I was getting a pair of gws plugs autoclaved at my piercers, and I was standing around making a few jokes. All of a sudden, the machine makes a very cool sound. I realized my plugs were in there and that sound wasn't a good thing. I had about 20 different pieces of galaxy originally intended as my bffs mothers day present. I went scrambling around to other shops trying to find another pair but I ended up buying her a pair of organics from unimax. The autoclave wasn't a statim, but more of those old style thingamabobs. I detected some air bubbles before I sent them to their doom, could that have contributed to it? any other ideas? is gws even autoclavable?  

Interesting, I just heard of this happening recently. I suppose if there is an bubble contained in the glass and the air expands enough the plugs would shatter. Sorry to hear about your loss, did you pay for the pair before they were autoclaved? 

Yeah, I tend to pay up front by nature. Even in cabs when its a really bizarre thing to do. The shop girl just gave me the face and started to offer some sort of compensation since they dont offer refunds. I was in a rush, so I left it as it was.

Do you have a receipt? Could you talk to the store manager? It seems ridiculous that you left the store without something as compensation.

If you're out of luck with that route perhaps you could speak with Ryan directly about whether galaxies are autoclave-safe. 

I think it has to do with bubbles, Ryan should be on here at some point in the near future, Im sure he can explain more!

yes it most likely is due to an airbubble in the glass.

ill be addressting this situation with production tomorrow

i will replace them if they explode, just send me a pic of them to ryan AT glasswearstudios.com 

GWS glass is autoclaveable

an air bubble esp one that is not round can cause uneven expansion/contracting while heating/cooling.  and galaxies have a tendancy to contain a non round airbubble.

these are only the 3 and 4th plugs i have heard of this happening since we released them in 2004, so thats a very low percentage.

i would like to know what color and sizes this is happening to, this would help us to figure out where the problem was in production of these.  if you photograph them please include the surviving one if only one broke.  

 I would also like to know the make and model of the sterilizer used. And what temperature and pressure it was running at when it exploded. 

 i would also like to know that