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:

1. Put in
2. Boop liberally so you know it's over 5 mins, probably 4–5 days
3. When popcorn pops average about one every 3s, start counting to five
4. If you reach five, serve

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.

You should check out this video, it’s very eye-opening when it comes to how microwaves work (only linking to YouTube because I couldn’t find a decent Invidious source): https://youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0 (edit: https://materialious.nadeko.net/watch/UiS27feX8o0)

It depends on your model of microwave.

Personally, my wife and I intentionally deprived ourselves of a microwave in the house because we recognized that it makes us more prone to heavily processed foods (we’re not crazy “5G/microwaves give you cancer”people or whatever). We just recognized that we like eating whole foods and having one on hand makes it tempting to start buying a lot of garbage foods.

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.

The only preset button I use is the +30Seconds button, the rest are useless to me.

No. I buy kernals dirt cheap and make it on the stove with ghee

Yes, because my microwave uses a sensor for it.

If it was just a guesstimated time like some cheap microwaves, I wouldn't.

I hit a random number of minutes then pull it based on the sound

When I want a quick bag, sure do. Kirkland (Costco) popcorn is great and dirt cheap.

But when I want great popcorn we use our popcorn popping machine with some coconut oil, flavocol, and butter topping. This is the recipe the movie theaters use.

No, I make my popcorn stovetop.

If you read the manual for your microwave you’ll learn a lot about what it is capable of. My Panasonic microwave not only has a sensor cook mode for popcorn, but you can specify the weight of the bag and you can even add or subtract 10-30 seconds to dial it in prior to starting.

I recommend microwaves that have inverters in them, as well as moisture sensors.

So there are two kinds of microwaves:

• those that use sensor for popcorn (typically it is on top, there are some that use audio)
• those that have no sensor and just use a timer (those ask you how big is the popcorn bag)

You should use the popcorn button on the first ones, with the second type it is better to follow the instructions on the popcorn bag.

My microwave's popcorn button works perfect 100% of the time so far

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.

You guys have a popcorn button?

Yes, but I never let it run for the full amount of time. I have to stand there and listen for when the kernels stop popping, otherwise it will burn.

I spent the extra money for the sensor cook, so damn right I use that popcorn button

I do popcorn at 30% power until the first pop and then switch to full power until the popping is really slow; it really cuts down on unpopped kernels.

You can do 50% power, but I feel that the slower 30% power really helps to get every kernel up to a nice baseline before you go full power.

Mine has only 1 button, to open the door.

And I like it this way.

I used to have a microwave that the popcorn button worked perfectly in and it was amazing.

After it died we replaced it with the same make and model and the new one’s popcorn button is crap. I’ve now timed how long the bags need to be in, so I just put that in instead. Never use the popcorn button anymore. It’s annoying but effectively it just is two extra buttons before starting so it’s not horrible.

Although now I have one of those electric kettle popcorn makers like the movie theater and pretty much only use that now. But it definitely can’t match microwave popcorn for convenience.

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

The rare time I make microwave popcorn, I just hit the 3 for 3 minutes on high and then listen for the popping to have ~2 seconds between them and pull it out. Never had issues with this in every microwave I’ve used this for.

I've never had a microwave where the popcorn button doesn't burn it, so no.

Yes, I like to live dangerously.