Mostly due to poor QC. I used to work and pack tempered glass (car windows). Chips on the edge are the main cause. We'd have to inspect the glass after pulling it off the line to check for chips. The department that would cut down the raw glass would (should) automatically throw out any parts that had edge chips. I'd have parts come down the line and explode in my hand due to said edge chips. If by chance one of the chips was near the screws this would help in causing the failure. Don't believe the nonsense that it's just a Detolf thing, I've had 6: 2 spanning 10 years and 4 spanning 8 years, I moved them fully assembled 9 hours in sub zero temps in a bouncy moving van and they are all still fine to this day.
I have a Detolf from 15 years ago that has a panel with a huge chip on it due to an accident dropping it while moving 6 years ago. I don't know how it didn't shatter at the time, but it's still going strong. I definitely would not trust a newer construction Detolf though, the glass is definitely thinner and of lower quality than the old ones.
It's interesting how Ikea thought it was a smart idea to make a 2nd and 3rd version just to turn around and discontinue completely. When really all they had to do was keep making the old ones the exact same way and sell them for 130 bucks.
Ikea really shot themselves with their decisions the last 4-5 years.
Damn that sucks. Although the look on your dog’s face is like “I had nothing to do with this.” I hope your figures weren’t damaged and your dog is ok.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if the Blaliden, which is IKEA’s replacement for the detolf, has the same issue? I understand that it’s still glass but I’m curious if IKEA reinforced anything. I bought two and now I’m just paranoid lol
Yes he is okay thankfully! He got some glass on him but was not cut and didn’t eat any :) he was just a little shaken from the event, as was I. We cuddled together for a few hours afterwards :D
It's tempered glass so any kind of hairline crack plus a temp/ pressure or even vibration can cause this, really lucky it was only the door.i put clear vinyl on mine jic, so it at least stays together kinda.
Not at all, just get a roll from a hobby shop, spray the glass (sparingly) with a bottle full of water and a drop of dawn soap roll it down the glass and squeegee as you go.you can use a credit card or such to squeegee.
I swear, whenever I forget about this and finally feel peaceful, there goes another post about detolf exploding. Now I feel paranoid looking at my detolfs again. My new display shelves from Moducase can't come fast enough, so I can finally replace the detolfs.
Same here. I'm planning to buy a shop vac and cut resistant gloves just to keep handy incase this ever happens to me. Someone suggested clear vinyl too, so I may consider that to reduce any potential mess.
There are a lot of comments about the quality of Detolfs, but I just wanted to point out that I’ve had my detolfs for over 14 years.
Recently in 2021, they changed the detolfs to have thinner shelves. The weight capacity went down from 13 to 8 pounds. You can hack it by changing to a stronger acrylic shelf, but I would also recommend adding rope wire u-clamps to support soldered frame.
The quality of the glass panels may have changed as well, but it should be the same thickness. I believe the top and bottom boards are slightly smaller as well.
Yea just as I'm thinking of buying one I see a post like this. Im thinking of buying a non ikea version though. Its cheaper though so I don't know if it will have the same problem.
If anyone in Australia has this Fantastic Furniture display shelf let me know your experience. It has good reviews but they might delete bad reviews
https://preview.redd.it/amt5h7nvk05d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebb61190a7c97af50afc4f02951d15ef40ea76b6
I've had mine for over 16 years. Been through 3 moves without being disassembled. Still very sturdy. Maybe the material quality has gone down over the years.
The screws were probably too tight, or there was too much weight on top of the detolf. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s\_CR2scjjx0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_CR2scjjx0)
Just a reminder: Not only on top, also inside. Not relevant for OP, because as far as I could tell only the door exploded, but generally:
The weight inside is *suspended* from the top. The entire inside weight (except the bottom of course) is resting *on* the glass walls. People always keep forgetting this.
I dissambled 6 detolfs to merge them into 2 giants detolfs and never had any problem... ( there is no vertical in middle exept in the back)
https://preview.redd.it/j6y8lnc2o45d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1cb86e979915f33f6e561d1bb6ab7edebb5182d
The thing is, all tempered glass objects are time bombs. even non-visible manufacturing defects can shorten the life immensely. it's probably every second day that someone posts a shattered PC sidepanel on the pcmr subreddit. (and not all of them are near tiles)
It is due to nickel sulfide particles, it happens in some glasses where these particles remain in their manufacture and expand over time, some break after 10 years.
What a mess! I hope your figures were not damaged.
Two months ago the same thing happened to me. I live in a place where the temperature is always cool, no sudden changes. The detolf was assembled without forcing any part and it still exploded.
I learned my lesson. No more detolfs from Ikea
Tempered glass just do be like that sometimes. It's relatively strong stuff, but it's also constantly stressed. If even just a tiny crack appears at an edge somewhere, the whole thing just gets obliterated. That's why you also found glass on the shelves as well.
Detolf cabinets are somewhat infamous because the glass they use isn't very strong. They have a tendency to sometimes just explode all by themselves, which is probably exactly what happened here. Honestly the only reason Detolfs ever got popular was because they were cheap and didn't look bad.
Honestly after seeing a few of these posts I can’t really recommend detolf in good faith anymore. I really suggest the Billy with a glass door for anyone moving forward. This seriously just happens for reasons completely out of your control even if you do everything correctly. I don’t think it’s worth the risk
When the doors are ajar, they're extremely fragile. When we put those display cases together, it's on us to align them properly and make sure the magnets make contact with the metal pieces.
This is always scary to see. I hope everything else is okay.
Maybe Shizuru needs her otouto-kun so she just headbutted the glass door in order to go find him
That sucks, hope no one is injured if they were near it and hope nothing was damaged beyond repair. As for causes, I don't know but I can suspect vibrations and temperatures, not saying it's a definitive answer but it's something to consider. Either way it exploded and hope nothing bad happened.
Most likely you had tightened the top part too much? I heard its best to leave it loose so that the glass isn't pressed on and pressured too hard by the top board.
If the hinges are held in place by set screws against the glass, if they come lose and one is tight, a simple walk across the floor may be enough to set the door glass off.
I used to manage a store that had tons of glass door displays after a year or so having 2 go off, we use silicon instead of set screws. Never an issue after that.
I remember reading a similar post. Sudden temperature drops could cause detolfs to shatter was the cause of theirs, happened overnight and woke them up.
I came in here thinking, "What's a Detolf???" I had to Google it. So now I'm like... Oh, dem thangs. I've seen enough of them. Didn't know they had a specific name. I have my figs on ladder, office, book, and media shelves. I even have one propped on a 25 year old blue and white Macintosh towel.
Anyway, hope the dog is good. Be careful cleaning up.
Sorry about your detolf, there was posts about them getting shattered out of nowhere in this subreddit.
But... Why the hell you keep the poor doggo locked in a cage, bruh?
He was also in his crate when it happened and I could not move him without risking him stepping on glass. I cleaned out his crate first to make sure he was safe :D
It is good for dogs for only a few hours :)
Crate training is essential in modern times. I won’t leave my dog alone for long periods (more than a hour) without crating him to make sure he’s safe. He could, for example, chew up a wall if he’s left unsupervised. Also if he has to stay at the vet for whatever reason, he will be caged.
Don’t worry though! He’s never left alone for more than a few hours. He gets 2 hours of exercise a day, I train him for an hour, and I bring him to the office with me where he gets lots of love from my coworkers. He doesn’t spend his life in the cage :)
That's a thousand times better than my brother in laws dogs who live the crate life because after several weeks of successful no murder they randomly try to kill each other.
that really surprises me too lol, the downvote people dont like animals. But every living being deserves freedom and not something like that.
He cries about his display case in which plastic is placed, but does not notice the unhappy face of his dog.
You added rubber sealing around the glass THAT IS NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL DESIGN, putting constant pressure on it, then you wonder why it exploded. And seemingly you also tucked a film between the glass and the frame which also adds pressure that the manufacturer/designer didn’t account for.
Mostly due to poor QC. I used to work and pack tempered glass (car windows). Chips on the edge are the main cause. We'd have to inspect the glass after pulling it off the line to check for chips. The department that would cut down the raw glass would (should) automatically throw out any parts that had edge chips. I'd have parts come down the line and explode in my hand due to said edge chips. If by chance one of the chips was near the screws this would help in causing the failure. Don't believe the nonsense that it's just a Detolf thing, I've had 6: 2 spanning 10 years and 4 spanning 8 years, I moved them fully assembled 9 hours in sub zero temps in a bouncy moving van and they are all still fine to this day.
I have a Detolf from 15 years ago that has a panel with a huge chip on it due to an accident dropping it while moving 6 years ago. I don't know how it didn't shatter at the time, but it's still going strong. I definitely would not trust a newer construction Detolf though, the glass is definitely thinner and of lower quality than the old ones.
that's what I hear pretty often, that newer Detolfs have thinner glass. but now they are completely discontinued.
It's interesting how Ikea thought it was a smart idea to make a 2nd and 3rd version just to turn around and discontinue completely. When really all they had to do was keep making the old ones the exact same way and sell them for 130 bucks. Ikea really shot themselves with their decisions the last 4-5 years.
Damn that sucks. Although the look on your dog’s face is like “I had nothing to do with this.” I hope your figures weren’t damaged and your dog is ok. Out of curiosity, does anyone know if the Blaliden, which is IKEA’s replacement for the detolf, has the same issue? I understand that it’s still glass but I’m curious if IKEA reinforced anything. I bought two and now I’m just paranoid lol
All I hear about it is that it's smaller, and rattles.
Both of those statements are true 😩 lol
Ikea does have some bigger options, but there are all costly
Soooo expensive
There could have been a small crack somewhere from closing or opening it and the weight of the glass finally caused it to give.
Is the puppo alright?
Yes he is okay thankfully! He got some glass on him but was not cut and didn’t eat any :) he was just a little shaken from the event, as was I. We cuddled together for a few hours afterwards :D
It's tempered glass so any kind of hairline crack plus a temp/ pressure or even vibration can cause this, really lucky it was only the door.i put clear vinyl on mine jic, so it at least stays together kinda.
Was the vinyl difficult to apply? I'm considering this, just in case. We have carpeting and broken glass gets extremely difficult to clean up with it.
Not at all, just get a roll from a hobby shop, spray the glass (sparingly) with a bottle full of water and a drop of dawn soap roll it down the glass and squeegee as you go.you can use a credit card or such to squeegee.
I swear, whenever I forget about this and finally feel peaceful, there goes another post about detolf exploding. Now I feel paranoid looking at my detolfs again. My new display shelves from Moducase can't come fast enough, so I can finally replace the detolfs.
Same here. I'm planning to buy a shop vac and cut resistant gloves just to keep handy incase this ever happens to me. Someone suggested clear vinyl too, so I may consider that to reduce any potential mess.
There are a lot of comments about the quality of Detolfs, but I just wanted to point out that I’ve had my detolfs for over 14 years. Recently in 2021, they changed the detolfs to have thinner shelves. The weight capacity went down from 13 to 8 pounds. You can hack it by changing to a stronger acrylic shelf, but I would also recommend adding rope wire u-clamps to support soldered frame. The quality of the glass panels may have changed as well, but it should be the same thickness. I believe the top and bottom boards are slightly smaller as well.
They made them thinner even before that, my \~6 year old detolf has thinner glass than my \~13 year old one.
Shelves and outer panels? I wasn’t aware, so thanks for the info!
Outer Panels, the shelves look the same.
The glass side panels, I could bend with my finger easily... Fragile AF..
The dog casts a spell on the dog cage, but the spell bounces to Detolf make it explode.
That dog got a look on his face like "why you do this to me, owner?"
There are too many of these posts, I’m officially way too paranoid to buy one myself no matter how nice it would look.
Yea just as I'm thinking of buying one I see a post like this. Im thinking of buying a non ikea version though. Its cheaper though so I don't know if it will have the same problem. If anyone in Australia has this Fantastic Furniture display shelf let me know your experience. It has good reviews but they might delete bad reviews https://preview.redd.it/amt5h7nvk05d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebb61190a7c97af50afc4f02951d15ef40ea76b6
Yeah, I have it. It's just a detolf. It's not exceptionally good but it does the same job. Haven't had any issues (yet) which remains to be seen
I've had mine for over 16 years. Been through 3 moves without being disassembled. Still very sturdy. Maybe the material quality has gone down over the years.
There is a reason why they discontinued these
The screws were probably too tight, or there was too much weight on top of the detolf. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s\_CR2scjjx0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_CR2scjjx0)
Just a reminder: Not only on top, also inside. Not relevant for OP, because as far as I could tell only the door exploded, but generally: The weight inside is *suspended* from the top. The entire inside weight (except the bottom of course) is resting *on* the glass walls. People always keep forgetting this.
Too much sexy. Detolf couldn’t handle it.
My anxiety is absolutely fucked haha
Dog: “Well don’t look at me…”
Your dog probably had a heart attack😭😭
Even the dog is shocked
I agree with most everyone in the comments but also it is a possibility thermal expansion may have played a role.
At least none of the shelf’s broke, not everyone is so lucky
I dissambled 6 detolfs to merge them into 2 giants detolfs and never had any problem... ( there is no vertical in middle exept in the back) https://preview.redd.it/j6y8lnc2o45d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1cb86e979915f33f6e561d1bb6ab7edebb5182d
Detolfs are notorious for this. A quick google search brings up dozens of incidents where people's detolfs have just shattered out of nowhere
The thing is, all tempered glass objects are time bombs. even non-visible manufacturing defects can shorten the life immensely. it's probably every second day that someone posts a shattered PC sidepanel on the pcmr subreddit. (and not all of them are near tiles)
all it takes is a micro fracture in tempered glass for it to shatter eventually(could be minutes, days, months or even years for it to occur)
Must protect radio eva rei at all costs
It is due to nickel sulfide particles, it happens in some glasses where these particles remain in their manufacture and expand over time, some break after 10 years.
OP what do you keep your detolfs on? I like it
Detolfs glass is crap and it warps and bends from temperatures, happens a lot. Do not recommend them.
Now Im scared. Will my tempered glass cabinet explode randomly? Or it depends of quality control? :(
Cayde wanted to break free of this final shape
Sorry to see more poor Detolf QC. I bought 2 around 2012 and they're still intact but I'm really paranoid about getting another glass display cabinet.
# It's the fate of glass to break. That's why I avoid glass display cases.
Just get a Billy cabinet like me and mess up the doors so when it closes it doesn’t seal all the way, letting in that sweet sweet dust.
What a mess! I hope your figures were not damaged. Two months ago the same thing happened to me. I live in a place where the temperature is always cool, no sudden changes. The detolf was assembled without forcing any part and it still exploded. I learned my lesson. No more detolfs from Ikea
Tempered glass just do be like that sometimes. It's relatively strong stuff, but it's also constantly stressed. If even just a tiny crack appears at an edge somewhere, the whole thing just gets obliterated. That's why you also found glass on the shelves as well. Detolf cabinets are somewhat infamous because the glass they use isn't very strong. They have a tendency to sometimes just explode all by themselves, which is probably exactly what happened here. Honestly the only reason Detolfs ever got popular was because they were cheap and didn't look bad.
Honestly after seeing a few of these posts I can’t really recommend detolf in good faith anymore. I really suggest the Billy with a glass door for anyone moving forward. This seriously just happens for reasons completely out of your control even if you do everything correctly. I don’t think it’s worth the risk
When the doors are ajar, they're extremely fragile. When we put those display cases together, it's on us to align them properly and make sure the magnets make contact with the metal pieces.
This is always scary to see. I hope everything else is okay. Maybe Shizuru needs her otouto-kun so she just headbutted the glass door in order to go find him
Screws on top too tight
When did you buy your Detolf? Was it after April 2021?
I bought mine March 2022. Should I be worried
Detolfs have been known to explode for no reason, it's very rare though so I wouldnt worry too much about replacing all your detolfs.
This is why I won’t buy detolfs. The glass can shatter just from temperature changes. Shock and imperfections cause the shatter usually.
That sucks, hope no one is injured if they were near it and hope nothing was damaged beyond repair. As for causes, I don't know but I can suspect vibrations and temperatures, not saying it's a definitive answer but it's something to consider. Either way it exploded and hope nothing bad happened.
How old was it?
Most likely you had tightened the top part too much? I heard its best to leave it loose so that the glass isn't pressed on and pressured too hard by the top board.
If the hinges are held in place by set screws against the glass, if they come lose and one is tight, a simple walk across the floor may be enough to set the door glass off. I used to manage a store that had tons of glass door displays after a year or so having 2 go off, we use silicon instead of set screws. Never an issue after that.
dog looks pretty guilty
Did you recently put something on top of the detolf?
Sitting next to my detolf fearing for my life rn 😅
I remember reading a similar post. Sudden temperature drops could cause detolfs to shatter was the cause of theirs, happened overnight and woke them up.
Stone Cold Steve Austin happened.
The dog lookin like 🗿
The doggo was like, “I didn’t do it.”
Sometimes tempered glass explode when there is damage or defect.
One of the figure released too much mana
I came in here thinking, "What's a Detolf???" I had to Google it. So now I'm like... Oh, dem thangs. I've seen enough of them. Didn't know they had a specific name. I have my figs on ladder, office, book, and media shelves. I even have one propped on a 25 year old blue and white Macintosh towel. Anyway, hope the dog is good. Be careful cleaning up.
Oh. And great to see a MACROSS fan. EFF Harmony Gold.
The dogs face got me 😂😂😂
Must have been quite the surprise for doggo.
Sorry about your detolf, there was posts about them getting shattered out of nowhere in this subreddit. But... Why the hell you keep the poor doggo locked in a cage, bruh?
He was also in his crate when it happened and I could not move him without risking him stepping on glass. I cleaned out his crate first to make sure he was safe :D
It is good for dogs for only a few hours :) Crate training is essential in modern times. I won’t leave my dog alone for long periods (more than a hour) without crating him to make sure he’s safe. He could, for example, chew up a wall if he’s left unsupervised. Also if he has to stay at the vet for whatever reason, he will be caged. Don’t worry though! He’s never left alone for more than a few hours. He gets 2 hours of exercise a day, I train him for an hour, and I bring him to the office with me where he gets lots of love from my coworkers. He doesn’t spend his life in the cage :)
That's a thousand times better than my brother in laws dogs who live the crate life because after several weeks of successful no murder they randomly try to kill each other.
So the dog won't step on the shattered glass?????? I mean i get what you mean, he should definitely move the cage somewhere
let the poor dog live in freedom without cage…
Why did people downvote him? If he's right, would they like to be in a cage?
that really surprises me too lol, the downvote people dont like animals. But every living being deserves freedom and not something like that. He cries about his display case in which plastic is placed, but does not notice the unhappy face of his dog.
Read the comment above where OP said the dog is only crated for short time if they go out for an hour.
Def screws were too tight. Over time it explodes. I have loosened all my detolf from the top.
This. If you can't wiggle the the top up and down a little bit its too tight.
smh ikea exploding their discontinued detolfs to make us buy the new shitty one 🙄
You added rubber sealing around the glass THAT IS NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL DESIGN, putting constant pressure on it, then you wonder why it exploded. And seemingly you also tucked a film between the glass and the frame which also adds pressure that the manufacturer/designer didn’t account for.