Welding Tips and Tricks

Situation: 2G pipe practice. Finished my root and was starting my hot fill using 3/32 E7018 with DCEP. My problem was that the rod was acting as if it was DCEN. it was taking all the heat and my weld was having little penetration. I'm welding on a lincoln power mig 350MP. Not even halfway through the use of my rod the whole thing was orange hot and flux was falling off and the middle was drooping. Never heard of this in DCEP, so i'm basically asking What the ... happened. I shut down the machine and restarted it and it welded fine. Ever heard of this?

If the machine is older the selecter knob might have not been switched all the way to DCEP.