Yes, what Tom said. I like to CAREFULLY suck the bleach through the ceramic plate by sucking on the glass tube, then shaking it out and rinsing, and then sucking dechlorinator through the ceramic plate, then fill it with water and rinse it out and shake the water out. It gets the ceramic plate really clean, or you can fill the diffuser with bleach/dechlor and carefully BLOW it OUT of the diffuser through the ceramic plate. This also gets the plate clean all the way through. But a good soak in bleach&water and then in dechlor. works just fine if you dont want to put your mouth up to bleach. Its real easy to get bleach on your lips and tongue if you're not careful. :-)

-Mike B-