Corelle Brands review: explosive plates & bowls / injury, blindness, & death 69

I had two dirty plates and miscellaneous items in the dishwasher from the night before. The next morning, I heard a strange "pop" and a thingling sound but had no idea what it was until I went to put more dishes in the dishwasher to find one of the Corelle plates had completely shattered sending extremely sharp shards all over the dishwasher. I was totally confused but Googled "exploding Corelle" and found so many examples of this happening. Who knew? Crazy. Since I've had these plates for about twenty years, they have served their time and I'm getting rid of the other seven plates. I had my two small grandchildren here and can't imagine how this might have been if the plate was sitting on the counter.

Just an hour ago my wife and I and several of our kids were in the kitchen preparing a meal. Suddenly an explosion sounded from the cupboard followed by tinking noises of pieces of glass falling all over the counter top and floor since the cupboard door was open. Thankfully nobody was injured as my wife's face was a mere 2 feet directly in front of the plate in the cupboard. We found a platter had spontaneously shattered while stacked atop another platter. Nothing had touched it, nothing was stacked on top of it, nothing was causing any movement, vibration, or anything else that could possibly explain it. This platter simply shattered into a few big chunks with many shards of glass sent flying in all directions. To further add to the frustration we had just finished spending 30 minutes preparing a meal for starving children which was ruined as it was on the counter just outside and below the cupboard. We had to evacuate the children from the area, move all the other dishes from the cupboard to the dishwasher, painstakingly wipe down every surface in the kitchen, and mop the floor because these tiny shards are to small to see and this is the safest way to clean up. Now what do we do?...risk this happening again?...what if it injures someone? We can't afford to just throw out all our dishes and buy new ones!

unpacked my dishwasher and a bowl splintered into two large and many little pieces. Some of shards got into drain pipe of dishwasher and now it needs fixing.

At college, my son was laying in bed in the middle of the night in his efficiency apartment, when he heard a a loud CRACK that woke him up. He thought someone inside the building had shot a gun. Frightened, he got up to investigate. He found that the sound had come from one of the Corelle dishes that he had washed earlier and laid out to dry on the counter. It had spontaneously exploded! Two days later, he said he is still freaked out! I had given him my old set of Corelle when he moved from home and purchased a new set for myself. The old set is approximately 12-15 years old.

We have been using our Corelle dishes for many years. Some of the same pattern came from my mother's house, who died 26yr ago. So it is safe to say some might be over 30yr old. We have traveled over 360, 000 miles in 2 motor homes, cruised thousands of miles in our boats, and use at home every meal. We had one dish explode while sitting on an electric stove burner that had been left turned on by error several years ago. We obviously blamed ourselves for that. But last night we had completed dinner and were sitting at the table talking when my (husband) plate exploded into thousands of pieces right in front of me. The plate had a small amount of uneaten food in its center and had not been touched for several minutes. I had shrapnel imbedded in my lined flannel shirt, in my lap, across the dining room, and across the carpeting. It took an hour to pick up larger pieces, brush, vacuum, and wipe away the slivers of material, some only dust sized. This shattering could have happened while serving the plate, or carying it to the table, or while eating. How can we ever trust this dinner ware again?

Pictures for previous comment.

I thought I was losing my mind until I decided to google Corelle exploding. I was getting a plate to serve and I took one from the cabinet and put it down on the countertop ( not even dropping, just putting it down). It literally exploded all over my roast chicken, my vine grape leaves wraps, mashed potatoes, beans. It went everywhere. It wasn’t an exaggerated when I say I literally had to vacuum the entire kitchen and still find sharp breakings days later.

Hi! Add us to the list of plates breaking into a gazillion small, sharp pieces that shatter/fly in all directions near and far. Both times this past year it was when someone’s grip slipped getting the plate from the cabinet and it landed on the granite countertop. I understand that things will break in certain circumstances, but my issues with these is how they break (Sharp countless pieces that even stuck into my kitchen wall backsplash grout!) and how dangerous it is. The cleanup process took me and two other adults at least an hour of combing every surface within a 15-20 foot perimeter. We had to move appliances clean out drawers And cabinets and beneath (when we opened up drawers little pieces fell off the little lip edges), and the floor we swept with a broom, then a vacuum, then with a wood floor stick and Bona at least threes times. They landed in our utensil holders, condiment caddy’s, plant’s... you name it! It was awful! I would rather buy plates that chip and crack then deal with that again!

I have two sets of Correlle (golden wheat pattern) about 40 years old. No issues until tonight. I dished up a hot casserole into a clean bowl taken direct from the cupboard. The bowl shattered into about twelve pieces as soon as the hot food cane in contact with the bottom of the bowl. Luckily the broken pieces were fairly large. The hot food hit my hand and most of the broken bowl ended up on the counter. The pieces that dropped to the floor were somewhat cushioned by the food, so didn't shatter further. I hope I found all the pieces. After reading all these posts, I'm a little worried. I like the dishes because they are lightweight and easy to clean, but if the internal structure of the glass has lost integrity and morphed into something dangerous, it's time to get rid of them.

My 4 years old Corelle bowl was just washed in tap water and left to dry on the rack for about 30 minutes. Heard a loud snap and noticed a bowl in the middle of some bowls had snapped into half. Missing bits from the corner I’ll now have to hunt for them. I’m always very careful and gentle with the bowls.
From my understanding, these bowls are made from glass instead of the usual ceramic, and in order to make it strong, they use a tempering technique, where the exterior of the glass is cooled and hardened before the interior does, so it creates a lot of internal tension which actually strengthens the bowl, that is until there is a flaw, like a microscopic scratch or a crack, then everything goes into a rapid disassembly, in other words explodes.
When I tried to match the 2 pieces together, they fit perfectly in the middle, but not along the edges of the bowl. Shows how much tension there is in the structure. I’m thinking of getting rid of all my Corelle stuff now after reading all the other stories.

I just have a plate explode in the microwave. Very bizarre.

I'll add to the disturbing stories here: Last night I put a Corelle plate on an electric burner on my range to heat the plate up a bit before plating food; I've never done this before with these plates, but didn't expect what happened shortly after I jacked up the temp on the burner (should not have done that, admittedly) to hasten the warming. I had just plated the food, when there was a LOUD bang and the plate literally exploded all over the kitchen into both large and small shards. Fortunately, I was not in the way (a miracle, really), and there were glass shards everywhere. It was quite the mess.

Interestingly enough just last week I watched a show on PBS' NOVA exploring materials; among other things they showed interesting things about glass and how glass behaves. They showed what happens when hot molten glass is placed on a tempered glass sheet. Not long after the hot blob was placed on the glass, the entire sheet shattered. I believe what happened last night was a similar phenomenon that is common to tempered glass.

I was in the kitchen after dinner and had not cleared the dishes. I heard a crashing sound, but I did not know where it came from so I thought I imagined it. Later on, I walked past the table again and saw that a bowl I had used at dinner was shattered. No one had touched it or had gone near it since dinner, but it was broken so that must have been the sound I heard earlier.

I just googled "Corelle plates exploding" and came across this site. Last week a Corelle plate exploded with a sandwich on it. The plate was in my hand when this happened, and it was room temperature. I just took the sandwich out of the fridge. Pieces went flying in the air and ended up all over the kitchen floor. I could not believe what was happening. Pictures of the aftermath are attached. I had cleaned up the mess on the floor before I even thought to take them. I have offered the plate and remnants to Corelle, so we'll see what they say.

Just had a fairly new (we have had them almost exactly 2 years, bought new) plate completely shatter into a gazillion tiny SHARP shards when dropped from the height of a 5 or 6 year old holding it at about chest height. (my short for his age 7 year old was carrying it) It spread thru the hallway and into a nearby room as well as part of the livingroom near the hall. My son has a small cut in his foot, but luckily that is it (we picked him up and removed him from the shards immediately) but it could have been much much worse.

I love the weight and easy storage of Corelle. I have had a set for about 20 years. Once many years ago I sat a plate on a solid surface stove (stove was off, but still warm) and the plate exploded. I blamed myself for that. Recently, however, there have been two times when a plate was placed in the sink and left overnight. Nothing sitting on them and no temp changes. But in the morning, a broken plate in the sink. Now not loving these quite so much.