adorabelle63 Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 It’s the hottest day of the year as I’m sure you all know lol I nipped to the supermarket at 12.30 today and returned at 1.30 to find my bedroom window had imploded leaving glass everywhere - anyone know why this happened? They are Worcester windows, unfortunately single glazed but that’s another tale...just a basic sheet of glass in a frame - glass not fitted tightly as removable when desired and all windows, doors and hatches were open for the “breeze” including this one what breeze I hear you ask...it was hot! Around 38 I think... only one window imploded ( thank heaven) and I am sooo glad I wasn’t stood in front of it... am now worried about the others ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Ahab Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Assuming the crane outside your window didn't turn, I suspect the heat caused the metal of your boat to expand and this put pressure on the glass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adorabelle63 Posted July 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Mmm- just as I thought but if so why not the others? And why not in winter when it’s freezing outside and toasty warm inside? and is it going to do it again after new glass fitted? Surrounded by other boats and am the only one this happened to. But then mine is the only steel boat here.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 I'd say the crane did it. Toughened glass breaking from heat is virtually unheard of. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Could have been a local moron across tother side with a catapult or airgun?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen-in-Wellies Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said: I'd say the crane did it. Toughened glass breaking from heat is virtually unheard of. What MtB said. It is toughened glass. You can tell by the way it has broken in to roundish granules, rather than sharp shards. Be sure to replace with toughened, or laminated, rather than ordinary window glass. Most likely an impact did this, rather than stress from the hull. Toughened glass will take a lot of stress, but when it does let go it disintegrates like you've seen. Jen Edited July 25, 2019 by Jen-in-Wellies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 (edited) 5 minutes ago, mrsmelly said: Could have been a local moron across tother side with a catapult or airgun?? The intriguing thing is toughened glass when burst like that tends to stay all in one piece. That window looks, on reflection, as though the broken glass has been all pushed in, perhaps by someone climbing through it. Edited July 25, 2019 by Mike the Boilerman Spelling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adorabelle63 Posted July 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Crane driver a hundred miles away today and nothing found inside cabin that could have been a missile also no access to other side of river here... 100% positive this was not an outside job lol! So only “almost “ unheard of..... i think there must have been a flaw in the glass- absolutely crappy windows anyway no wonder they went bust., All doors wide open can’t see anyone bothering to either break a window or then crawl through it? Boatyard is pretty secure here and no one seen on cctv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adorabelle63 Posted July 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 And nothing else either damaged or stolen. Just weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Tee Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 I have far less experience than many here, but I've been on and around boats since about 1974, and I've never heard of hot weather doing this - my first guess is passing vandal, just because he/she can, not because they were trying to steal (open doors back this up). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 minute ago, adorabelle63 said: And nothing else either damaged or stolen. Just weird. The interesting thing about being broken into, is one knows instantly and instinctively on opening the door, when someone who shouldn't have been, has been inside, in my limited experience. There is a feeling you pick up on in a flash. If you didn't get this sense, then prolly it was not a burglar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen-in-Wellies Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said: The intriguing thing is toughened glass when burt like that tends to stay all in one piece. That window looks on reflection as though the glass has been all pushed in, perhaps by someone climbing through it. Laminated glass behaves like that. This looks like toughened glass. They aren't the same thing. Different approaches to making stronger glass that breaks in a safe way. Car windscreens used to be toughened. When a stone hit them they used to shatter completely in to safe round pebbles like the OP's boat window. The process of making it puts the surface in to compression, so resistant to crack formation, but once it lets go the unequal stresses basically destroy the entire pane instantly. Nowadays car windscreens are usually laminated with a plastic film in the glass sandwich. The plastic holds the bits together and lets you still see out and drive without being exposed to the wind blast before it is replaced. Jen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 4 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said: Laminated glass behaves like that. This looks like toughened glass. They aren't the same thing. Different approaches to making stronger glass that breaks in a safe way. Car windscreens used to be toughened. When a stone hit them they used to shatter completely in to safe round pebbles like the OP's boat window. The process of making it puts the surface in to compression, so resistant to crack formation, but once it lets go the unequal stresses basically destroy the entire pane instantly. Nowadays car windscreens are usually laminated with a plastic film in the glass sandwich. The plastic holds the bits together and lets you still see out and drive without being exposed to the wind blast before it is replaced. Jen Many cars still have toughened/tempered glass in the doors etc but not the windscreen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen-in-Wellies Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Just now, mrsmelly said: Many cars still have toughened/tempered glass in the doors etc but not the windscreen. Yes. Side windows are often still toughened. When I was little our cars toughened windscreen shattered while we were travelling. Glass pebbles everywhere. Very sudden and scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty40s Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Boat windows are fitted into holes cut into a large steel panel. The edges of this cut are not always plasma cut and can be rough, or even jagged along their lengths Today's temperatures have been exceptional, chances are one of these edges has pushed the frame and subsequently glass to its limit. Last winter, an Aqualine near us had two double glazed windows shatter. The couple came home from Spain on one of the coldest nights of the year, -10 ish, they lit the stove and the cooker, both those windows went. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJPHG Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 43 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said: I'd say the crane did it. Toughened glass breaking from heat is virtually unheard of. Whilst the glass itself is unlikely to break due to the heat the differential stress from the frames or supports can cause issues. Not quite the same but we have lost 5 glass panels from around our deck and pool (coincidentally one went only yesterday) in the last 4 years, due to this. This one was the last straw - we will be changing the fencing type now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeping Up Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Just a few years ago one of the toughened glass top hoppers on our boat shattered like that in the heat. I was there at the time and I know there was no impact from anything, and being a top hopper which was open at the time there couldn't possibly have been any pressure exterted in any direction by the frame. The only possible expplanation was just the heat; possibly there had been an inadvertent stress due to a manufacturing flaw more than 20 years earlier, who knows. But certainly although it is unusual for a pane simply to shatter, it is not impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacka Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 Having worked in the car industry, toughened glass can go bang without warning. If toughened glass has chips on the edge (usually from manufacturing) or if there are scratches on the surface and the glass is stressed - examples- by part of the glass in full sun and part in shade or if the frame twists as the metal gets hot, and bends the glass a bit, the stresses are concentrated around the chips or scratches and just sometimes it goes bang to release the stress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said: Laminated glass behaves like that. This looks like toughened glass. They aren't the same thing. Different approaches to making stronger glass that breaks in a safe way. Car windscreens used to be toughened. When a stone hit them they used to shatter completely in to safe round pebbles like the OP's boat window. The process of making it puts the surface in to compression, so resistant to crack formation, but once it lets go the unequal stresses basically destroy the entire pane instantly. Nowadays car windscreens are usually laminated with a plastic film in the glass sandwich. The plastic holds the bits together and lets you still see out and drive without being exposed to the wind blast before it is replaced. Jen I am fully aware of the difference and yes that is toughened glass. I made my comments based on my experience of toughened glass shattering and staying usually all in one piece. It can be surprisingly difficult to push it all in when it is a flat sheet shattered, as opposed to curved like a car windscreen. Laminated glass however, is effectively impossible to push in whether cracked or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty40s Posted July 25, 2019 Report Share Posted July 25, 2019 We had a widebeam arrive last year when I was office based, November, severe frost overnight and then bright sunshine, the porthole glass exploded just like the window has in that picture....nobody near it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceinSanity Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 Just last month we had one leaf of the tempered glass unit in our veranda door do just this, completely out of the blue. It all stayed in the frame for a couple of days, but then vibration from a washing machine on spin caused it to start collapsing. It starts with an invisible flaw in the glass, typically a crystal of nickel hydride apparently, that spreads to the rest of the pane after a few or many years. In our case, it was just over five years old, ie just out of warranty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickent Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 We also had one of our removable windows shatter two years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Dog Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 11 hours ago, adorabelle63 said: Crane driver a hundred miles away today Hmm, if this happened in an episode of "Vera", she'd be looking more closely into this awfully convenient alibi and checking whether there is a suspicious looking crane driver's assistant who turns out to be a disgruntled ex employee of a defunct narrowboat window manufacturer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 32 minutes ago, Sea Dog said: Hmm, if this happened in an episode of "Vera", she'd be looking more closely into this awfully convenient alibi and checking whether there is a suspicious looking crane driver's assistant who turns out to be a disgruntled ex employee of a defunct narrowboat window manufacturer... Yes it struck me as odd how quick the OP was to jump to the crane driver's defence! Ok he was 100 miles way.... or so he says ;))) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightwatch Posted July 26, 2019 Report Share Posted July 26, 2019 34 minutes ago, Sea Dog said: Hmm, if this happened in an episode of "Vera", she'd be looking more closely into this awfully convenient alibi and checking whether there is a suspicious looking crane driver's assistant who turns out to be a disgruntled ex employee of a defunct narrowboat window manufacturer... We like Vera. You now get remote controls for cranes. Can they reach 100 miles? With the assistance of a screen cam! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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