Re: Glass refrigerator shelves and how they break into a gazillion tiny pieces

It's not because it's a Maytag, or that there was anything wrong
with the glass shelf.  It was tempered glass.  Tempered glass is
very strong -- you could bang a big heavy casserole down on it
without worrying about breaking it.  But it is very soft inside,
with a high-impact thin outside.  You can hit it with a hammer and
it will probably survive.  Scratch it a little and it shatters into
a million (* not a precise count) pieces.

If you accidentally bumped the edge or corner on something hard, it
would cause the glass to disintegrate as you described.  It's best to
handle tempered glass in a frame if possible.

SMS wrote:
I had a glass refrigerator shelf out for cleaning yesterday (one that fits over the vegetable bin drawer frame. I finished cleaning it, picked it up to place it aside so I could clean the frame, and the glass disintegrated into thousands of tiny pieces of glass, that flew all over the kitchen, and into other rooms.

I did a web search on this, and apparently it is a pretty common occurence. I wasn't using hot water or anything like that, just a sponge and cold water.

I replaced it with a piece of 3/16" plexiglass, which is fine for this shelf, but the other shelves are glued into plastic frames.

Anyone else have this happen. It's a Maytag refrigerator, about 6.5 years old. 
.

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