Did your neighbor ever apologize or just keep quiet about it? My buddy had the same thing happen with a furnace filter, he bought the cheap fiberglass ones and his HVAC guy told him to get the pleated kind instead. He finally switched after his system froze up in January and he had to pay for a service call that cost way more than the filters would have.

That cheap Dutch oven lid thing is interesting. Did you check if there's a gap in the seal or was the lid just letting steam sneak out somewhere?

Bought a $300 Volvo once, spent more on pizza delivery for the tow truck driver than the actual car.

Fair point but I actually had decent luck with one of those in a similar setup.

Five years is a long time for a frustrating lesson, I really feel your pain on that one.