Smeg Oven Door Shattered HELP!!!

shadia253

Hi All,

Please bear with me - this is a long one!!!

On the 29th April I went to open the oven to take out the tray inside (as it had been used the evening previous) when I opened the door it shattered all over me. The glass had shattered away from the handle and the door and ended up in hundreds of small pieces all over the kitchen.

Luckily it caused me no personal injury, but it could have been very serious as I was home alone at the time of this happening. We cleaned up the kitchen (but have kept the glass) but there are still fragments and slivers of glass everywhere which cause a continuing hazard. Glass has scratched our fridge and our work tops. There is still exposed jagged glass on the door which we have not touched as we think it is best for a qualified person to look at it.

After the door had shattered the glass kept popping & splitting up into smaller pieces which also posed more threat of injury.

We bought the product in December 2008 so it is out of guarantee (Model code SC378MFX), but an oven which is only over 2 years old I feel shouldn't do this? We spoke to the SMEG helpline when it happened and were told that the cheapest way to resolve this is a one off £180 charge for parts and repair, but due to the nature of what happened we would have to email in to discuss further.

We have never heard of an oven door shattering in this manner in the course of normal domestic business. We feel that someone else may not be so lucky next time and could be seriously injured, especially if there are children or pets in the house.

I am writing because we have not had much help from SMEG on this matter, in fact they have been very rude about it & completely unhelpful. I don't know how I should proceed as this is surely a design fault & they are not recognising that this is in fact quite serious?

They have come back to us to say:
"I am very sorry to learn of this situation and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Please be assured that this situation is not indicative of the SMEG brand.

The glass used in SMEG cooking products is common to the major white goods industry as there are only two manufacturers of this specialist glass in Europe. The manufacturers advise us that the failure rate is less than 1% and well within industry standards. The main reasons for the glass to shatter is thermal shock perhaps a cool cloth used to clean a hot door, or a sharp knock which happened sometime ago and been forgotten or stress from the door or the oven being twisted.

I do appreciate your sentiments in this matter but regret that as our cooking products do not have an inherent fault and your oven is remote from the date of purchase SMEG UK is unable to assist you as requested. Please visit our website at www.smeguk.com for details of authorised SMEG engineers covering your postcode area."

The problem is everything they have listed that we could've done to the oven we haven't done at all.

Please help as I feel someone could end up being injured quite badly through this?

Forwandert

How does glass that has shattered (and I'm assuming fell to the ground due to gravity) manage to scratch your fridge and work surfaces?

CoolHotCold

shadia253 wrote: »

Luckily it caused me no personal injury, but it could have been very serious as I was home alone at the time of this happening. We cleaned up the kitchen (but have kept the glass) but there are still fragments and slivers of glass everywhere which cause a continuing hazard. Glass has scratched our fridge and our work tops. There is still exposed jagged glass on the door which we have not touched as we think it is best for a qualified person to look at it.

After the door had shattered the glass kept popping & splitting up into smaller pieces which also posed more threat of injury.

I've had a Oven glass door shatter just like you. I believe you are exaggerating as the glass doesn't explode but justs disintegrates into 1cm cubed pieces which aren't really sharp.

shadia253

Hi,

Well that's why I think this is strange as it went absolutely everywhere as it ended up in my hallway also. I thought for safety it would have to disintegrate in the way you've described - but the pieces were very sharp and has been extremely difficult to clean up.

I can't seem to attach pictures otherwise I could show you & possibly give advice then?

CoolHotCold under what circumstances did your oven door shatter? I have tried googling this but absolutely nothing comes up.

Meepster

I've seen this happen (well, obviously not seen it actually happen, as I don't tend to sit in customers houses all the time, but you get what I mean) LOADS of times.

It can happen for a lot of reasons. From impact on the glass (the impact could have happened at any point, causing a weak spot), significant temperature variation, the door not being opened correctly (i.e. too much pressure on one side of the door, door being lifted slightly when pulled, door opened too quickly etc etc) it's quite common place unfortunately, I doubt the manufacturer will accept any responsibility.

I've seen this happen to budget appliances (such as Smeg) all the way up to Neff and Miele (Even saw it on a 3 month old Gaggenau...)

wealdroam

OP, looks like you have three choices here...

1) Get a replacement glass from somewhere like espares and fit it yourself.

2) Get "a qualified person to look at it" and replace the glass for you. Sorry, I don't know where you find one*.

3) Keep on at Smeg. It does seem though that they have convinced themselves, if not you, that they have done nothing wrong.

Oh... and by the way, I can't see anything rude in their response to you.



*but I note that Smeg explained to you how to find one of these people.

shadia253

Hi,
Thanks for that - the people that email back just seem as though they have a standard answer, the call centre people are a very different kettle of fish!

neilmcl

OP, you should try contacting the retailer to see if they can provide a remedy under the SOGA, however the onus is on you prove the fault that caused the shattered door was inherent to manufacture, which may be difficult in this case. Also when you speak to them try to lay off the emotional rhetoric and all the "what ifs", just stick to the facts.

CoolHotCold

shadia253 wrote: »

Hi,


CoolHotCold under what circumstances did your oven door shatter? I have tried googling this but absolutely nothing comes up.

Was cooking a pie, went away watched some TV and head a pop noise.
Came back and the inside panel of glass was blown and continued to tinkle as parts fell off.

moonrakerz

shadia253 wrote: »

We have never heard of an oven door shattering in this manner in the course of normal domestic business. We feel that someone else may not be so lucky next time and could be seriously injured, especially if there are children or pets in the house.

You may not have heard of this before but it is not an uncommon event.
Any glass which is tempered during production does carry the risk of this happening.
However the risk of injury from the small fragments of glass is very low compared with the dagger like shards of glass that are produced when ordinary glass is broken.
Also with the glass being vertical in the oven door there is more stress on the edges of the glass which is one of the weakest points in this type of glass.

I really don't think SMEG are being unreasonable - it's just one of those things that happen..............
If you are that worried get an oven with no glass in the door, that is all you can do.

DCFC79

Bit weird how it scratched your fridge and work surface,