Bath Fitter glass shower and bathtub doors

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. No one hurt

   Made Jan 4, 2014 · , sent to the company Jan 13, 2014 · , published by CPSC Feb 5, 2014

   The product, in the report: It was a rimless tempered glass shower door, hung in a metal frame. The shower was installed by Bathfitters approximately 11 months ago. There are no hinges; this is a double-long shower stall so the doors are side by side and slide along the door track. There was no damage prior to the incident; it appears to have exploded spontaneously.

   Friday, January 3, 2014 Approximately 10:55 pm

   [REDACTED] was working on her computer in the office (the master bedroom) and [REDACTED] was in the living room (across the house) watching TV. Suddenly there was a very loud, horrendous crashing noise from the master bathroom. The right-hand shower door had spontaneously exploded!! The left door and metal frame appear intact, but we can’t get close enough to inspect it carefully because of all the shattered bits of glass all over the bathroom. These are rimless glass doors installed by Bathfitters less than one year ago.

   No one was walking in or around the house at the time. There were no fireworks, jets flying overhead, or any other loud noises or vibrations beforehand. No one had been in that bathroom, even to use the toilet, for more than 12 hours. There were no recorded earthquakes in the area at the time (we checked online afterward) and nothing else in the house showed any signs of movement. Nothing was hanging on the towel rack on the shower door. Nothing was touching the shower door. When [REDACTED] showered last night and [REDACTED] showered this morning, everything seemed normal. There were no visible cracks. This seems to have been completely random, which made it that much more frightening.

   After taking a moment to calm down, we began taking pictures and video clips of what had happened. We observed that the right-hand shower door was completely gone, but the left-hand door (i.e. the one closer to the showerhead) was still standing. There was a large pile of glass debris on the bathroom floor immediately next to the shower, with more debris spread outward from there along the shower door track, inside the shower, across the bathroom floor and behind the toilet. A few tiny bits were on the bathroom vanity counter as well. Some small shards had gone past the bathroom doorway into the office.

   We could hear continuing “crackling” and sounds almost like dripping water for at least 20 minutes afterward. Listening and observing carefully from the bathroom door, the crackling sounds appeared to be coming from the larger pieces of glass (approximately six inches in diameter, visibly cracked in a shatter pattern but still holding together in sheets larger than my hand, sitting in the largest pile of debris next to the shower) that were continuing to crack. The dripping sounds were from tiny pieces of glass (approximately the size of kidney beans) dropping from the shower door track onto the floor as the debris continued to settle.

   We swept up the few bits that had flown into the office (two went all the way to the office door by the hallway!) then closed the bathroom door. We want the Bathfitters people to see what happened before we clean up the rest. We will use the other bathroom in the mean time. We immediately called Bathfitters and left a message requesting an emergency call-back as soon as possible.

   Thankfully no one was in the bathroom at the time, and [REDACTED]’s location in the office shielded her from all of the little pieces of debris that made it out of the bathroom. This is the time of night that Jennifer would typically have been in the shower! Also thankfully we have a second full bath available for the duration of the repair.

   We did a quick Google search and found a 7 On Your Side [REDACTED] report from November 2013 stating that this is not an unusual incident. YouTube has many videos from people experiencing the same thing from multiple brands of shower doors. The [REDACTED] report said more than 2500 people were injured by similar phenomena from 2010-2012 and that more than 50 complaints have been filed with the CPSC, but no recall has been issued. We plan to file a report with the CPSC as well to help raise awareness of the frequency of this safety hazard. (We are not seeking to complain against Bathfitters specifically, since this seems to have been happening to multiple brands’ doors in recent years. We just want to help raise awareness so the CPSC can help fix this at the source and keep everyone safer.)

   Bought from

   Bathfitters, California

   Bought

   Feb 18, 2013

   Where

   San Jose, California: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Age 26, Female

   The reporter’s relation to them

   My Child

   As this report names them

   made or sold by Bath Fitter

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Incident, No Injury

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources