TRUE - NOT A HOAX!..You decide.

Got any new Pyrex dishes in your cabinets? If so, this is a must
>> read.
>>
>> I Checked at Wal-Mart and all the warnings are there.
>>
>> About 5:30 PM there was a loud bang from the oven. Sylvia opened the oven
>> door and the Pyrex dish had shattered into a million pieces. The roast
>> beef
>> (our first in many months) was peppered with small shards of very sharp
>> glass. Normally, I am quick to inform Sylvia she did something stupid.
>>
>> However, this time she was nowhere near the stove when it blew. I
>> shoveled
>> the glass and the now mashed potatoes into a bucket with two putty
>> knives.
>> I then sucked the remains with the shop vac. I let everything cool down
>> and then scrubbed the oven with Simple Green and some hot soapy water.
>> It
>> took over an hour to clean up the goo. Upon completion I ran the oven
>> empty to see if the temperature controller was working okay. I suspected
>> the oven got too hot and the dish simply blew. This was not the case
>> however. The oven came up to temperature and cycled normally. We threw
>> a
>> disgusting frozen pizza in the oven and it cooked okay.
>>
>> What is going on?
>>
>> I Googled exploding Pyrex dishes and got ten million hits.
>>
>> Exploding Pyrex is very common.
>>
>> Here is the story.
>>
>> A long, long time ago in a country we all know and love was a company
>> named
>> Corning. They made Pryex dishes. The material they used is called
>> borosilicate glass. This stuf f is indestructible.
>> But like everything else, the Bottom Liners had a great idea: sell the
>> technology to another company.
>>
>> The Chinese discovered that using soda lime glass was almost as good as
>> borosilicate glass and a lot cheaper. Today, Wal-Mart is the lar gest
>> distributor of Pryex products. Corning not only sold the technology to a
>> company called World Kitchen, they also sold the rights to the original
>> Pyrex logo. Seamless. The consumer will never know.
>>
>> Now it seems people are getting hurt using soda lime Pyrex. We were
>> lucky
>> because the dish broke while the oven was closed and the damage was
>> limited
>> to the oven cavity. Others have been less fortunate. Some dishes
>> explode
>> when they are lifted from the heating rack in the oven with devastating
>> results. Some people are heavily scarred. World Kitchen is in denial.
>> They say that the dishes are another brand, not theirs. Contrary to
>> their
>> denials the victims usually have more than one of these dishes and the
>> Pryex logo is clearly visible.
>>
>> If you buy a Pryex dish beware. The label on the front says oven safe,
>> freezer safe, microwave safe. The instructions on the back tell another
>> story. You cannot move a soda lime Pyrex dish from the freezer to the
>> oven
>> and expect it to survive. The fine print goes on and on about what you
>> are
>> not allowed to do with the Pyrex dish. The fine print has prevented
>> World
>> Kitchen from being sued because they have warned the consumer that their
>> Pyrex dishes are junk from the get go. And they are the same price as
>> the
>> original Corning dishes. What a bunch of losers we all are for buying
>> this
>> crap.
>>
>> What to do?
>>
>> If you own borosilicate Pryex dishe s no fear. They have to be more than
>> 25 years old to be sure they are indeed Corning dishes. I am not sure if
>> the old Pryex dishes have anything stamped in them that indicates they
>> are
>> made by Corning. You may continue to use the soda lime dishes for
>> holding
>> stuff. Just do not attempt to roast or microwave with them as the hazard
>> is very clear.
>>
>> The reason the soda lime dishes let go is that over time they develop
>> micro-cracks. Once a few micro-cracks are present and once some liquid
>> finds its way into the cracks you have the bomb situation. The liquid is
>> like shoving a crowbar in the dish and pulling it apart. Super heated
>> liquids expand rapidly and it is the super heated liquids that force the
>> soda lime glass to shatter into tens of thousands of shards.
>>
>> Since Corning no longer makes Pyrex and Sylvia proudly holds a large
>> collection of the soda lime Pyrex, we decided that one bomb in the
>> kitchen
>> is enough. The Pyrex dishes will go bye-bye in this week's trash. I do
>> not know what we will use for cake and pie dishes going forward . If you
>> have some suggestions we are listening.
>>
>> I strongly urge you not to use the soda lime Pyrex for the oven, stovetop
>> or microwave. The slightest invisible crack is all it takes to have a
>> mess
>> and a possible injury.
>>
>> As to World Kitchen: They and their cheap dishes - in case you are
>> wondering: World Kitchen is not a USA company.
>>