Oatmeal a la slow cooker

I obsess on recipes. I read and reread and study and find all the possibilities I can think of before I get committed to a recipe.
I wanted to make oatmeal in the crockpot. I recall seeing Alton Brown do this on tv several years ago, and decided now, several years later, I could make the committment. Maybe the length of time is a bit unhealthy, but I don't like kitchen failures. So I read countless recipes, blogs and website articles on what could go wrong and how to make it work.
Basically, I found from my research that you can use old fashioned oats, but cook them on the warm setting for 8 hours; use steel cut oats but make sure you add plenty of liquid, and if possible, make a water bath bain marie in the crockpot to ensure there's no burning and minimal sticking to the sides.
I opted for using the steel cut oats, extra fluid, no water bath (I didn't have a container that could fit). I used
1 cup steel cut oats
6 cups of liquid (water and milk)
cinnamon
1 tbsp butter
1 handful of brown sugar
Place in crock coated with cooking spray. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

I couldn't sleep too well last night, I was obsessing that the oatmeal would explode in the kitchen, ooze everywhere, or burn so bad the smoke detectors would go off. None of that happened. In fact, we had nice warm oatmeal ready for us after 8 hours. I stirred in chopped banana at the end, and let the kids put mini-chocolate chips on it (about a tsp, for all you high-and-mightys out there). They all ate it and we grown ups did too. I put extra bananas and honey on ours.
A few other tips, however: Don't cook longer than 8 hours, or else there won't be much left to call "oats." Leave the sugar out. Stir that in when it's done in the morning, because there was some browning and sticking, despite the fact that I sprayed the crock with cooking spray. I believe this was due to the sugars. I would even consider another cup of liquid, because it needed it anyway. Another tip is to set an appliance timer to go off 6-7 hours before you get up, in case you want to mix it together at say, 9 pm, for breakfast at 7 am. Set the timer for midnight, and it'll be perfect. For me, this makes the morning go so much easier when I don't have to worry about breakfast. This was uncommonly easy and fast, allows for different breakfast schedules, too.