Found them to drain faster than advertised in similar conditions.

Switching to a softer foam pad was the fix for me too. The wool was cutting too fast and just burning the clear. A good finishing polish with a blue foam pad gives that wet look without the haze.

That "weakest link" thing @skyler_kim mentioned is everywhere. You see it with cheap hoses or fittings that blow out and ruin the whole setup.

What if the glue trail is part of the charm though? I kinda like the messy story it tells.

That exact thing happened to me with my water heater last month! It's always the threads, isn't it? You get the right size but the pitch is off by a hair. Your story about the grill, @julia92, shows how this is a universal headache. It feels like companies change standards just to make us buy more parts. I've learned to bring the old part to the store every single time now.