Andria,
I was thinking that the heads most folks actually clean are the kanger-style; although these can be re-wicked, it can be a bit of a challenge. I think most people (including myself when I use them) just clean them, wick and all, until they're shot. (Did try re-coiling these; it's not as easy as it looks on you-tube!). For these, you do need something stronger than hot water.
For a rebuildable, a dry-burn and re-wick is usually all they need, and only plastic tanks really need something like alcohol, IMHO. Glass and stainless do fine with just hot water.
I've rebuilt and rewicked kanger T3S and Mini PT II heads -- that's how I started with rebuilding. Once I got the hang of that, and heard "if you can rebuild a kanger, a kayfun is a piece of cake" I went on and got a kayfun, and that's absolutely true, kayfuns ARE a piece of cake compared to those tiny kanger heads -- but if I hadn't learned on my kangers, I'd never have bought a kayfun in the first place.
But even before I was rebuilding my kangers, I cleaned them by rinse, dry burn, rinse again; while I was still using silica, I didn't need to worry about rewicking, but I finally got sick of all the leaking so I tried cotton, and yeah, rewicking one of those tiny things is a real challenge, but not impossible.
I did clean those kanger tanks with alcohol, but mainly to remove the odor of whatever ejuice had been in them; hot water just won't remove the smell, but rinse, alcohol rinse, hot water rinse, takes care of it nicely.
Andria
I'm a great deal more frightened of vodka or any other grain alcohol than I am of an alcohol I would never consider drinking. It's tempting to think well, I've been sober for 22 yrs, so no worries... but alcoholism is "cunning, baffling, and powerful," and one can never afford to underestimate the insanity factor of an alcoholic, even one who's been sober for many years.
