I just received my Lina Mini today and am excited to get up and running on it. I flushed the system per the instructions (2 minutes through the group, 1 minute through the steam wand, and 1 liter through the hot water valve). While I totally get the need to do this on a new machine, I was surprised to see page 15 of the manual state:

"If the machine has not been used for more than 8 hours, or, in any case after long periods of being idle, In order to use the machine to its full potential it is necessary to perform some cleaning cycle before brewing beverages as follows..."

It then goes on to list the flush out procedure I detailed in the opening paragraph above. So, my question is, is that really necessary? I could understand doing so after "long periods of being idle," but I wouldn't exactly describe 8 hours as a long period. And I'm not really sure what "using the machine to its full potential means. Are they trying to say that doing this will somehow help me pull tastier shots, or is this a basic maintenance issue which could lead to premature failure of my equipment if I don't do what the manual says?

I'm a casual home user and don't have the machine plumbed in, so adding in this kind of clean out
procedure every morning before I can pull a shot doesn't really seem feasible... Especially while dealing with getting my kids out the door and off to school.

Thanks in advance for your input!

no it's not necessary. you won't notice a diference.

No it's not necessary. I've never done this ever since i got my machine >2 years ago (it's still working fine).
The machine is off when i'm at work and that's more than 8 hours in between usually.

Whew, that's a relief... Thanks for replying and letting me know!