Hi! I am going to my parents for the holidays soon. I have an ECM Classika, and will not be lugging it home, sadly. I can imagine that leaving it for one month, without water running through it, is a recipe for scaling and other issues. Is there a checklist of what I should do before I leave the machine idle for a full month? Thanks!

If it's going to be exposed to freezing temperatures, you probably have something to be concerned about and draining it would be wise.

If just sitting there in a heated room, I've had my E61 HX sit for weeks or months when I was traveling on business with no apparent ill effects.

At least as I understand it, scale is more of a problem at high temperatures, so being off for a month seems like it shouldn't be an issue.

You might have some taste defects with "stale" water. When you get back, I'd dump the reservoir (leave it full while you're gone so you don't have any issues with the pump losing its prime), fill it with fresh water, and run a quart or so through it (the boiler looks like 0.75 liters, so that should flush it reasonably well). Vibe pumps don't like to be run more than about a minute at a time, with a 1.5 or 2 minute wait in between, so don't just turn it on and walk away.

Unplugging most any electrical appliance if going unused for a length of time is a good idea, in my opinion.

Awesome! Thanks, Jeff - and congrats on joining team HB!