The "manual" that came with my kit doesn't really say anything about cleaning them. I've blown them out. I'm scared to submerge them in water, alcohol or whatever else people are using. If I'm going to run them under hot water, do I just run the water over the wick part of it, or submerge it? Should it soak for awhile, or just run it under water for a few seconds?
I was hesitant about cleaning these things too when I first started. But really its very simple. I don't use alcohol or mouthwash, water works fine. Attys lasts months for me.
For daily maintenance, I generally, blow them out and let them drain overnight by sitting them wick side down on tissue paper. Maybe not everyday, but I do this basic draining frequently. This helps keep them from getting clogged. No water involved in this simple routine.
For deeper cleaning (every couple of weeks or so), I put them thru a hot water bath, along with a short dry burn on some cleaning cycles if an atty isn't working as well as I think it could.
Simple Hot Water Bath
* boil some water (I use filtered tap water, distilled water would be better)
* take the water off the burner
* immediate place the attys in the hot water
(or pour the water into a separate container along with the attys)
* swish them around a bit
* let them sit in that bath for 10 minutes (occasionally swishing)
* remove them and blow/shake out the excess water
* thoroughly dry under a hair dryer (on low for about 10 minutes)
* done (unless I'm going to do a dry burn step)
Dry Burn (i only do with with completely dry attys, no liquid or moisture of any kind)
* put thoroughly dry atty on a manual battery
* turn out the lights in the room (you want to see the atty coil glow red)
* press the manual button for a few seconds
(you may hear some hissing at this point)
* if the atty glowed red (the coil under the wick, not the wick it self,
you want to see the coil glow red from end to end)
done
* otherwise, hit the button again for a few seconds
* repeat this until it glows red fairly quickly when applying power
(the entire atty can get very hot when doing this, so you may need to
wait a few moments for it to cool between attempts at making
the coil glow red)
* do another hot water bath to clean out the ash/burnt taste
The idea with the dry burn is to burn off material that is gummed up on the heating coil. You don't want to burn the atty out when doing this, but you do want to get it to glow red for a bit... just not too red. I end up pulsing the battery button momentarily on/off to maintain red hot (and not white hot) as the last phase of a dry burn.
Hope this helps.
