Ikea offers to refund customer whose glass bottle suddenly 'burst' in fridge: 'Glass was all over'

Submitted by Stomper Tan

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Ikea has offered to refund a customer after a glass bottle he bought from the Swedish furniture store suddenly "burst" in his fridge on Aug 7.

Sharing a photo of the broken bottle, Stomper Tan said that he bought two of the clear glass bottles from Ikea Tampines last year.

The Korken bottle, which comes with a stopper, is available in three sizes. The 1-litre bottle is $3.90 each, the half-litre is $2.90 and the 15-centilitre bottle is three for $4.90.

The Stomper recounted that on the morning of the incident, he filled the 1-litre bottle with tap water, closed it with the stopper and placed the bottle in the fridge.

"In the evening around 6pm, when I was in the living room watching a movie, I heard a loud burst sound," he said.

"I checked around my home and saw that my refrigerator was leaking so much water. I opened my fridge and the glass was all over. Luckily, I didn't get cut myself."

The Stomper said that he threw away the broken bottle as well as the other one he had not used yet to be extra careful.

In response to a Stomp query, Ikea Singapore said it has reached out to the Stomper and offered him a full reimbursement for the product, which he has accepted.

The company told Stomp: "We are thankful that Mr. Tan and his family are safe and no injuries were reported.

"While Ikea Singapore has not received similar feedback related to the Korken bottle, we will raise this incident to our product teams in Sweden for their review.

"As always, we encourage customers to reach out to us immediately in any case involving a product with shattered tempered glass. We will offer to replace the product no matter how long ago it was purchased.

"As part of Ikea's commitment to product safety, our furniture and products use tempered glass, which is heat-resistant and shatters into small cubic pieces and not in long sharp shards (as is the case for non-tempered glass).

"Sometimes, the tension caused by a strike, knock or scratch stays in the glass. A very small impact can make the glass shatter hours or even months later. This is why on very rare occasions, glass may seem to shatter for no apparent reason. This is a well-known industry issue, but we acknowledge that it can be disconcerting for anyone to experience this.

"We do our utmost to ensure that IKEA products are safe to use by everyone, and extensive work has been put into developing safe glass products. IKEA product developers work alongside global industry leaders to continually develop and create glass that is more resistant, and ensure comprehensive quality and safety checks, so that customers can use our products with peace of mind."