This reminds me of a family story. You know those things that happen in families that people talk and laugh about for years? Only they weren't funny at the time?
Here's mine: We had just finished a kitchen remodel in a different house. I had all new stainless steel appliances, and I saw a stainless steel microwave (mine wasn't built in). I'd never seen one before, and of course, I absolutely had to have it. So we made it work.
Then, after we'd had it a few weeks, I decided to make some popcorn. I'd made popcorn hundreds of times in my old microwave, and so I knew how long it would take. So I punch in the numbers and walk away. I didn't notice anything until I walked into the kitchen and then the smell of something burned was unmistakable. The popcorn bag was pretty much welded to the glass turntable in the bottom. It had obviously been on fire, and the entire inside of the microwave, including the inner workings were coated with this nasty black gunk. The microwave was essentially destroyed.
My husband, who is so smart about these things, took that whole thing apart, cleaned it up, and put it back together. And it worked! It smelled like burned popcorn for a long time, but it worked and we used it for many years until we sold the house and left it behind. Scary story with a happy ending.
So now when we get together as a family, we almost always come back to the time that Mom burned up the popcorn in the microwave. As it turns out, the new microwave was much more powerful than the 17-year-old one. Duh. The popcorn only took about half as long as before.
I think there is a "word to the wise" in there somewhere. I know I learned something!