No idling, just used as necessary. It will melt 16 inches of snow off no problem, but with the snow and wood situation what it was this winter I was worried about running out of wood before I could get to the woods to cut more so most of the time I'd shovel the walk off then just ran the circuit long enough to melt off the rest and dry the walk off.
Pretty neat to see steam coming of the sidewalk when its 0 out.