well i looked at the manual and it says 5min warm up time. so i assume either just an inital 5 mins warm up or after every time it pumps out fog u will have to wait 5 mins. BUT if u have this unit there is a green led that will go on when it is ready to blast fog again. so u could time that out and figure out ur wait time! sorry if this isn't much help. but it is all i can get! peace! jingles!!