened at some point over Christmas whilst we were away, so we thought we'd been burgled initially as glass was everywhere.
Weirdly we'd been using it for over 2yrs by this point and I'd have thought any such quality issues would've shown up earlier.
It was also a bit annoying that the warranty couldn't supply parts only a whole new unit so I have 3/4's of an enclosure sat in the shed.
Second one was in a holiday villa whilst my friends teenage daughter was in the shower, she almost got away with barely a scratch but panicked & jumped out, landing on the broken glass & cutting up here feet. At least it wasn't anything too serious.
We had it at work a huge roof light 30 ft up in a 2 year old building just exploded luckily no one was underneath
I had a similar thing happen with a curved glass cooker hood. We were still finding bits of glass weeks later.
One supplier told us that it was quite common but another said he had never heard of such a failure.
Same thing, curved glass door with rollers..
One of the rollers got stuck and I pulled the door.
I was actually naked on way in shower, was cut from head to toe. Pinched out glass shards from everything, from feet to forehead. Looked like grenade exploded in front of me. Truly frightening .
New shower has classic doors. No rollers, straight, it opens like doors on room.
The weakest point on toughened glass is the edge, the slightest tap can shatter the largest of panels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0LK1FoxfEEQuote:
Originally Posted by Saint-Just
Happened to the rear passenger side window of my car while driving down the motorway. One second everything was fine then a very loud bang and the back seat was littered with glass. Once again, if one starts searching google there appears to be many instances if the same happening... I was very glad the kids were not in the back seat at the time.
Do you have any film recommendations? We've a curved glass door over a bath that the kids love moving around....Quote:
Originally Posted by thegoat
Sorry, it’s not my area .Quote:
Originally Posted by poloman
You do want a moisture resistant one though for obvious reasons . I know a few people have applied their own without too much trouble . Just use plenty of spray on the film and the glass and you can lift it off as often as you like . I believe a window cleaners squeegee is ideal to flatten the bubbles especially on a curved door .
All good advice - I'll have a look through Amazon. Foolishly mentioned it to my wife and now the door is public enemy number one!
I do a few jobs for an elderly lady who is worth a small fortune, she called me a few weeks ago as her shower door needed repairing. When I got there it looked very much like the OP’s shower and she was very disappointed I couldn’t repair it. Since then she has called to say can I replace it and she has looked online and you can get them for less than a hundred pounds and it won’t take me long. Although I pointed out the previous installer had tiled one of the wall profiles in, so not a straight forward job. Needless to say I have avoided her recently.
Anyone fancies a job pm me and I will send you the details 🤣
Had many blow where I work, these are usually toughened / laminated units, so when they blow everything should stay in place, just looks a mess, pending on where they have gone it can cost thousands of pounds to replace with road closures, expensive lifters etc.
I currently need to raise quote request for at least five blown units off the top of my head.
Same thing happened to my nephew in the middle of the night couple weeks ago, funny thing is he had only just hung a new TV, he instantly ran though to the living room! Hahahaha
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I had the same with the rear glass in my car (Audi A4 Avant). No explanation, except some tension and a weak point...
I had a sunroof explode on me in an old company car whilst doing 70 down the motorway. Showered me in glass and scared the crap out of me.
It was a Vauxhall so I just put it down to their typical rubbish build quality so didn't think twice about it being something that could happen more commonly.