EXPLODING Glass in Your Car: It’s a Mystery…….
Exploding Glass! If you know me, you know I love a good adventure……even more than an adventure, I love a great ghost story. Auto glass repair and replacement don’t have a lot of ghosts unfortunately so I have to go out and look for them…….or do I???????
Customer: WHAT THE HECK? MY BACK GLASS SHATTERED while I WAS DRIVING! (insert sunroofs, doors, vents, and quarter glass)
Karen or myself: WOW! Scary stuff! Are you okay?
Customer: YES but it was so weird. NOTHING hit it. NOTHING AT ALL!
Karen or myself: That is weird!!!!!!!
And so go the calls of Adventure Auto Glass…….
People want to REALLY know why their glass in their car shatters with no apparent reason. Well, I have good news and I have bad news……..I can tell you why and UNFORTUNATELY, there are no ghosts involved. Alright, I know, I know…..I was hoping for some good scary stuff too. Drat.
Okay kids, sit down, grab a choice frosty beverage and let’s get down to what is causing crazy exploding glass.
Hey! You in the back – get your beverage – we weren’t kidding…..
Exploding Auto Glass 101:
Your car or truck has two types of glass in it. The type that explodes on “it’s own” is called Tempered Glass. Tempered glass is used because if it breaks it won’t break into crazy jagged shards to cut you. Instead, if it breaks it will break into a million little balls of love that will not cut you. BONUS! Another reason auto manufacturers use tempered glass instead of “regular” glass in your car or truck is that it is four to five times stronger than standard glass. BONUS #2! Because of these two reasons, many people refer to tempered glass as safety glass.
Another fun fact is the thermal process in which tempered glass is cured makes it heat resistant. Do you know that carafe of coffee in your automatic coffee machine? Tempered glass. How about that piece of glass in your oven? Where can you find tempered glass?our computer screen, door windows, tub enclosures, shower doors, and skylights are also made of tempered glass. It’s everywhere! Almost like ghosts……but I digress…..
The Real Mystery
Now the mystery. MAN, I am really bummed out that I have to be the one to tell you this. You know when that back glass just mysteriously broke? Well, it was probably hit by something….just not right then….one of the groovy things about tempered glass is it will withstand a lot of abuse but it remembers it and stresses under the abuse. It may not crack at the moment of impact but the stress continues to play until the defect erupts. Hence EXPLODING GLASS IN YOUR CAR! Make sense? Yeah, it does to us too. But if you want to believe it JUST BROKE, then by golly, who are we to say otherwise?
Well, rock on friends. Our advice? Get tinting. If your tempered glass breaks the tint will hold it in place and save a lot of vacuuming! 🙂
See what we are up to – the conversation is always riveting!
