After 11 seasons, 'nearly ruined my Firelight CB

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Dexter

Member
Hearth Supporter
Aug 9, 2007
208
Boulder County, CO
I came in from shoveling the driveway and walk, and went straight to the fire. It was cruising along, showing 475 at the back corner (that's about 600 top center) took off my socks, pants, shoes and gloves to dry them off. We've all done it: we've held up wet articles in front of the intense radiant heat to observe the steaming "lightning dry". What I didn't realize was the quarter-sized chunk of snow stuck in the slightly rolled pants cuff. When I unrolled the cuff, it flipped itself out and wedged behind the window-grid right against the glass. It did not sizzle; it SPAT, and was gone...and the glass just sat there! I guess I really dodged a bullet this time. That'll never happen again. Whew!
 
Dexter said:
I came in from shoveling the driveway and walk, and went straight to the fire. It was cruising along, showing 475 at the back corner (that's about 600 top center) took off my socks, pants, shoes and gloves to dry them off. We've all done it: we've held up wet articles in front of the intense radiant heat to observe the steaming "lightning dry". What I didn't realize was the quarter-sized chunk of snow stuck in the slightly rolled pants cuff. When I unrolled the cuff, it flipped itself out and wedged behind the window-grid right against the glass. It did not sizzle; it SPAT, and was gone...and the glass just sat there! I guess I really dodged a bullet this time. That'll never happen again. Whew!
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Video - or it didn't really happen! :) :) :)
 
You can hold a snowball or ice cube against that pyroceram while the stove is running full bore and all that is gonna happen is steam. And burned fingers.
 
It's the differential expansion rate between hot and cold areas that causes glass to break when cooled or heated too quickly. The soda-lime glass my wife uses to make beads will literally explode if she heats it too rapidly, or places a hot work piece on a cool surface. The borosilicate glass (genuine Pyrex glass like used in a lab) is very resistant to rapid heat changes because it has a very low coefficient of linear expansion (COE). She can heat that stuff up and cool it rapidly all day long and it won't shatter. The COE of ceramic glass is at least 10X lower than Pyrex, so I don't doubt the snowball thing at all.
 
Yeah Pyroceram and Neoceram have almost zero thermal expansion.
 
Pyroceram and Neoceram are a lot tougher than many folks realize . . . now I do have it on good authority though that one should not attempt to use Pyrex on the otherhand in an oven broiler (I suppose one should read the warnings imprinted in the pyrex) and then attempt to cool down the Pyrex by pouring water on it after being in the broiler . . . I can say that the result is not good.
 
firefighterjake said:
Pyroceram and Neoceram are a lot tougher than many folks realize . . . now I do have it on good authority though that one should not attempt to use Pyrex on the otherhand in an oven broiler (I suppose one should read the warnings imprinted in the pyrex) and then attempt to cool down the Pyrex by pouring water on it after being in the broiler . . . I can say that the result is not good.
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That's because Pyrex bakeware is not real borosilicate glass, just tempered soda-lime glass.
 
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