4 ms·

Makes sense that it would be hottest directly near the flame source - the low conductivity assures that. I’m sure this would be clear if I tried it. Some in th

Makes sense that it would be hottest directly near the flame source - the low conductivity assures that. I’m sure this would be clear if I tried it. Some in the glass community cook in 110 mm tubes of Pyrex at parties. This is also a commercial product (baking cylindrical loaves!). The tubes are rotated like a rotisserie, and the glass is very thin. It works quite well, but we don’t tend to do this outside of glassblowing camp. As far as the thickness, the glass pans are much thicker than typical metal pans, probably for that reason as well as many others. I have some metal pans that are maybe 2mm and they are awful about hot spots. I think the glass pans are about twice as thick as my cast iron Dutch oven, but we’d have to measure. I think the worst aspect is chipping - one chip and the whole thing should be thrown away (one could flamepolish and anneal it, but that’s unlikely for consumers).

nate_meurer 8y ago
Interesting. I love glass blowing. Maybe I'll learn about it some day. Borosilicate and aluminosilicate cookware is actually pretty tolerant of chipping, because pieces tend to be thoroughly annealed. Tempered soda-lime, on the other hand, is not, so it has tremendous internal stress that makes it much tougher than borosilicate, but once it does chip it's liable to shatter explosively. Like Prince Rupert's drops. Hey, you want to see something cool? You'll appreciate this since you work with the stuff. Go to 2 min 45 sec in the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs. High speed video of one of these things exploding. Kinda blew my mind.
- code_duck 8y ago
  PR drops are definitely fun! You can make them easily with a torch, some glass and a bow of water. The problem with chips in a lid is that they will slowly expand over time, likely leaving debris in food. It can also lead to sudden unexpected failure as glass gets much weaker once chipped or scored, especially combined with moisture. I don’t discard lids immediately either, but the manufacturers do suggest it for those reasons. Definitely not like tempered glass, you’re right! Tempered glass is safer in how it break into those little square pieces - much less likely to lacerate than long jagged shards, in many applications (shower doors for instance). I had a tempered safety glass oven door shatter suddenly one day - apparently this happens fairly often?

nate_meurer 8y ago

Interesting. I love glass blowing. Maybe I'll learn about it some day. Borosilicate and aluminosilicate cookware is actually pretty tolerant of chipping, because pieces tend to be thoroughly annealed. Tempered soda-lime, on the other hand, is not, so it has tremendous internal stress that makes it much tougher than borosilicate, but once it does chip it's liable to shatter explosively. Like Prince Rupert's drops. Hey, you want to see something cool? You'll appreciate this since you work with the stuff. Go to 2 min 45 sec in the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs. High speed video of one of these things exploding. Kinda blew my mind.

code_duck 8y ago
PR drops are definitely fun! You can make them easily with a torch, some glass and a bow of water. The problem with chips in a lid is that they will slowly expand over time, likely leaving debris in food. It can also lead to sudden unexpected failure as glass gets much weaker once chipped or scored, especially combined with moisture. I don’t discard lids immediately either, but the manufacturers do suggest it for those reasons. Definitely not like tempered glass, you’re right! Tempered glass is safer in how it break into those little square pieces - much less likely to lacerate than long jagged shards, in many applications (shower doors for instance). I had a tempered safety glass oven door shatter suddenly one day - apparently this happens fairly often?