For the recommendationsbar to automatically open, the 'Trigger Type' must be set to "Percent", a "Trigger Percent" must be specified, and that trigger must have been met for it to automatically expand.
So, if you set the Trigger Percent to "50" (for 50%) and the Read Time value to 30 (for 30 seconds), then *if* after 30seconds the user has scrolled past 50% of the page, the recommendations bar will automatically expand.
If you want it to always expand after the set time, set the trigger percent to 0 (or 1).
Hope that helps,
Alex