Corian countertop thermal cracking

Tom's own kitchen — DuPont Corian countertops, mid-1980s. Hot griddle without reflective trivet caused thermal-expansion compression; on cooling, the surface cracked. DuPont reformulated three years later.

I still have Corian countertops, which is a polymer DuPont was selling in the mid-'80s, and it's about time to redo the kitchen. I cooked or had a hot frying pan — one of the griddles — and put it on there without a reflective surface underneath, and heated it up. By thermal expansion it was in compression, but when it cooled back down we got cracks. It turns out DuPont came out with an improved Corian about three years later. We were an early adopter. You learn all kinds of things.