Hotpoint Glass Cooker Lid exploded

eva247

I wondered if someone could provide me with some advice or guidance on my rights.

I have a Hotpoint EG73 Dual Fuel Cooker which has a glass lid with a cut off device (so you can close the lid with the hob left on and it will cut the gas to the hob). It is approximately 3 years old.

Last night I was cooking dinner, I took a pan off the hob, turned off the hob, closed the glass lid and placed the pan on top (the grill was also going at this point).

I walked across to get a drink, walked back past the cooker when there was a huge bang. I turned around to find the lid had exploded with glass shards everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

Luckily, 2 minutes earlier I had sent my 2 year old son out of the kitchen as he was standing in front of the cooker and I dont like him in it when I have the grill on as the grill door has to stay open however, I normally involve him in my cooking and he could have easily have been in my arms with him facing the impact of the exploded glass. A thought that has really upset me.

I have an extended warranty and indesit are sending a repair guy out next week to fix this but I am not happy at all. I keep thinking about what could have happened and although I am grateful no one was hurt, I feel angry that this happened in the first place.

Not only do I have a box full of tempered glass (which I thought should not shatter into pieces but into larger sections), I have shards sticking out of the metal lid frame which I can not get out and the worry of the same thing happening to either the oven or grill door.

I definitely intend to write a formal complaint and was hoping someone may be able to offer some advice as to what I should expect from the manufacturer.

Thanks,
Eva

vikingaero

I thought you were only meant to close the lid when the cooker has cooled?! You seem to have turned the gas off, closed the lid immediately and place a hot pan on top which to me is a no no. We have a glass lid on our cooker and would never close it until the cooker has cooled.

I thought the gas cut off was just a safety feature in case the lid was knocked down.

Norant

Same here viking.


We have a gas cooker that has a glass lid,and we will always wait for it to cool down before closing.

Good luck OP i hope that you get it sorted.

eva247

vikingaero wrote: »

I thought you were only meant to close the lid when the cooker has cooled?! You seem to have turned the gas off, closed the lid immediately and place a hot pan on top which to me is a no no. We have a glass lid on our cooker and would never close it until the cooker has cooled.

I thought the gas cut off was just a safety feature in case the lid was knocked down.

If that is the case then it is my fault but I've always closed the lid and placed items on top whether it be from the hob or an ovendish straight out of the oven. I assumed that the glass is heat resistant to high temperatures as its part of the cooker?

Yes the gas cut off is a safety feature - sorry if I was confusing, I mentioned that as to me that would assume the point that you can close the lid and not wait for it to cool down, otherwise you'd potentially let alot of gas into the kitchen if you forgot to turn the hob off and the flame burned out and you were waiting for the cooker to cool down before you close the lid?

Thank you for your comments though, does anyone know if this is the case then as I never knew you had to wait for the cooker to cool down? After I explained what had happened to the repair centre they said that it shouldnt have exploded?

Norant

Hello Eva.


I should not have exploded your correct,but neither should the glass be used to rest hot pans or baking dishes on,as i said we have one of them,and as i said we always wait for it to cool down.


Good luck to you and i bet you are glad you took out the extended warranty.

welshsue

I used to have a cooker with a glass lid and always used to close the lid when the hob had just been turned off and never had a problem. I assumed it was resistant to high temperatures as if you are using the back ring, it is going to get hot anyway.
It sounds like you have a faulty one and thank goodness nobody was injured when it exploded...

Hintza

The problem is the lid would have been cold (relatively) and heat from the hot burners and the hot pan will have just caused it to break. Sounds like you have been lucky up until now.

I suspect though that it will not be a warranty issue. However, having said that there is no mention in the manual not to do it.

So if it was me I would be play it quite softly when the engineer comes round. Hopefully you will then get it fixed.

eva247

Thank you all for your replies.

I am very thankful that no-one was hurt and I will check with the engineer next week to see if it was due to me putting hot items on the lid so I know not to do that again!

Yep and thank goodness for the extended warranty. Its come in very useful on a number of occasions! I've had my Hotpoint Fridge Freezer break down 4 times in the last 3 years (in fact they thought I was calling them out for that again!) and then my 4 year old 42inch hitachi plasma was found to be faulty and has recently been replaced with a 50inch panasonic plasma so I've definitely had my moneys worth from warranties....for a change!

neilmcl

eva247 wrote: »

If that is the case then it is my fault but I've always closed the lid and placed items on top whether it be from the hob or an ovendish straight out of the oven. I assumed that the glass is heat resistant to high temperatures as its part of the cooker?

It would be to a point but the fact you say you always closed the lid when the hob is hot and place items straight from the oven on top means you could have contributed to weakening the lid in the first place, making this sort of accident inevitable. I'm sure if you mention this to Indesit or the engineer you'll likely get nowhere.

epatolles

agree with neilmcl that over time it'll have weakened it. My oven is glass topped and in the instructions (never had an over like this before or a gas one so read it from top to finish) is said you had to let it cool before placing it down and also the grill which is above the oven should be left open to cool after using.

I always actually leave my glass top up - its pretty sturdy and would take a lot of force to put it down. use it as a splash back.

its the same as glass oven dishes - sometimes for no apparent reason they can just explode and its some scientific thing about the molecules?! they get brittle after being hot then cold then hot then cold.

to be honest im actually suprised the warrenty are going to fix it... usually they'll try anything to get out of fixing things?

you've been very lucky though that no one was hurt!