I still receive emails from people whose washing machine door glass has shattered or “exploded”. I’ve included two photos recently supplied to me in this article. It’s hard to judge how widespread this issue is, but it appears to be relatively rare. I’ve had over 100 incidents reported over 10 years. For more details, see my main article – washing machine door glass danger.
But whose fault is it when the door glass shatters?
Manufacturers are blaming users
Manufacturers often claim this is caused by overloading or leaving coins and metal objects in pockets. While that may sometimes be true, it doesn’t explain all cases — especially when glass shatters hours after the machine has finished.
Door glass did not shatter in the past
From decades of experience, door glass didn’t used to shatter like this. Despite seeing thousands of overloaded machines and foreign objects inside drums, it was extremely rare. I only replaced a few door glasses in the past, and none had shattered — only cracked due to unusual incidents.
This suggests something has changed. Modern machines likely use toughened (tempered) glass instead of thick traditional glass. Toughened glass can shatter suddenly under certain conditions.
Is the broken glass safe or dangerous?
If the glass breaks safely into small blunt pieces, and misuse is the cause, then responsibility may partly lie with the user.
However, if it shatters into sharp shards that can fly outward and injure people or pets, then it becomes a serious safety concern. Manufacturers should anticipate common behaviours like overloading or leaving items in pockets and design against dangerous outcomes.
Do manufacturers have a legal duty to protect users from predictable misuse? Should they anticipate common mistakes, especially if those mistakes could lead to injury?
Is there a duty of care in design?
Consider extension leads — they can be overloaded and cause fires, yet most don’t include built-in protection. Or laptops that can overheat if vents are blocked.
These are examples where misuse can cause danger, yet products aren’t always designed to prevent it. So perhaps manufacturers aren’t always required to design against misuse.
There may be cases where manufacturers could be held responsible for not considering these risks — but it’s not clear-cut.
People must take responsibility for their actions, but predictable mistakes should arguably be made safe through design.
Examples of safety design already in use
Manufacturers clearly do design safety features when necessary. For example, washing machine doors cannot be opened during spin cycles. This prevents serious injury.
This shows that safety-by-design is already accepted where risks are obvious and severe.
Summary
It’s difficult to give a definitive answer on responsibility. It may be misuse — or it may be design-related.
If manufacturers believe misuse is the cause, they should clearly warn users. For example:
Warning: Overloading, leaving coins or metal objects in pockets, or washing items with metal components may cause door glass to shatter.
Is door glass breaking safely – or dangerously?
This is the key issue. If glass always shatters safely and poses no injury risk, it may not be a major consumer issue. But if it can cause harm — especially to children or pets — then it becomes a serious safety concern that manufacturers must address.
See real cases and photos here:
Spares
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Our washing machine beko glass door exploded this was during the usual rinse cycle this was four weeks ago they finally sent out a engineer who condemned the machine and now beko say due to us having good insurance to replace the machine they cannot help us. We lost a lot of washing due to small Chards of glass all over the clothing and we have 3 children thank God none were near the machine. This is a pure machine faulty as agreed by the engineer so surely beko should give some recompense.
Hello Jason. If they have conceded it’s a fault then yes you ought to be able to claim for damaged laundry too. I don’t know what insurance they are talking about. If it’s an extended warranty and it’s covered it’s not so bad, but you shouldn’t have to claim on house insurance. House insurance would only reclaim from them anyway and put your policy renewal up.
The glass on our Beko WTL104121W washing machine unexpectedly broke this evening while not in use. Came as a surprise while sat in living room too hear an almighty crash and too see the washer glass on the floor when entering the kitchen. The machine is only 4 months old
Hello Colin. I’ve started getting more recent reports like yours after a long period of hearing nothing. I can’t be sure if it’s because the issue disappeared and has comeback, or whether it’s just something as simple as the presence of my articles on Google going up and down.
I haven’t had this problem myself, but I’ve had a very similar issue when, all of a sudden, one of the large conservatory roof glass panels at my house suddenly did exactly the same. Just out of nowhere, the internal panel of the double glazed unit just spontaneously shattered.
I did a bit of research about it and found that it is one of the potential issues with this type of glass. It is made with a built-in tension inside the glass so that if it breaks, the whole thing goes at once and should break into small harmless pieces. The conservatory company tried to tell me that I’d have to pay for a new one, but I insisted that it must’ve been a fault in manufacture, or installation. They ended up installing a new one for me for free.
The washing machine manufacturers seem to be holding a similar line. I don’t know if anything has changed, but in the early days they just blamed the customer, saying they must have overloaded the washing machine or washed something with a metal buckle etc.
I have a brand new lg washtower in a vacation home that had just finished a remodel. We walked into the laundry room after being gone 3 weeks and there were large shards of glass on the floor. The internal glass had shattered. Two unwashed towels were in the washer. Just absolutely bizarre. LG has been great (thru Costco support) and is replacing the glass for us.
LG DLEX4000B glass on the inside of the dryer door shattered. A large bedspread and no metal objects. It just doesn’t make sense. I know people shopping for a dryer will not look here for potential problems so I am going to repost on a few shopper sites. I think people should be warned about he poor designs.
If my washer’s door gasket had not failed earlier I probably would not be so upset. The door gasket isn’t on the door so it would be out of the way when putting clothes into or pulling them out. NO, they put the gasket where you have to drag the clothing across the surface of the gasket with each load. CRAZY design.
Today our hoover tumble dryer’s door glass was not on and had not been on in over week hear loud bang and the glass was in two bits
That’s a first. Not had a tumble dryer door glass reported shattered before.
I bought my Hotpoint Washing machine in 2019 and tonight after 4 years of use the glass door has exploded! Nothing sharp or coins where in with the laundry so it seems obvious that it must be a manufacturers fault. My last washer/dryer lasted me 10 years so very disappointed to learn that this seems to be an ongoing issue for many. Tomorrow I will be ringing up Hotpoint to see what they have to say as mine does not seem to be listed on the list of those that have been recalled.
Hi Katie. No washing machines have been recalled for the door glass shattering. This is a separate issue to the other issue where washing machines actually exploded out of their casings.
ELECTROUX EFLS617STT0
Purchased 2016
Glass in door just exploded. It sent shards of glass into and out of spinning drum. Almost got my arm cut multiple times trying to reach the power button to turn the machine off. It happened the moment I walked into the utility room, so i saw it happen. What a dangerous mess. We had to trash some clothes that were torn to shreads. Load was not overloaded or underloaded. Same load size as always.and no metal objects. Probably lost $300 in clothes. Electrolux basically asked if anyone was hurt or other property damage. Husband took door off to remove the glass still remaining in the door. It had exposed glass with sharp knawrled edges waiting to cut anyone walking by. Took about 4 hours of cleanup in the utility room and inside the drum. I’m afraid to leave the house now with a front loader machine running for fear it will destroy itself while running. This was not tempered glass because it came apart with multiple glass shards. I was almost sliced several times and could have been killed trying to turn off the machine with glass flying in the room. The picture above on this webpage is a good example of what I experienced except I had a little less glass remaining in the door.
Hello Julie. Unfortunately, my article and experience is only relating to UK washing machines. I have no idea what real differences there are in washing machines in say the US or other faraway places :)
However, your description strongly implies that safety glass is not present. Is it a very old washing machine by any chance?
Our Beko WTB941R4W washing machine had the glass explode out. Purchased in 2019.
We were sat watching TV and heard the sound of glass shattering, thinking someone was trying to break into our utility room window we jumped up only to find the large sharp pieces of glass on the floor.
We checked our cameras in the room to find that 2 hours after the washer has finished a 30° wash. The glass had just exploded out without warning.
Reading a lot of articles on the matter the blame is often placed on the customer for miss using the washer, in our case I have some heavy duty work trousers that have some large metal buttons that on occasion get caught in between the seal and the glass which has caused a mark on the glass.
We have yet to contact Beko regarding the incident, but I have a feeling we will be to blame for this incident in some as often seems the case.
let see what they have to say.
My machine glass door shattered this morning. A John Lewis machine; at least 11 years old, no insurance. No metal objects and not overloaded. The man who fitted it showed me how full to fill it. It was very scary and glass shards and tiny crumbs over the washing which I will need to discard. I use a laundry egg; surely this can’t be the problem? It would have been tested. Annie
The glass in my Bloomberg washing machine exploded on Tuesday what a scare.
Glass everywhere inside and out of the machine , clothes all ripped, waiting for the engineer to come out
Annie. If it is constantly hitting the door glass, it could theoretically cause micro damage, but you wouldn’t think so with it being plastic.