Consumer Reports warns about rise in exploding oven doors, 40 injuries

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Your oven could be a ticking time bomb.

Consumer Reports has issued an alert that nearly 400 cases of exploding glass oven doors have been reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission in just the last year and a half, injuring more than 40 people.

First Alert 4 first showed you this problem more than a decade ago. It’s still happening, and there is still no recall.

“I had turned on the oven, was cooking food,” Elizabeth Gonzalez-Rubio said, showing First Alert 4 her shattered oven door in 2013.

“I went to open my oven to get my food out and I reached for the handle and before I could even begin to open it, it just shattered everywhere,” she told us.

Another viewer showed us her oven door also blew up. And we reported it also happened to a Metro East family.

That was more than 10 years ago. Consumer Reports says the problem is still happening.

“One owner said it sounded like a small bomb going off,” said Gabe Knight with Consumer Reports.

Knight says it usually happens when the ovens are 4-6 years old, after warranties have expired, and both when the ovens are on and when they’re off.

“Many of the reports we found allege the glass in the oven door shattered without warning. Some describe it as spontaneous. Almost 70% of the incidents we found did involve Frigidaire appliances. But we also found reports involving GE, Whirlpool, LG, Samsung, and a few others,” said Knight.

Consumer Reports says a cause has never been pinpointed and contacted the oven manufacturers. It reports that Frigidaire’s parent company Electrolux responded that this can be caused by imperfections in the tempered glass or from damage during use, but that its safety standards require the glass to break into small fragments with rounded edges to reduce the chance of injury. The other companies also said their ovens meet safety standards. Only Samsung offers free repairs even if the warranty has expired.

We asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission why a recall hasn’t been issued.

CPSC sent us this statement:

“CPSC is aware of reports and takes them seriously. While the Commission cannot comment on any potential investigations, CPSC evaluates incident reports and other available information to determine whether a product presents a substantial product hazard under the Consumer Product Safety Act. The agency will continue to evaluate incident reports and other available information and will take appropriate action as warranted."

But consumers say this problem has been cooking long enough.

“There were pieces everywhere, especially if it were eye-level with a child, that could be dangerous,” said Gonzalez-Rubio.

To avoid causing cracks in oven doors, experts recommend you make sure the racks are in place before closing the door, don’t use the open door as a shelf for pans, and avoid hitting the glass door with pots and pans.

If this has happened to your oven, you can report it to the CPSC at SaferProducts.gov.