Screen shatters because of coming into AC

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gulli077

Lurker
Wildest and saddest thing ever just happened to my incredible. I'm in Virginia for a wedding where the air is around 100 degrees. I had been carrying my phone in my hand all day as I normally do and went into the air conditioned church, which was around 65. I went to take a picture with my phone and the screen shattered where I was holding it in the corner and spiderwebbed across the phone. The screen and touch still works, i just have a difficult time reading through the cracks. This is the saddest thing ever because I literally baby my phones and have never lost or broken a phone in the 12 years I've had a cell phone. I'm going to go into Verizon and see what can be done since I have insurance... im just scared of this insurance company since ive heard so many terrible things about it. It's also annoying because i had been planning on taking it in anyways because it will not read my microsd card and hasnt for the past two weeks. Just be careful of temperature changes.:( I know some people won't believe this story but i guess it was one of those fluke things that with my awesome luck had to happen. It's just so annoying that they put glass in a phone that can't even resist changes of fourty degrees. I'm definitely regretting not getting a phone with gorilla class. Has this happened to anyone else?
 
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sabrewings

Android Expert
I've done the same thing on hotter days, no issue. Something else was already wrong if that happened. Glass will not crack based off air temperature. Now, if you poured cold water on it, I'd say "shouldn't have done that".
 
PearlRose

PearlRose

Member
I live in SE VA and I've yet to have a screen of any type crack due to temp. Now I've had a 46" LCD crack due to a Wii Controller....

But living in VA I am worried that the humidity will cause liquid damage. Walking from the cold/AC into extreme humid heat causes condensation on glass...

I would assume by now you are able to tell for certain it's a crack and not a spiderweb of condensation?
 
Phydeaux

Phydeaux

Android Enthusiast
sabrewings said:
I've done the same thing on hotter days, no issue. Something else was already wrong if that happened. Glass will not crack based off air temperature. Now, if you poured cold water on it, I'd say "shouldn't have done that".
Click to expand...
No reason air temperature difference wouldn't crack glass, In fact I've had the windsheild of my car crack from turning on the defrost on a cold day.
I'm not saying there wasn't something else going on with his phone, but the glass on phones is very thin and could be susceptible to fast temperature changes whether from water or air.
 
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sabrewings

Android Expert
Phydeaux said:
No reason air temperature difference wouldn't crack glass, In fact I've had the windsheild of my car crack from turning on the defrost on a cold day.
I'm not saying there wasn't something else going on with his phone, but the glass on phones is very thin and could be susceptible to fast temperature changes whether from water or air.
Click to expand...

In that instance, the glass has ice sitting on it and 150-180*F air pumping on to it from the bottom. That's nowhere near 65*F air coming to contact with a 100-110*F screen (no water involved).

Air has a low specific heat, unlike water. If water got onto it that was cold, I would have no doubt that it would crack.
 
M

MalfunctioningRoboticBoy

Newbie
besides, glass doesn't crack because of difference in heat because it's too thin, it cracks because it's too thick. Just like when you put extremely hot drinking glasses in cold water or vice versa; one side of the glass is expanding/contracting very quickly and the other side isn't, which causes an internal "shearing" effect that causes cracks. Thin glass uniformly expands or contracts.
 
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mrjinglesusa

Android Enthusiast
Yeah, sorry that happened, but it wasn't because you went into a room with AC. Even if your screen/phone were 100 F, going into AC isn't going to instantaneously cool it to 65F. Just not going to happen. It will SLOWLY cool down and that isn't going to crack your glass. Something else going on here....
 
A

appleaj

Android Enthusiast
I'm going to go with something is wrong with your phone. Glass materials are designed to have a low coefficient of thermal expansion to avoid thermal shock, and they typically have relatively high temperature capabilities. I doubt the glass was cooled fast enough to lead to fracture, I'm going to assume they took into consideration that people take their phones outside where they heat up to high temperatures when treating the glass. I'm a mechanical engineer who's taken materials, thermodynamics, and heat transfer courses.
 
M

Member138406

Guest
Did you already have a slight crack on the screen? As Phydeaux kinda touched on.. I am in AZ a lot and once I had a crack on my windshield and its sitting out in the 100+ sun all day, I used the windsheild wiper fluid and it instantly spiderd about 3 inches out.
 
E

euph_22

Android Expert
I'm assuming the screen was either already cracked, or had some impurities. Either way, you'll have trouble convincing Verizon that it's a defect and not the result of an accident. Witnesses might help.
 
kyler13

kyler13

Android Expert
appleaj said:
I'm going to go with something is wrong with your phone. Glass materials are designed to have a low coefficient of thermal expansion to avoid thermal shock, and they typically have relatively high temperature capabilities. I doubt the glass was cooled fast enough to lead to fracture, I'm going to assume they took into consideration that people take their phones outside where they heat up to high temperatures when treating the glass. I'm a mechanical engineer who's taken materials, thermodynamics, and heat transfer courses.
Click to expand...

I concur. Take it from a post-grad Materials major. Stress from rapid temperature change will cause an existing crack to propogate, but it won't induce a crack in a flawless sheet of tempered glass. There must have been a tiny crack or flaw along the edge. Probably an issue with the edge polish after the glass was cut. Low percentage failure.
 
Q

Quaoar

Newbie
VegasOnAcid said:
Did you already have a slight crack on the screen? As Phydeaux kinda touched on.. I am in AZ a lot and once I had a crack on my windshield and its sitting out in the 100+ sun all day, I used the windsheild wiper fluid and it instantly spiderd about 3 inches out.
Click to expand...

Just a small scratch on the screen can cause the screen to fracture with a temperature differential. These glass screens are annealed to give the screen a tough surface, but the annealing process leaves residual stresses in the glass. The manufacturers try to reduce the residual stresses by annealing, but try as they might, the stresses are not completely removed.

So, a small scratch in the surface concentrates stresses along the scratch, and then, for whatever reason -dropping the phone, sudden temperature change, the phase of the moon - the screen separates along the scratch. When that happens, the residual stresses in the rest of the screen are release by cracking also.

In other words, the glass is meta-stable under residual stresses at all times. The residual stress is released by scratches, shock, temperature changes, etc. Screen protectors are necessary to prevent scratching on the screen through normal use. The thin layer of polymer might also help with sudden temperature changes. The best protection is damage insurance.
 
TheSultan

TheSultan

Android Expert
BetaMan said:
Ummm, what? Hope you don't work as a "Crisis Hotline" counselor, "and if you DO shoot yourself in the head, if you don't get it on film, it didn't happen!"
Click to expand...

You obviously aren't too familiar with online phone forum communities. This is a phrase that started a couple years ago cause everyone claimed stuff that was just plain ridiculous. It's basically a way of saying "eh, maybe it's possible, but I'm not believing it just cause you posted it on the internet".


For instance...I'll go start a thread right now that says I'm running Android 3.0 on my Incredible. I won't have proof, I'll just say it happened. See what I just did there??
 
M

Member207894

Guest
It was more than just the temperature delta that did the OP's phone in. I live in the low desert of AZ. My phone sat outside in the sun for about an hour this afternoon while I was working outside. Air temp was 104*, I'm sure after sitting in the sun the surface temp of the digitizer was in the upper 110's. As I reached to pick it up condensation from my ice cold water bottle dropped onto the screen. No cracks at all.

Of course I don't have pics to prove it, so it probably never happened. And since it never happened, don't bother flaming me about leaving my phone exposed to heat like that. :)
 
MikiBee

MikiBee

Well-Known Member
I live in Texas where the heat is always above 100 in the summer. I accidentally left my phone in the car a couple of times in the charger out in that heat.. then went into A/C with no problems at all. Like someone else posted, walking into A/C isn't going to instantly shock your phone, it will be a gradual cooling off.

I'm sorry your screen cracked.. I am confident your insurance will take care of it, but I don't believe it's anything you did wrong. I hope you can get it replaced soon!
 

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