Anyone with Toughened Glass on their greenhouse?

So over the weekend me and the hubby built a 4x 2 greenhouse which boasts toughened glass. The listing said that its 700% stronger than horticultural glass which is what I was used to using with my old greenhouse.

However one panel of glass (which I thought was unnecessary large) exploded in my hands while I was carrying it. I didn't knock it or anything like that before it happened.

It's now made me a little concerned others may explode randomly now the rest of the glass has been installed.

Has anyone had any issues like this with toughened glass at all on their greenhouses?

 

Trouble with toughened glass is that it only needs a tiny knick in the edge and it breaks.
But it is less likely to break when some thing hits it face on,like after it's installed.
Also as you know it shatters in thousands of tiny pieces rather than large jagged pieces like ordinary glass does.

Did you stand it on edge on a path etc.
Just standing it on a tiny piece of grit could do it.

 

I saw an episode of "Monkey World" where this happened. They'd specially ordered a huge pane for one of the primate enclosures, had to wait weeks for it to arrive and then it shattered as they were carrying it to the installation site. So they had to wait more weeks for a replacement. But they didn't seem to have any concerns about the replacement being tough enough to contain chimps.

 

Nope. I was carrying it with 2 hands vertically and in the centre of the pane. The pane was well clear of anything that could have come in contact with it. The pane was 610x1500mm which I thought was rather large for a piece of glass on a greenhouse. I'm used to the square 610x610 type. I wondered if it shattered under it's own weight.

 

Maybe it had some damage before you got it, you we just unlucky and put some stress on it when you lifted it.
Who knows as @Escarpment says, these things happen, we used to have it happen on double glazed units occasionally.

But it's not more likely to happen being toughened just a bit more dramatic when it does
Could have been more dangerous if it had not been toughened.

Occasionally when I was working we would have ol units that we had replaced, we used to smash them up in the skip, sometimes you could hit the glass with a hammer three or four times to try breaking it, but usually just a small tap on the edge would shatter it.

 

The rest of the glass in the greenhouse should be fine.
Once at work we had an inside window of toughened glass that just disintegrated, I don't think cause was ever identtified.

 

My greenhouse is toughened glass and is 25 years old now. I replaced one pane some years ago with ordinary horticultural glass as toughened is expensive for the odd pane. No problems though. I would complain to the seller and they should replace it.

 

Worth checking with your greenhouse supplier / manufacturer as some do say they will reimburse for any glass received damaged, we had about 4 sheets broken on ours. (standard glass)

The problem with buying toughened glass is that most local glazing shops have to send the cut glass away to be toughened which can take a few days.

 

I would never go back to horticultural glass. My Rhino greenhouse has toughened glass. The greenhouse has withstood 120 mph winds and me belting it with wheelbarrows and garden forks. In the time it has been built ( about 10 years) one very small pane broke into a thousand pieces shortly after the greenhouse was built. None has broken since.

 

I know someone who tripped on the path outside his greenhouse, put out his hand to save himself and it went right through the glass. Emergency hospital trip followed, and he had nerve damage which took years to recover from.

 

A few years ago, we had to move our small lean to greenhouse which had toughened glass panels. When I was trying to slot the sliding front doors back in, one pane exploded in my face with a very large bang and frightened me to death - I actually thought I'd been shot at.

Fortunately I wasn't injured at all and was able to order some replacement panes. I'm a bit more cautious now.

 

I bought the greenhouse from The Greenhouse People and it turns out I bought my greenhouse from a shady bunch with nonexistent customer service according to Trustpilot.

There was a lot else wrong with the greenhouse besides the exploding glass, damaged frame, parts not lining up etc

 

Those people keep emailing me with offers. Can't get rid of them.

 

I’m sorry to read this. I used greenhouses direct and bought a big 20ftx8ft Rhino from them about 10 years ago.Apart from one very small bit of glass that broke soon after it was built I have not had one minutes bother with it and it has withstood gales and god knows all what.
After it withstood a massive gale last year when this glorious Silver Birch came down,

I sent them a email just to say how impressed I was. The only damage was one of the locks on a roof window had sheared off with the force of the gale. I got a very pleasant email back saying how pleased they were that the greenhouse had survived and they sent me FOC another lock. Pretty good customer service!