I vented my frustrations about this little beast on the forum:
Well I cleaned the sucker today. Unscrewed the bottom carefully as suggested to me, rinsed it, gently patted the wicks dry with towels, and reassembled it. It occurred to me to place the metal circle (to which the wire is clipped) ON TOP of the air intake holes, in an effort to stop the leaks again. This seems to stop the leaks but drastically increases the gurgling. Can't win. Still good flavor, and it produces vision-obscuring clouds of vapor, but it is so freakin' fiddly it drives me nuts. Also, it can't be transported horizontally. So I will use this until the end of its natural life and then say sayonara.
scarf-ace;5754113 said:
Well I cleaned the sucker today. Unscrewed the bottom carefully as suggested to me, rinsed it, gently patted the wicks dry with towels, and reassembled it. It occurred to me to place the metal circle (to which the wire is clipped) ON TOP of the air intake holes, in an effort to stop the leaks again. This seems to stop the leaks but drastically increases the gurgling. Can't win. Still good flavor, and it produces vision-obscuring clouds of vapor, but it is so freakin' fiddly it drives me nuts. Also, it can't be transported horizontally. So I will use this until the end of its natural life and then say sayonara.