What Is the Difference Between Anchor Hocking and Pyrex Glassware?

Whether you're a meal prep hero or just trying to cut back on plastics for your leftovers, few pieces can go from the oven, to the freezer, to the microwave, and dishwasher with ease like glass food containers. But if you've identified the containers in your kitchen as "pyrex", you know they aren't made the same way anymore. You might've seen another similar-looking brand name floating around called Anchor Hocking. But how do these stack up?

What Is Pyrex and What Is It Made Of?

There are three basic types of glass used to make glassware: soda-lime, tempered, and borosilicate.

Borosilicate glass won't break when exposed to major temperature shifts such as taking a dish from a fridge to an oven. Pyrex is a sub-group of borosilicate but the brand no longer makes glass containers out of this material due to expense and toxicity. Most Pyrex products found in stores will be made of soda-lime glass.

What Is Anchor?

A glassware manufacturer that's been around for 110 years, Anchor prides itself on being made in America for generations. Similar to Pyrex, they produce glass bakeware, food storage containers of various sizes, and measuring cups. They can also be found at big box retail stores like Walmart or Bed Bath and Beyond as well as online retailers like Amazon or Wayfair.

Anchor products are made of what they call "Tempered-Tough" Glass which is in fact soda-lime glass that has been thermally tempered to withstand high heat temperatures.

So What's the Difference?

The short answer is: not that much! Both brands can go into the oven up to 425 degrees F (200 degrees C), recommend using trivets when moving from hot to cool surfaces, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes at affordable prices. It really just depends on which one you like more. Definitely search for coupons, bargains, or sales in order to get the exact containers you like.