Can Shower Doors Break?

Glass.com's Daniel Snow teams up with Dustin Anderson from Anderson Glass in Waco, TX to find out just how hard it is to break shower door glass. Spoiler Alert: Our tool of choice was a sledge hammer and it still took many, many hits.

Transcription:

Daniel: Alright, so we're going to break some shower glass today! What can you tell me about this piece of glass right here?

Dustin: So this is three-eights tempered. It's essentially what we talked about with frameless shower glass. This is most of what your frameless, or seamless, or heavy glass is made up of. Just a clear, three-eighths tempered unit.

Daniel: So pretty much what you would find in any household bathroom.

Dustin: Absolutely.

Daniel: You mentioned that this glass is not as fragile as it looks.

Dustin: It's not. So what I want to show you real quick is just how rigid tempered glass really is. It will really take a shot. I mean, that's a baby sledge. So you can hit it pretty reasonably hard. I guess my point is, if you're gonna break this, you got to want to break it.

Daniel: Right. So if you fall in the shower, if you slip and you throw your elbow, or hit your head or something like that, this glass, nine times out of ten, you'd be find.

Dustin: And that's why it's this way. It is designed to keep you safe in the shower, at our most vulnerable point.

Daniel: Alright, well let's find out what happens if it does happen to break.

Dustin: Show me what it looks like when you want to break it.

Daniel: I wanted to break it, I really did!

Dustin: Ok, so that's a pretty incredible test, right? You hit it pretty hard, it bounces off, it hits concrete, and it's still fine. Probably scratched a little bit.

Give it a love tap right here on this corner and watch how simple it goes.

We're killing this thing.

Daniel: Wow!

Dustin: There you go. A little explosion. Three-eighths- a little heavier than the stuff that we broke earlier. Just a little thicker. But at the end of the day if that were to break while you're in the shower, you're in reasonable hands. You're pretty safe.

Daniel: Yea, I mean, lots of little pieces. Lots of larger chunks, but pretty smooth and rounded.

Dustin: For the most part. For sure.