Dear Father of Giants:

I agree with you that when brake bleeding, you should never press the peddle to the floor. You should only push the peddle down about as much as normal travel for braking. I also normally bench bleed a master brake cylinder before installation. But I used a Motive power bleeder for the first time and there were no instructions regarding whether bench bleeding was necessary or recommended. So, this time I didn't bench bleed and simply used the power bleeder. It worked like a charm and I have good brakes without bench bleeding the master cylinder.

One final note...the Haynes manual for the MB 300e says to push the brake pedal to the floor when bleeding the brakes. Still not recommended, but at least one manual gives that direction.