I checked the sites of a couple of the major manufacturers and their claim was their diffusers are maintenance free. One did say that once a year you should divert full compressor flow to each diffuser for 10 seconds. Perhaps that's why there are no manufacturer recommended manual cleaning recommendations.....Nobody is willing to admit they need to be cleaned?
Bill,
On the membrane, there is a recommended exercise ritual that you need to go thru that is supposed to self clean the diffusers, but that requires some form of control to detect this.
Have to remember this is wastewater based, and they have the controls to determine this.