themeyers.org/HomeRoast/Topic7316.htm
Bottom line, switching saves power, and reduces wear on the group gasket. But the resulting expansion and contraction may increase wear on the joints and washers in the boiler and piping. If your friends schedule is pretty well set, a timer that switches it on an hour before use would be fine. But heres a gotcha: On some machines, switching on at the mains is not the same as switching on via the machine, due to the electronics. In that case a surge supressor along with the timer is a good idea, since the spikes from switching at the mains may stress the electronics. Jim Piccinich of 1st line and Chris Nachtrieb of Chris Coffee both think this is a good idea based on their service and repair experience.
My Red Hat Machine has run continuously for 4 1/2 months - plugged into a UPS so I dont gets those mains shots Jim eludes to. John - drinking a Peruvian double and loving life in the slow lane On Sat, 2003-05-10 at 21:30, espresso gin wrote: Thanks Jim: I leave mine on for the same reason you do and I have never had a problem with my espresso machines or computers for that matter. I do not have a surge on my espresso machine guess I should do that.
LCD monitors typically have a flouresant bulb that has a 10,000 hr life - leave it on and it will get to the end of that life faster. The question that each individual has to answer, whether its an espresso machine or a computer, is - what is my usage pattern. If Im pulling shots only during the weekend, I turn my machine on on Friday night and off on Sunday night. My computers go on in the evening when I get home and get shutdown in the morning when I leave for work. My monitors all get shut off when I dont need them for several hours. In an espresso machine, there is a conflict - thermal cycling is stressful on the machine, but heat ages the electronics. In a computer, power cycling is stressful, but heat dries out the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply as well as ages bearings in the fans and hard drives. The fans in a computer pull dust into the machinem which coats parts - especially heatsinks. The coating of dust lowers the cooling efficiency of the heatsinks, thus causing more localized heat to be retained. If youre not using your computer for 8 or more hours, its usually best to shut it down. The only computers I leave on 24/7 is my office SGI O2 and my office Linux box. The same goes for the office espresso machine - 24/7, but then, its a commerical expresso machine, and its gets used at all hours during the week.
I ran a computer lab and put in 70 Mac LCs in June of 91, we ran them 24/7 until August 97. Out of all 70 we had two monitors go in year 6 and 13 machine days of down time during the full six years, 8 of which came from the same lightning strike that the surge protection could not quite contain. But during the week, I turn the SL-90 on at about 4:00 am and turn it off when I leave for work at about 7:30. During weekends when we use it fairly regularly it is on from about 5:00 am till 9:00 pm when the last coffee of the day is made. In general I dont think you can generalize from light bulbs to computers or from computers to espresso machines except when the light bulb is in the computer or the computer is in the espresso machine. Jim Gundlach PS Did anyone notice my tasting notes on the Sumatra classic lot 4365.
Generalizations are a by-product of our fast paced lifestyle, where everything is complicated, and the Cliff Notes version is almost a necessity to be able to get through the day. Generalizing information from one situation to another might seem like a good idea, and might even be necessary, but unless contributing variables are taken into consideration, the generalization could easily be meaningless at best, or just flat out wrong.
On Sun, 2003-05-11 at 23:00, Ed Needham wrote: Words of wisdom to live by. Generalizations are a by-product of our fast paced lifestyle, where everything is complicated, and the Cliff Notes version is almost a necessity to be able to get through the day. Generalizing information from one situation to another might seem like a good idea, and might even be necessary, but unless contributing variables are taken into consideration, the generalization could easily be meaningless at best, or just flat out wrong.
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