The microwave that came with my house is the first time I’ve ever had a microwave that had perfectly working popcorn setting. It has never burnt a bag of microwave popcorn.
I’ve never had a microwave where the popcorn button doesn’t burn it, so no.
Not all popcorn buttons are alike. Per Alec at Technology Connections, some microwaves merely engage a timer and in those microwaves following the instructions on the bag are probably better,. Others have a sensor that looks for the poof of steam that comes from the bag opening its vent. Based on how long it takes for that poof of steam to occur it can deduce the size of the bag and thus how much longer to cook for. On these microwaves I use the popcorn button.
My LG microwave suffered a major malfunction and broke the magnetron. I replace it but the humidity sensor apparently broke also so my popcorn button and with other features dependant on that sensor don’t work.
Just another example of the enshitification of consumer products. Now I have to cook my popcorn like a savage. I don’t know how many bags of popcorn I ruined because my attention span is shorter than the 1-2 seconds between pops.
Yes, I do, however it is not perfect. Microwave popcorn is more art than science and it takes years of experience to know when to stop the cycle. Too short and you’re left with a plethora of unpopped kernels. Too long and it burns.
I use the popcorn butter.
Unfortunately my fiancée does not like pocorn
And that’s something you can live with?
My wife prefers the popcorn button and I prefer to mash +30secs. You have to hit the popcorn button three times to get the right setting, but then they’re both cooking for two minutes.
She gets there in four presses and it takes me five, but +30s is right next to Start so I’m not sure one is better than the other. I guess she’s causing less wear on the button
Don’t buy a microwave with just a dial. My last one had an actual keypad of buttons, I could just press 2 + Start and it was wonderful. Nowadays I have to scroll over hells creation to get the right setting, or change the clock, and it’s awful
I don’t have a microwave oven.
The only preset button I use is the +30Seconds button, the rest are useless to me.
You don’t use the baby or snake presets?
Try the numbers if you have them. I recently discovered that hitting 2 instantly starts 2 minutes then +30 saves me having to press +30 five times for the equivalent.
I was starting to worry about how much abuse my +30 button could take.
4 times.
4 times extra but five times total to reach the equivalent.
Edit: just to be extra clear in the comment I’d be getting 2:30 with just one press of the +30 button
To make popcorn I push the 30 button 3 times, done.
There are many buttons on my microwave. I have paid no attention to any of them but I know hitting the one at the bottom-right makes numbers go up by 30s per boop, while food go warm.
My microwave popcorn recipe is:
- Put in
- Boop liberally so you know it’s over 5 mins, probably 4–5 days
- When popcorn pops average about one every 3s, start counting to five
- If you reach five, serve
That’s an ominous “if”…
I see we share the same brain cell.
There’s two popcorn buttons. One setting is just an average of time to pop the standard popcorn bag.
The other is a humidity sensor that stops the microwave once it senses a whiff of steam from the bag.
Great video on it below.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Limpr1L8Pss
If someone has a non YouTube link I’ll edit my comment to post that one.
Technology Connections is the best. I was hoping to see this video here.
Mine has only 1 button, to open the door.
And I like it this way.
So, it turns on automatically when you close it? Should be a switch somewhere as well
These are 2 turning knobs. One for the strength (nearly always full on), one for the time.
Ah, right
The microwave that came with my house
This is probably the reason why your popcorn button actually works. If your home already has a built-in microwave, it’s likely a higher quality one than what you could pick up from the hardware store. Most consumer-grade microwaves, regardless of the brand or model, are all identical, as they all use components sourced from one single manufacturer that makes one single version of them. The only thing that’s different is the plastic shell they put it all in and the logo they slap on the front, but the important things like the magnetron and control boards are all the exact same hardware.
But the microwaves that are usually built-into the home? Those are the good ones. Those are the ones where the builder spent some good money, because it was included in the design spec to begin with. Care went into the selection of that microwave. That microwave is more likely to have the moisture sensors needed to actually have functioning popcorn, reheat, and defrost settings that do more than just assume an appropriate time/power setting.
Having a proper microwave is a totally different experience. I had one at an old apartment of mine that was amazing. It had a button that just said “Reheat”, and required zero other inputs from me. I could put my food in, regardless of what kind of food it is or what quantity I was making, and press the Reheat button once, and it would bring it to the perfect temperature, hot all the way through. I wish I could’ve taken it with me when I moved out.
[My microwave is] full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I would never understand.
No. I buy kernals dirt cheap and make it on the stove with ghee
I eat popcorn with glee
Same, stopped doing microwave stuff years ago, it’s really easy in the stove and you can completely control the amount of salt/butter or whatever flavour you like.
I use peanut oil and often nothing else.
