Can anybody explain this to me?!?!?

[Striker8440]

Ok a little background:

2 1/2 car non heated garage, overnight temps in the mid 40's
No storms in the area, 99 Dodge Durango

Ok, this morning I am plugging my cell phone into the charger and I hear a loud bang in the garage. I figure something fell, no big deal. A few minutes later i go out to the garage and see nothing on the ground where my wife parks, I am hearing a bit of "crackling" so I start to walk around the back end of the Durango and notice that the back window has literally cracked from side to side and the rest of the window has turned into those glass pellets.

Nothing fell on it, nobody shot thru the garage door which was CLOSED, cannot figure out how in the hell this happened. It blew out because my wife found glass on the ground under where the truck would have been parked.

My wife blames it on the poltergiest that lives next door (long story), I am at a total loss as to how this happened. Nothing logical comes to mind.

Hopefully some smart poster can shed some light on this, meanwhile I am out 300.00 for a new window because we have our deductable set at 500.00

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Striker8440]

Ok, 11 views and no replys?? whats wrong, yall as stumped as I am on this??
LOL

[Cowgirl Up!]

Metal garage door?

[Marleysdaddy]

I have no clue...our windshield cracked this winter, but it was MUCH colder than 40° F (something like -8° F).

[Striker8440]

nope not a metal garage door and no wild temperature swings. Vehicle was not running, just parked in the garage and had not been running since the night before, almost 12 hours prior. There is simply no logical reason that I can think of to cause this.

Things that make ya go hmmmmmmmmmm DAMNIT!!! LOL

[Cowgirl Up!]

Is there anything missing from the car? Documents, equipment, etc.? Could someone possibly have gotten inside your garage through a side door? Cuz I know we have a door that leads from the back yard into the garage and since my Shepherd is so old, someone might have a chance of getting in the garage.

[Striker8440]

nope no side door to the garage and the only window is intact. Have to be VERY agile to get thru that window and over the motorcycle to get into the garage. Its just totally wierd, how can a window literally blow out. I know there is a reason but I will be damned if I can figure it out LOL

[ThrowCop]

MTBF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_time_between_failures)

^Linky

Glass can only go through so many stress cycles before it just gives & tempering means that when it goes, it can go very quickly.

My only guess.

[JimGP20]

I have actually experienced a similar thing. Several years ago, I was sitting in my kitchen when I heard a loud pop. I went into the living room and watched the non movable side of my sliding glass door disintegrate before my eyes. I looked into why it happened and came up with something called "spontaneous breakage". It is a very rare phenomenon and usually occurs because of an undetected inclusion somewhere in the glass. In other words, it was always fated to break sooner or later. I don't think the poltergeist was responsible for this one.... just a faulty piece of glass.

[Mortis]

It was obviously Megyn Kelly's husband

[Dreamy]

I have actually experienced a similar thing. Several years ago, I was sitting in my kitchen when I heard a loud pop. I went into the living room and watched the non movable side of my sliding glass door disintegrate before my eyes. I looked into why it happened and came up with something called "spontaneous breakage". It is a very rare phenomenon and usually occurs because of an undetected inclusion somewhere in the glass. In other words, it was always fated to break sooner or later. I don't think the poltergeist was responsible for this one.... just a faulty piece of glass.


Oh sure...the old "spontaneous breakage" claim for glass ghosts.

On the car issue,might there have been a small unnoticable pit in the glass from a pebble that flew up while driving that might have just finally let go?

[RWReaganfan]

Glass is really a liquid that is flowing VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY slowly.

It sounds like there was a flaw in the glass and that time caught up with it.

[Striker8440]

well the consesus seems to be a small flaw in the glass that finally let go. That I can believe, but, that poltergeist sure sounds pretty good to me LOL

Thanks yall, I figured some brain on here would come up with a viable, logical answer.

[LouC]

well the consesus seems to be a small flaw in the glass that finally let go. That I can believe, but, that poltergeist sure sounds pretty good to me LOL

Thanks yall, I figured some brain on here would come up with a viable, logical answer.

I don't think it was the flaw in the glass cause.

[ALBOB2]

It was obviously Megyn Kelly's husband


As if there weren't already enough reasons to hate that bastard! :evil:

[LouC]

Actually I got curious and sure enough there have been lots of spontaneous window explosions, and in garages as well, in cool or cold weather.

[Gabby]

Something similar happened to the glass shower door in my master bath. No one was near it... it just disintegrated into those little pellets.

the flawed glass most likely the cause.

[AeroEngineer]

Yeah, once a crack gets started in glass it can become very unstable.

That's one of the reasons why most states force insurance companies to cover the cost of replacing a cracked windshield.

[Striker8440]

well in my case it was not the windshield, it was the rear glass so the ins co. would not cover it, my comp deductible is higher than the replacement cost so I will just pay it out of pocket. Sucks but thats life LOL

i STILL like the poltergeist theory LOL

[birddog1]

My theory is that the glass was ashamed to be attached to a Dodge and committed suicide to end the humiliation.

[snagswolf]

Here's a link to a message board discussion about this very thing:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cars/msg031653252210.html

Seems that this type of thing happens sometimes.

Interesting reply in that thread:

This is an older thread, but I happened across it while looking for something else and thought to add a few cents worth.


The side windows of your car are tempered glass. Tempered glass is heat strengthened by taking the glass up to 1200F and then rapidly cooling it. This causes the exterior surface of the glass to compress while the interior of the glass is still quite warm and still in expansion mode. Ultimately, this translates into an exterior compression layer and an interior tension layer.

When the compression layer is breached, then all that tension is released (kind of like a spring) and POW! there goes the window.
Okay, then why did the side window break? It is certainly possible that it was impacted by a rock or bb or something similar, but I am guessing that it was spontaneous breakage based on the description.

As mentioned, tempered glass is tough on the face, but the edges are quite fragile.

One characteristic of tempered glass is that if it has edge damage it might not "release" immediately, preferring to wait around for awhile until it has a chnace to scare the @$#%@^@%#$@ out of someone sitting at a stoplight or else eating breakfast in their home. It makes for great conversation!

When glass is manufactured, it might have what are called "inclusions". Usually nickle sulfide or perhaps other trace elements, these inclusions can cause significant problems in tempered glass. While most glass with inclusions will break during the tempering process, some of them are just stubborn enoungh to make it past that process and into the actual finished product. These inclusions, like their edge damaged cousins, love to wait around awhile until everyone is quietly relaxing and then POW! no more glass in the window frame.

Typical breaking stress for annealed (regular) glass is around 6000psi. Typical windload breaking stress for tempered glass is around 24,000psi, thus the "four times stronger" comparison that many folks like to quote.

When impacted, tmepered glass is about double the strength of annealed glass. One typical lab test is to impact 1/4" lites with a 5gm missile. The tempered glass can withstand the impact up to about 60ft/sec while the annealed can withstand the missile to about 30ft/sec.


Ultimately, very few folks insure against glass breakage. Although spontaneous breakage does happen, I would suggest that proving it will be difficult and the last thing that any glass company wants to do is to deal with about 10,000,000 claims for spontaneous breakage - definitely a losing situation. And realistically, way more glass is broken for reasons other than spontaneous breakage...
Hopefully this made some sense!