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Thread: Glass refrigerator shelves, anyone break one?

  1. #1

    Glass refrigerator shelves, anyone break one?

    Wife came home from the store and had to put away a 36-pack of diet Pepsi's in the basement fridge. I opened one end of the box then just willynilly hucked thing on the shelf- which was already holding up 4 quart jars and 4 pint jars of pickles, olives, etc, a half dozen 16oz screwdrivers, a few cans of ice tea, a half gallon of almond milk and a quart of bloody mary mix...

    Nothing happened, but I got to thinking, and then to looking, this is just an 1/8" thick piece of glass! It's still holding all that up, but I DID push the Pepsi's against the right wall .. The shelf below was holding up five 12 packs of various soda's, down to four now. I'm assuming tempered glass, must be good stuff!

    Anyone not so lucky?
    ========================================
    ELEVEN - rotary cutter tool machines
    FOUR - CO2 lasers
    THREE- make that FOUR now - fiber lasers
    ONE - vinyl cutter
    CASmate, Corel, Gravostyle


  2. #2
    Double strength glass is pretty thin for that application. You may the pushing the limit on the shelf. Our fridge has wire shelves in it and you can't hardly stand drink bottles on it so I cut glass to lay on top of the shelf. Even though it's supported by by the metal rack I cut 1/4" glass to lay on top of it.

  3. #3
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    Never seen one break. The time I needed to break my garage door tempered glass window to get into the house I was impressed at how tough the stuff was. Multiple blows with a softball size rock didn't faze it. I had to hit it seriously hard. I think refrigerator shelves are designed to hold the kind of stuff one loads up into a fridge.

  4. #4
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    The manual for our GE fridge says the glass shelves are rated for 35 lb/sq.ft., but they recommend no more than 50 lbs. total for a full-width shelf. If my math is right, your five 12-packs would be about 45 lbs and the collection you described on the other shelf is probably a bit over 50 lbs. I would imagine that GE's 50 lb. recommendation is on the conservative side.

  5. #5
    I have a hard time believing any shelf in a fridge is not tempered or safety glass. The liability of someone getting cut to ribbons when a shelf broke would not be worth it. It would likley take a gunshot or the shelf support brackets to fail and the shelf explodes on the way down as collateral damage.

    We run tempered shelves most always and while they arent bullet proof glass they are unbelievably strong.

  6. #6
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    I retired from the company that most likely made your shelves. Yes, they are tempered glass and are extremely hard to break unless you penetrate the opposing tension/compression layer that gives the glass strength. Becareful of the edges of the shelf, that's where they are most vulnerable to breakage. Usually the edges are well guarded with a frame for this reason.
    Life's too short to use old sandpaper.

  7. #7
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    One of ours broke when a large jar hit the edge. Got a new one from an on-line parts source at a reasonable price.

  8. #8
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    I have considerable experience with termpered glass aquariums. They are incredibly strong for the thickness of the glass - at least, until they get a scratch. Then, as I understand the technical stuff, the glass is no longer "tempered" and it becomes a thin piece of ordinary glass. That's when all hell can break loose. I suspect that the situation is the same with glass fridge shelves.
    Grant
    Ottawa ON

  9. #9
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    Sorry to disagree, Grant. Once there is a scratch in the glass, it does not become a regular piece of glass again. If the scratch is deep enough to pierce the outside tension layer of glass, the whole piece of tempered glass will literally release the energy within and blow up into small pieces called cullet. This a fail safe feature of tempered glass and this must be tested frequently during the production run during the tempering process. One piece of glass must be tested each hour by breaking a piece just out of the furnace. After the glass is broken the ten largest pieces are selected and weighed and the total weight must not exceed 52.8 grams for an eighth inch thick glass pane.

    The only way a tempered glass pane could be returned to the state of a regular piece of glass is through an annealing process which releaves the compression and tension forces in the glass.
    Life's too short to use old sandpaper.

  10. #10
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    I'm not disputing our expertise, Bob. I can only relate my experiences with a few tempered glass aquariums. They were fine until they exploded. At the time, the glass company told us that, over time, cleaning them caused scratches that took out the temper. Then, the "non-tempered" glass was too thin to take the pressure of the water pushing out on it. It appears that his information was wrong. All I know is that we moved away from tempered glass aquariums and went back to regular, but thicker glass.
    Grant
    Ottawa ON

  11. #11
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    At the time, the glass company told us that, over time, cleaning them caused scratches that took out the temper. Then, the "non-tempered" glass was too thin to take the pressure of the water pushing out on it. It appears that his information was wrong.
    Sadly, from my experience on both sides of involvement with "service representatives" is a lot of imprecise and/or misleading information is given to the public in order to smooth or hurry things.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  12. #12
    Here is an experience with regards to "scratches" in tempered glass from when I was in my late teens.

    I had picked up a bunch of the panels from salvaged exterior sliding glass doors. Glass units were perhaps 30" wide and 70"+ tall. Cant remember why but wanted to salvage the glass for something so we disassembled the frames and pulled the IGU's out, razor knife and cut them apart so we wound up with two glass panels. These units must have been from a hurricane area because the glass was thick. I want to say 3/16" because it was definitely not 1/8" but wasnt 1/4". Anyway, at some point we decided we needed to cut some of these large panels down into smaller pieces (was young mind you). So we laid the panels on the bench and clamped a straight edge and grabbed the glass cutter. Dipped in oil and put a heavy handed score across the panel. Looked and sounded perfect. That perfect sizzling sound, nice clearly visible score line. Hung one end off the bench to the score line and gave it a bit of force... nothing. Bit more, nothing. Enough to have to try to hold the other end of the sheet down to the bench, still nothing. In our infinite wisdom we took the panel off the bench and laid a 2x4 on the floor under the score line, stood on either end, nothing. Finally we stacked up a couple 2x4's and put the real mojo on it.

    With the percussion of a cannon shot, we were then shoveling a trash can of cullet out of the basement when the panel exploded into a million pieces. I remember someone saying "oh... I'll be that was tempered glass".

    Youth.

  13. #13
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    Is there a quick and easy way to determine if glass is tempered? I have a glass topped outdoor table that I would like to dispose of but am not quite sure how to get it down to a manageable size. It is about 32" by 60" and just a tad heavy for an old man to maneuver around.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas L Carpenter View Post
    Is there a quick and easy way to determine if glass is tempered? I have a glass topped outdoor table that I would like to dispose of but am not quite sure how to get it down to a manageable size. It is about 32" by 60" and just a tad heavy for an old man to maneuver around.
    If your going to throw it away just take a sharp center punch and a hammer and whack it. Or as stated take a hammer and whack it on the edge. It will either break into large shards (non tempered) or it will break into millions of small pieces of cullet.

    Or better yet find a young kid who would love to smash things and lean it against a tree and let them shoot it with a .22

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Bolton View Post
    If your going to throw it away just take a sharp center punch and a hammer and whack it. Or as stated take a hammer and whack it on the edge. It will either break into large shards (non tempered) or it will break into millions of small pieces of cullet.

    Or better yet find a young kid who would love to smash things and lean it against a tree and let them shoot it with a .22
    Just remember to prepare ahead of time by having something under it so it can be rolled up or collected easier.

    Getting rid of an outdoor table sounds like someting for Craig's List.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

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