I just press start. The default extra dry time at the end is 2 hours. I'll take it out, weight it. Next I put it in for another 2 hours of extra dry time. I'll continue to weight and dry until it's lost all water weight. I'm in Colorado. So as far as the pump goes. We did get the oil pump. I didn't see enough pros over cons to justify the extra 1700 bucks. Plus to be honest I didn't even want this thing, my wife did. Even with the oilless pump there's still a maintenance plan. Maybe later on we'll get one. Maybe we'll see how long yours will last and how much the rebuild kit will cost.