I never had luck with the method above. I'm not saying it's bad advice by any means, too many variables on how bad it's gunked or how long it was used before cleaning I guess, but it just never worked for me. I just replace the coils when the flavor is affected.
There are lots of discussion between ni200 users about the safety of dry burning, some folks worry about the risk of inhaling nickel oxide and skip dry burning, others will handle it just like kanthal and dry burn away. Whatever works for you.
As I understand, at 750F there is risk of later inhaling nickel oxide, so personally I prefer not to dry burn.
With thicker wire I believe the coils would be able to handle dry burning without breaking later, but with thin wire it can become an issue.
With kanthal I had coils that lasted more than 6 months. I miss those days, sure. But to me the benefits of TP are worth having to replace my coils weekly.
Like you, I used to replace my cotton wicks daily, after 2 or 3 tanks (kayfun lite+ v2). Back then I used regular organic cotton balls and contact micro coils. With ni200, I switched to spaced coils and to rayon wicks. I posted this a few days back regarding rayon: "I saw great improvement in wicking ability but zero improvement in longevity. Once I started learning how to trim the tails, and really figured out the correct wick density, I started to understand why so many folks love rayon. Currently, instead of replacing my wicks daily, I can go a full week before I taste any difference and replace the rayon wick."
So my suggestion if you ran into issues with dry burning is to look into rayon. I truly can't see any difference in performance for a full week, and with TP I can vape it nearly dry to switch flavors. With a properly trimmed wick, when it's almost dry, it should look nearly as white/clean as day 1, and for about a week I can't taste a difference in any of the juices I use. The wire does look a little gunked but flavor is unaffected. I "only" get 50ml's, more experienced users have reported using the same rayon wick for more than 100ml's. Just check the rayon thread if you need any help!
cheers
