I would accept a placard explaining that microwave popcorn does in fact require monitoring. The amount of times you get woken up at 3am by a fire alarm cuz some fuckwit set it for 5 minutes and walked away.. I get the ban.
Surely everyone knows the proper way to microwave popcorn, right? Set to 2 min, at around 1:30 listen for the pops, and if there aren't any for 3 sec, stop the microwave (don't force open, hit "cancel" or whatever). For my microwave, it's usually around 1:45-1:50, but each bag is different.
Boom, you should have <10 unpopped kernels (probably <5) and no burnt popcorn. Oh, and if you forget to turn it off, no fire risk either, but it might have a little bit of a "roasted" flavor with a couple of the popped kernels burning, but it should be mostly fine.
Or just set it to 1:45 or 1:50 and accept that it's non-optimal. But you'll want to get the popcorn out of the bag quickly, so I don't see the point.
Depends on how shitty of a microwave it is. If it's a cheap low power microwave it might not even start popping till 3+ minutes.
Bottom line, whatever you're microwaving just stick around and pay attention. I was working at a school and overheard students talk about how much better warm chocolate chip cookies are, and one girl said she always warms them in the microwave if they're room temp. One of her classmates was intrigued and said he'd give it a try. At some point in the evening he threw a few dry ass Chips Ahoy in the microwave and set it for 5 minutes.
The smell of burnt cookies is almost as bad as burnt popcorn. At least there wasn't a fire.
I don't think the timer on the microwave at my job has ever been reset. People just push the "start+30" button and jank it open when they're bored of waiting. It never reaches zero and nobody presses stop.
However, college students (at least in the US) usually don’t know how to handle being intoxicated. This being the first time they are allowed and all.
That’s why the dorm popcorn alarm (aka fire alarm) goes off in the middle of the night, not early evening when people would be watching movies and such.
Or burn like 10 bags in a row, like my little brother and 2nd cousin did when my parents were vacationing... They kept putting the bag after bag upside down, so it couldn't expand, and never read the instructions. I was grounded, and missed out on the fun.
Rules that that are how you get residents breaking policy and bringing home appliances into the dorm and straining the circuit.
Just set a policy of watch the microwave, and enforce it. Making college students work around stupid policies is just going to cause more issues down the line lol
Same way every other penalty is enforced. threat of eviction if rules/terms are not followed.
Student's are entitled to live in the dorms. Sure they pay money but, they agree to follow guidelines. Just like if caught supplying alcohol to minors or partying. Repeat offenses = eviction
I'm not saying a one off should equal eviction but, but there should be a punishment, even if its a warning first.
First year in dorms, fire alarm goes off and I'd evacuate. By third year I'd just put a pillow over my head and just accept my fate whatever it may be.
Just had to look this up. Apparently they do. The the magnetron (the electrical element that converts electrical energy into microwave energy) will not maintain the same power levels over time.