Apologies if this has been discussed in previous posts but I couldn't find a clear, definitive opinion on the matter: How long is it responsible to leave your (sub-prosumer) espresso machine powered on? Is it better to leave it on for an hour between shots rather than have it cool & heat again, or is it best to switch it off? If best switched off -- at what expanse of time do you draw the line? Switch off if the next shot won't be as immediate as within, say, 5 minutes? 20 minutes? 1 hr, 2hrs?

It's an age old inquiry, and my personal trajectory here has to do with a '91 Pasquini Livietta, in all its compact HX glory. (My deliciously alliterative original subject heading was "Proper Power Practice for Livietta Longevity," but for the benefit of search results, and for the greater HB good, a broadening of the topic seemed considerate.) I find that my machine maintains its warmth for a decent while after switching off, so reheating an hour later is no hardship (on me), and as it stands, if do I leave it on & idle for a while, it's by accident. I generally intend to pull & enjoy my two morning doubles more or less back to back (i.e. within about 10 minutes of each other), and if there's a stretch of time between them, it's only due to some distraction (a squawking 5-mo-old; a frantic wagging pooch; such heinous interruptions of my all-important regimen!). I'm not one to leave things on that should be off, but I've grown lax with the Livietta due to the "switch on and walk away" allowance for a thorough heat-up first thing in the morning, which is then exacerbated by delays of the afore-mentioned variety. Unwilling to commit to the reality that my pause between shots could grow as long as an hour or longer, I'll keep walking by the machine and thinking "ok, next thing I do is pull another shot," and yet the next thing you know, the Livietta's been idling for possibly longer than it should. Or is it ok? Or perhaps better than ok?

In summation: Would my Livietta (and by extension, any sub-prosumer machine not specifically designed for 24/7 operation) be better off if I made more of a point of cutting power after every shot to prevent these idle stretches? And what if it's most likely that I actually will be back within 5 or 15 or 30 minutes for the next shot? Do multiple short periods of powered-down cooling and then reheating add more wear than extended daily periods of full-heat idling?

Several years ago someone calculated a 4 hour break point. If the machine won't be used in 4 hours, turn it off.

Marvin