Broken Window Pane-Any Ideas on Repairs(and how it might have happened)

I've had this happen before, and it wasn't that cold out when it happened.

Sitting quietly reading one evening and heard this odd cracking sound. I finally walked over to where the noise was coming from and the window was in the process of totally failing.

Most of it cracked into the very small pieces in the first hour, by the next morning it started falling out.

The glass was about 8 years old when this happened.
 
If it's a double hung window, you can just take the entire window out and bring it to a glass shop, it's cheaper getting it repaired that way than having them come out to fix it. When I've had it done, it's been about $90. Sometimes I just splurge and just put in a whole new window and save the old glass for windows where the seal has failed. Whole new windows is in the $160-$180 range.
 
I had the same thing happen to one of our windows this winter...it is 6'+ above our bed with no chance of bumping or hitting it. I just chalked it up to a thermal problem or house settling. The window still opens and closes just fine though...only the inner pane was broken.

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Same thing happened to our 2007 Sportage windshield. Was a very hot noontime, car got parked in a cool basement in a mall. Got back after 2 hours to find the glass like your picture. Attendant's booth was almost adjacent to the car, says nobody came near it. Reviewed the cctv, yup no one came near it. There is no cone of impact (like the center of a spider's web, the point of contact with what struck the glass leaves a radiating pattern away from it in all directions). We attributed it to thermal stress.
 
Should be easy to replace yourself. The interior trim pieces snap in. There may be 2 layers to remove to get to the pane. The best solution is to tape it up, remove it and bring it to a glass shop to replace it with same width, height and thickness.
You could try to measure and order it without taking it to a glass shop, but thickness might be difficult to measure. Depends how its mounted to the frame.
 
If that is a hermetically sealed double pane window, the fix will be a new unit. You can't just replace one pane. For our home, if I had that problem I would call the local Pella Window Store and they would look up what unit was supplied during construction and order a replacement and install. $$$
 
If that is a hermetically sealed double pane window, the fix will be a new unit. You can't just replace one pane. For our home, if I had that problem I would call the local Pella Window Store and they would look up what unit was supplied during construction and order a replacement and install. $$$
That's what the local window store does. They basically remove the broken pane and seal it. They add a tube of that silica to handle the moisture issue to the bottom of the pane and then seal it up. Probably not as good as the fancy argon gas when you get it from the factory, but it's a cheaper repair. Argon is probably like nitrogen in the air for tires.
 
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