Review on Lekue Red Microwave Popcorn Popper/ Maker by Orwin Greener

I have had a Lekue popcorn machine for 4 years and I love it. I've even bought two more and gifted them to friends who also love their Lekues. He made countless bowls of perfectly whipped popcorn until today I used a smaller microwave. More on that later. That's how I always make popcorn. I add the Trader Joe's oil-free popcorn kernels just below the top 100 gram mark and then, without pressing down, very gently place the lid in the bowl so it's flat all the way around. I put the Lekue in the middle of my microwave and let it sit for 3 minutes. I listen while it cooks and turn it off as soon as more than a second passes between claps. He always appears in less than 3 minutes. Everything was perfect with my 1100w microwave. There was so much popcorn that the lid lifted off the bowl with only 0-3 kernels intact. This microwave recently died so I'm using my old 1200w microwave instead. The popcorn comes out almost as good as an 1100 watt, but it's a bit dry, doesn't rise as high above the bowl and there are about 25-30 unpopped and a few partially popped kernels. I also have to set the 1200w power to 70% power versus 100% power to keep the popcorn from drying out. Today I brought Lekue to my friend's house. She has a small 900 watt microwave that is much smaller inside than my microwave at home. I set everything up as usual, as above. Popcorn popped slowly and after 2.5 minutes I smelled burnt. I turned off the microwave and immediately got Leku out. I was shocked to see a large black lump of steaming burnt popcorn. The bowl and lid were painted brown. The smoke alarm went off. Thank goodness we had the exhaust fan on and the window open, but even then the room stank. I threw away the burnt batch, cleaned the leku (the top is still stained), and refilled the bowl with seeds. For my second try, I opted for the popcorn button on the 900-watt microwave, which automatically set the timer to 1.75 minutes. This microwave didn't show the percentage of power it was using while setting the popcorn, just the minutes. After 1.75 minutes, the bowl was less than half full, but the popcorn wasn't burnt. So I hit the popcorn button again, added another 1.75 minutes and thought success, yay. But not even a minute later I smelled the smell of burning again. Yes, the same thing, a sizzling black smoking lump in a sooty bowl. I've given up trying and won't be experimenting with a small microwave again. I suspect that Lekue just works better in a large microwave. Maybe low ratings because of small microwaves? I've noticed that some of the 1 star reviews mentioned use smaller microwaves, but not enough reviewers mention the power of their microwaves to know for sure. I'm not saying this won't work in a small microwave, but based on my experience today, I think you'll be more likely to experiment with power settings, cook times, and the number of cores to use.