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Maybe I'm in the minority but we (and everyone else we seem to interact with) use pyrex.
by nervousvarun 3y ago
Maybe I'm in the minority but we (and everyone else we seem to interact with) use pyrex.
- gumby 3y agoDishes marketed under the Pyrex name are no longer borosilicates. The brand name was sold off (and in fact the company that bought it was recently discussed in HN as they also bought Instant Pot, and have gone bankrupt).
- lost_tourist 3y agoNot as good but they still work, been using it for years. It's especially safe for microwaving.
- reaperducer 3y agoDishes marketed under the Pyrex name are no longer borosilicates. They're still glass (tempered soda–lime glass), which is what the OP was talking about, so you're just being needlessly pedantic without adding anything to the discussion. Also, Pyrex is still borosilicate in Europe, since soda-lime is hard to get there.
- adrian_b 3y agoTempered soda-lime glass is still preferable as a food-contact material to almost anything else, but it is much less pleasant to use than borosilicate glass, because it is much heavier and if you abuse it the tempered glass cracks relatively easily (e.g. if after boiling water in a tempered glass teapot you immerse it for cooling in cold water from the tap, the chances of cracking are high, while a borosilicate glass teapot is impervious to such a treatment; I know this from personal experience with both kinds of teapots).
- vel0city 3y agoMost of my glass containers don't experience those kinds of thermal shocks though, at least non-baking glasses. Most of the containers I'm thinking about which these days have a "pyrex" brand are food containers and measuring cups which might get microwaved. True, if I've got a nice glass casserole dish I might want that to be able to handle the "go from the freezer to a 400F oven in an instant" but most of my glass isn't like that. In that case, I'm not sure whether the borosilicate is obviously the better choice. My biggest concerns is not having the container break in my lunchbox rather than the thermal shock. Which is generally more durable to physical shocks, borosilicate or tempered soda-lime? And then, for the given durability, which is more cost effective?
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y agoTempered soda-lime is more durable to physical shocks, borosilicate is more durable to thermal shocks.
- adrian_b 3y agoBoth borosilicate glass and tempered glass are much more resistant to shocks like dropping on a floor than traditional glass. The chances of being not damaged by a shock depend both on the material and on the wall thickness. Because they are intrinsically less resistant, the tempered glass objects are typically made with thicker walls. The end result is that the borosilicate glass objects with thin walls have about the same mechanical shock resistance like the tempered glass objects with thick walls. Nevertheless, because the soda-lime glass has greater density than borosilicate glass, combined with the fact that the tempered glass objects have thicker walls, makes the tempered glass objects much heavier. Their great weight makes the tempered glass objects more prone to being dropped during handling. The borosilicate glassware is more expensive, but the difference is not significant, especially for objects that may remain usable for an entire human lifetime, if used carefully. I have never hesitated to buy some borosilicate glassware because it was too expensive. The main problem has always been that there are few suppliers so it may be difficult to find the exact size and shape that you search.
- littlestymaar 3y ago> Also, Pyrex is still borosilicate in Europe, since soda-lime is hard to get there. How is soda-lime glass “hard to get”? The main reason why it's still borosilicate here is because the brand has been licensed to a different company, and their management hasn't chose to stop selling borosilicate.
- reaperducer 3y agoHow is soda-lime glass “hard to get”? I'm just going by what Wikipedia says: "Since the closure of the soda–lime plant in England in 2007, European Pyrex has been made solely from borosilicate." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex
- adhesive_wombat 3y agoThere are more glass factories in Europe than the one in Sunderland that Arc themselves closed down in 2007. Something like 30 million plus of glass was made in the EU27 in 2007 in over 200 facilities, nearly all of it would be soda lime glass (i.e. "normal glass"). https://climate.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2016-11/bm_study-glass_en.pdf https://climate.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2016-11/bm_study-g...
- mcpackieh 3y agoSoda lime glass isn't hard to get, it's the "default" glass used around the world for everything from drinking glasses to window panes. If you buy a can of sauce or bottle of wine, that's almost certainly soda lime glass. In Europe, Pyrex still uses borosilicate glass because it's better and because Europeans are more discerning consumers than Americans. That's my theory anyway. American pyrex cheaped out by switching to soda lime glass.
- reaperducer 3y agoIn Europe, Pyrex still uses borosilicate glass because it's better and because Europeans are more discerning consumers than Americans Wikipedia disagrees with you: "Since the closure of the soda–lime plant in England in 2007, European Pyrex has been made solely from borosilicate." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex
- mcpackieh 3y agoThat doesn't seem to contradict me; maybe they closed the soda-lime glass pyrex plant because those product models weren't selling as well? Europe makes huge quantities of soda lime glass for a myriad of other applications, soda lime glass simply isn't hard to get in Europe. Wine bottles to windows, all that stuff is soda lime glass; borosilicate glass is a specialized glass that isn't used for most things besides cookware, labware, and sometimes lenses.
- adhesive_wombat 3y ago> soda-lime is hard to get there We do have glass in some of the windows, you know.
- adrian_b 3y agoTrue, which is why any buyer must search for glassware that is said to be "borosilicate" and not search for "Pyrex", which has become a meaningless trademark. When you hold it in the hand, real borosilicate glassware is very easy to distinguish from other glassware, because it is noticeably less heavy.
- 88913527 3y agoIt's unclear what the advantages of borosilicate are from this discussion. Is it merely the lightness? Either-or would seem to solve the problem of microplastic release on microwaving.
- Filligree 3y agoIt doesn’t shatter due to thermal shock.
- least 3y agoWe use plastic containers largely for convenience. They're durable, malleable, and don't shatter like glass. They're also lighter and thinner, and cheaper. This makes them useful for things like takeout containers or any situation where you need to transport food. Borosilicate is more durable than regular glass. It's generally less prone to shattering, and it's also more tolerant of rapid temperature changes. As far as microplastics go, I don't think it's any better than regular glass, but its properties do make it more suitable for the things we may want to replace plastic for.
- joecool1029 3y ago> Borosilicate is more durable than regular glass. In general. But less durable from physical shock (not temperature shock) than tempered soda lime glass which is what new pyrex is.
- DropInIn 3y agoNo. New pyrex Is Not Boro. Pipe makers used to show off their boro pipes by Throwing them at the ground.... Something you could never dream of doing with traditional glass (soda lime). Why do you folks keep saying this? At least google it first.
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago> discussed in HN as they also bought Instant Pot, and have gone bankrupt For the past 15 years there has been a trend of private equity buying brands and destroying them. Why does this keep making them money? What is this "failure capitalism"?
- philipov 3y agoYou can extract a lot of money from a company by torching its reputation. It takes people a while to catch on that they can't trust a company anymore. Buy a company, remove all the costs that give them their competitive advantage, then profit off the reputational arbitrage until it's burned to the ground.
- geden 3y agoAnd there was me thinking I opposed the death penalty.
- littlestymaar 3y agoIt's more complicated than that: in Europe, the brand has been licensed to La Maison française du verre (which is the latest name of a company that has changed names many times in the past decades) which is still selling borosilicate dishes.
- handsclean 3y agoI believe the new material isn’t less food safe, it just trades some thermal shock resistance for impact resistance.
- mcpackieh 3y agoSoda lime glass isn't ideal for cooking, but I've never had a problem with soda lime glass bowls in the microwave. Any manner of bowl, from covered glass bowls in the pyrex style to small glass bowls meant for serving soup/etc, none has ever shattered in the microwave. I wouldn't want to trust my casserole in the oven to soda lime glass though. Best to have real pyrex aka borosilicate glass for that.
- reaperducer 3y agoThe problem with modern Pyrex and similar glassware is that it usually comes with a plastic lid. I'm with you in that I only use glassware to store food. But it's a bit annoying to have to put a little plate on top of the Pyrex as a makeshift lid in the microwave. My wife has an extensive collection of vintage Pyrex with lids, but she doesn't trust they're microwave safe.
- goda90 3y agoRemove the lid before heating.
- kevin_thibedeau 3y ago> but she doesn't trust they're microwave safe. The glass or the printing? Mine have survived without issue.
- eljimmy 3y agoWhy not use a paper towel?
- hnlmorg 3y agoThere's plenty of places that sell glass dishes with glass lids. I hadn't even heard that plastic lids were thing until I read your post so had a look on Amazon and even on there it seemed to be ~50/50 mix of plastic and glass lids. You don't need to go vintage either. The Pyrex dish I bought around 5 years ago, to replace another Pyrex dish that I accidentally dropped, came with a glass lid. And the set it was replacing, which was maybe around 10 to 15 years old, had glass lids too. As for being microwave safe, I thought the whole point of Pyrex dishes were that they could be thrown in the oven, microwave, under a grill and pretty much everywhere? Or does this vintage set have visible signs of age, which makes you concerned?
- nameless_prole 3y ago[dead]
- soderfoo 3y ago
- jalk 3y agoWhat do you cover the containers with? The plastic covers that comes with pyrex doesn't seems to be anything special.