I don't really know why it works so well. I have an old Shark hand held steamer ... I don't see those for sale anymore, but there is a bissell model that looks almost identical.
The big plus for me is its quick and it works perfect IMO.
I wait till I have 10 or 12 to do in a shot. And it takes me maybe 10 minutes from start to finish.
It has a tiny nozzle and I just rinse in hot water then blast them from both ends with the steamer.
It takes about 20-30 seconds for each. Then I hit them with some compressed air.
If you need to you can vape on them in just a few minutes of dry time after the compressed air.
The steamer leaves them quite dry ... not like running water through them.
They always come back to better than new for me. I steam all mine before first use as well just to be sure they taste good.
The only down side I see is you can get spoiled and wan't to throw a clean one on the mod every few hours
BTW, it works much better with 510s. When I clean my 306 attys I steam them with the drip tip on.
They steam up great if you have a cannon DT and shoot the steam in there just like the barrel of a 510.
Been steaming attys since Sept 2010 with nothing but great results.
I bought a sonic cleaner to see what all the buzz was about with them.
The folks that think sonic cleaning is the way to go have not yet tried steam.
After many many cleanings you can start to steam the wicks right out of them, but thats cool with me.
I have some attys that I am sure have been steam cleaned at least 50 or 60 times.
