Customer Reviews

Pyrex 6021224 Storage 10-Piece Set, Clear with Blue Lids

5 star:		(261)
4 star:		(101)
3 star:		(44)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This has to be one of the best deals around, even at twice the price, because it replaces so many other things, and is so durable.

The containers work nicely for food storage, but they also can be used for cooking. They go from freezer to oven or microwave, and are dishwasher safe as well. Pyrex is practically unbreakable. With normal use, this set could easily last a lifetime. At the current price, they actually cost less than plastic containers, which do not have either the durability or versatility.

If all that's not enough, consider the health benefits. Glass will not leech plasticiser into your food, and there's no dioxin to worry about when microwaving.

I don't usually rave about kitchen items, but after I recieved this set, I rushed back to order another. I'm getting rid of most of the plastics in my cabinets today!

A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry. Cooking is my form of therapy. I have owned my set of these for at least 5 years, and possibly longer. I have not broken a single piece in that time. This may not sound like much but I am hard on things, and for all of them to still be intact is a minor miracle in my home. The glass is very tough.

Pros:
1. Glass is very tough, seems almost indestructible
2. I like that they are not plastic, so I feel safe about reheating food in them
3. The lids fit well for the first 4 years or so
4. Replacement lids are available at the Corning and Revere Factory Outlet stores
5. These containers fit well into lunch bags so that you family can take your healthy home cooked food to work or school.
6. The containers stack well inside each other for space cramped kitchens
7. You can bake in these and then cool the food (I place the entire container into a roasting pan filled with ice water) put on the lid and slide the pan into the refrigerator.
8. You freeze can food in these containers

Cons:
1. The lids do stretch and warp over time, I recommend buying extra lids before you need them. My lids lasted approximately 4 years.

Overall, I would recommend these to anyone that likes to cook in quantity and doesn't like to reheat food in plastic. I use these everyday in my kitchen.

Glass kitchenware is absolutely terrific, I have used Pyrex for many years and have a lot of it. Original "pyrex" is a very hard and durable glass that is tough and can withstand fluctuations in temperature without getting too plussed about it. With my love affair of the stuff, I purchased a few new clear round pyrex pieces recently, and was surprised to see that the clear yellowish color had changed, it is now clear greenish. I am a glass artist and melt different kinds of glass regularly, and the color of the new pyrex dishes in the store reminded me of what is called float (window) or soda-lime glass. I thought maybe it was the store lighting but when the new pyrex dishes arrived home they were still greenish.

Then I got the current issue of Consumers Reports last week...they had an article on the safety of pyrex. Apparently it has been breaking and exploding unexpectedly in home kitchens, in some cases causing traumatic injury. It turns out that the "pyrex" name, first of all, was sold by Corningware to two other companies...Corningware left the home glassware business in the late 1990's. I was not aware of this. Then I read about the complaints that have been filed about shattering, cracking, and worst of all, exploding dishes. Why this is happening is fuzzy - some claim that the "pyrex" base glass formula has changed. To me it looks like it - my new pyrex looks like greenish soda-lime glass, not thermal shock resistant yellowish borosilicate glass. But the company making the new pyrex denies this, and of course glass color can be altered....when I dug into the issue generally, what is going on is really unclear.

The ONLY thing that is clear is that people seem to be having a lot more trouble with new pyrex as compared to old pyrex - be it from a base material change, the glass not being tempered properly, or people now knowing how to use it. When pyrex was still owned by Corningware through the late 1990's, they were not having these kinds of complaints and issues from the public.

Although I did not resonate with the methodology that Consumer Reports used to test the glass dishes, I did agree with their conclusion to be careful with the new pyrex. In following prior Consumer Reports threads I saw that some independent labs cut up and analyzed some new pyrex items, and they discovered that the tempering of the soda-lime glass was not even. That is sobering. Tempering is a process that introduces stress gradients into glass to make it more durable under impact conditions - if you drop it on a floor, for example. But improperly tempered glass can hide little or large tracts of internal stress that you can't see. The dish may be fine at room temperature but if you heat it can break or explode with no warning, sending the glass and whatever was in it everywhere.

Again I'm not sure if this explains why people are having trouble with unstable dishes, or if new users of glass bakeware just don't know how to handle it, or if there indeed was a post-Corningware basic material change from borosilicate glass to tempered soda lime. What I do know is that under conditions of heat, "boro" as it is called is just a very tough glass. It's due to the basic properties of the material - soda lime glass has a coeffficient of thermal expansion anywhere from 90ish to 100ish, whereas borosilicate is half that. As a result, borosilicate glass, which is what pyrex was originally made of, and still is over in Europe, is more resistant to thermal shock than pyrex made from soda lime glass. Borosilicate has withstood the test of time, it started in chemistry labs as a great material to use safely under tough conditions (that is, tough conditions for glass, which does not like to be heated) on things like bunsen burners, test ovens, etc. Somewhere along the line this was recognized and "pyrex" was brought into home kitchens.

In Europe "pyrex" is still made of borosilicate by a company called Arc International (they bought the name from Corningware too). They have not received the hundreds of complaints - they have not had any complaints - about shattering, breaking, or exploding dishes (under low to mid heat conditions) that have been logged in the U.S. about the new pyrex. Their line is really limited, howveer...I could not find another company with some of the nifty storage designs that are sold here in the U.S.

If you are wondering about the possible stability of your old pyrex as I was? It does not seem to be clear when the new soda lime glass replaced the old pyrex borosilicate glass for bakeware, some are saying the change was made in the 1940's, others are saying it happened after the pyrex name changed hands in the late 1990's. Soda lime glass has a greenish tinge and looks like window or car glass, whereas borosilicate has a yellowish sunny tinge to it - this is easily seen in the edges of a dish. However, glass color can be tinted so this is not a foolproof guide. Based on what is happening, it seems like a guideline of glass made by Corningware before 1998 can be relied upon as glass that is stable under the conditions of proper usage. As an alternative, you could also purchase the european made borosilicate pyrex, which is also sold here on Amazon. I don't know if there is more than one company or not, Arc International has a limited line as compared to US made pyrex.

All of this said, the pyrex glassware being made by the new companies is being used by millions and millions of households every day without issue? It may be fine for you? But please be careful if you are going to heat it - be sure to understand how not to subject the pieces to thermal shock by reading the instructions carefully!!! Especially don't take a hot dish out of the oven and set it on a room temperature or cold counter, stovetop, or in cold water, instead place it on a thermally insulating hot pad to cool.

I bought 2 of these sets to replace all of the plastic storage sets we had previously. I was looking forward to having the Pyrex versus plastic for all the same reasons listed by others such as cleaning, appearance, durability.

I would still recommend Pyrex over plastic but this particular set design is not very good. The straight sides without a top lip make them very difficult to use when heating in them.

When using the bowls in the microwave the bowls become VERY hot which requires the use of oven mitts to handle them. However, the slick straight sides make it likely that the bowl will slip from your mitted grip.

Likewise, if you are emptying the VERY hot bowls into another before eating, the straight sides and oven mitts make it virtually impossible to tip the bowls to pour without dropping them.

One other aspect of the shape that I have found is that they overflow in the microwave much more frequently than ones with sloped sides.

For storage only however, I think this set is just fine. The lids fit very tightly and the clear glass makes it very easy to identify the contents. But for me, if I am investing in Pyrex I want to be able to cook in it as well.

I have since purchased some of the Pyrex bowls that have sloped sides and a lip around the entire top. These also have lids for storage. I have found this design to be infinitely easier to handle hot and still just as useful for storage. As an added bonus, these new ones nest inside each other much better than the straight sided ones.

Paul

I bought these containers for one reason...plastic containers smell. They absorb colors and odors and over time, this becomes both ugly and unpalatable. They also are prone to melting and warping, both in the microwave and in the dishwasher. Glass seemed to be a natural solution to these problems, so we bought this set.

The Pyrex containers are great for solid food. Tomato-based pastas don't stain; garlickly foods don't leave an awful residual smell; and since glass is a better heat conductor, they're more optimal in the microwave than plastic. Heed the other reviewers' warnings regarding liquid storage; the lids are probably the weakest point. For liquid, we use Nalgene containers, which never, ever leak (backpackers use them religiously).

My husband reheated some spaghetti w/ chili in a Pyrex storage container today. He placed it in the microwave w/o problem. He removed it and began eating. About 3-4 minutes later, the bowl exploded. Luckily nobody got hurt, but there was a loud pop and some flying glass. I replaced all of my plastic storage containers with Pyrex due to concerns about reheating plastic in a microwave. Now, I feel like I need to find a new solution. If you do a little research, you'll find that there have been many cases of exploding Pyrex. I know I'm no longer comfortable using it.

When on discount these are a bargain for durable food storage that will not leach plasticizers into your food. But be aware that they are not watertight. Liquids will leak slowly if tipped, so these are not suitable for transporting your leftover soup to work.

I purchased some of these about two years ago. Love the idea of storing in glass, not plastic - no absorbing odors, no more red pasta sauce stains, etc. But, if you're taking them to work, beware. The lids on mine were tight, then after a couple of washings in the dishwasher (supposed to be safe for this) they no longer fit the bowls and have a tendency to slip off.

I did not buy this set from amazon, but from kmart instead. But I just had to come here and write a review for these amazing storage bowls.

We bought a head of butter lettuce 6 weeks ago. I had no place to store it in the humidity bin in our fridge, so I plucked all the leaves off the lettuce and put them in the 7 cup round bowl. Then I put the bowl in the fridge and forgot all about it.

Come tonight, I am cleaning the fridge and find the bowl with the lettuce still in there. I was curious as to how well the bowl worked, so I thought I would try a couple lettuce leaves.

The results?

THEY ARE AS FRESH TASTING AND AS CRISPY AS THE DAY I BOUGHT THEM!!! I am not kidding! Absolutely zero wilting, decay or even mold. Now if that isn't amazing storage, I really don't know what is. Keep a head of lettuce in a plastic bag for a week in the fridge and see what it turns into.

I also tried a leaking test after I read some of the reviews here. Mine didn't leak any liquid at all and I tipped the bowl several times.

If you do buy these bowls in person rather than online, check the lids - make sure they are tight fitting. I did this and my bowls have never failed me. I also handwash the bowls and lids, so I'm not sure if that also keeps them in good shape, as opposed to the dishwasher.

Glass is extremely hygienic, does not carry odours and is so easy to clean - it doesn't stain unlike plastic!

I'm soooo excited that the Pyrex bowls kept the lettuce fresh. They worked even better than our humidity bin! I should call Westinghouse and tell them!

I can't wait till they are on sale again so I can get more. They are wonderful and so worth the cost even if they aren't on sale.

I like the idea of these things, and they are definitely good for storage, but yesterday I spent two hours making the best enchiladas EVER and the casserole-sized piece literally exploded in my friend's oven. The magnitude of the event compels me to give a 1-star review.