Scary moments - what temperature for broiling? I have a significant problem - our broiler is flat out dangerous. The oven/broiler came with our house. Every single thing we've put under it has been burnt (it says it's 550, but I think it could be far hotter). A few minutes ago I put lobster mac and cheese under it for less than 90 seconds to brown up the top.

It started a fire, ruining the dish, filling the house with smoke, and causing us to dump some water we luckily had nearby on the dish to put out the foot high flames (cracking the glass dish, awesome!). If that hadn't worked, I would have had the fire extinguisher.

We're ok, but I will NEVER touch that damn broiler again.

So, that leaves me just using our oven, once I can get the smoke smell out. Should I just crank it as high as the oven can go (500 degrees)? Is it supposed to be lower? I know the addage is that a broiler is "an upside down grill" but grilling can be anywhere from 350 to 600 degrees depending on the grill, so that's a pretty bad comparison.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm kind of frazzled at the moment.
Assuming you cannot fix the oven (which would be my first recommendation as much for safety as anything else), then for browning things on the top I'd suggest using a cook's torch, which is the same thing as a plumbing torch except it's flashier. 

Of course you'll want to make burgers, steaks, fish, etc as well. Baking these will not get you nice toasted brown bits no matter how hot you set your oven, so frying is your next best option although in some cases you could use the torch there as well. 

You could your too-hot broiler question on the diy forum to get ideas on fixing it.