What are the issues of using tempered glass?

[icydeath]

I found a vendor online (onedayglass.com) while I was planning a plywood aquarium I want to build eventually. They don't sell annealed glass past 24"x24" and that was too small so I decided to see how much tempered would be. A 55"x21" piece of tempered glass at .5" thickness is 90 dollars, which is a steal. Almost every other vendor have the same dimensions of glass at like 300 for tempered at 250 for plate. Why are so many people opposed to using tempered glass? I know tempered glass blows up instead of cracking, but is this even a concern at these thicknesses?

 

[cgthebeast]

It's stronger but you can't drill it at all

 

[icydeath]

I know that but what I mean is that a lot of people are worried about it blowing up, but will that kind of force ever be present in the tank? Just trying to see if there are any real concerns (that exist with tempered glass that do not exist with annealed) when the proper precautions are taken. This is because many will say hands down do not use tempered.

 

[Mebbid]

I know that but what I mean is that a lot of people are worried about it blowing up, but will that kind of force ever be present in the tank? Just trying to see if there are any real concerns (that exist with tempered glass that do not exist with annealed) when the proper precautions are taken. This is because many will say hands down do not use tempered.

My only worry about tempered glass, is if a rock were to fall or something hard were to damage it to cause it to break, then the ENTIRE pane explodes. I'm not sure what it would take to do that, but Murphy makes these things happen.

With plate glass it could crack or break, but it's not quite as likely to explode if something happens to it.

 

[icydeath]

I agree with this, especially in thinner panels. The question is the amount of force it would take to do this. At half an inch, plate glass is already insanely difficult to break. Pairing this with the 6-7x increased strength of tempered glass I just find it unlikely.

I do understand what you mean, but 6-7x the amount of force to break the tempered glass would probably wreck that plate glass too.

If anyone else desires, feel free to chime in.

 

[icydeath]

Bump. (since it was late)

 

[PB_Smith]

if you don't mount it perfectly any variation in tension/stress on the plate will cause it to fail, it make take a year or so, but it will fail regardless of how thick it is.
Making certain there is no flex or torsion on the plate when it is installed is the number one concern.

 

[icydeath]

So you would want to make sure that it is installed properly on a level surface. That makes sense.

So annealed is favored because it cracks insteads of exploding at their respective breaking points and because tempered has to be installed with utmost concern. Therefore annealed is chosen due to the ease of use. Correct?