I bought this appliance because I like popcorn but was getting tired of microwaving it in a bag all of the time. This appliance consistently pops the corn well and evenly thanks to the stirring rod.  It is a nice balance between using a covered pan on the stove that you have to stand over and watch and that blasted microwave popcorn bag that you can easily burn if you do not watch it closely.  The two things that are true are that:  1) The stirring rod does scratch the surface of the popcorn popper beginning with your very first use.  There is no way to avoid this.  2) This appliance does...