'give it a burst'? Its not carb heat you know!
Remember that your use of the heat when not required may cause someone else to suffer a failure when they need it...
...and I am speaking as someone who has had an ASI failure @ FL80 in IMC due to pitot heat failure & icing.
The real trick here is to understand the environment you operate in...its like people who turn the pitot heat on and off to see a charge on the alternator...duh....I suppose the fact its reading +20amps isnt a good enough indicator...
As for pitot icing up - yep below 5 deg C or visible moisture...that stops the problem - no a blast - just put it on and leave it on until such a time when those conditions no longer prevail...
And as for 'failure because the pitot has iced up' - well thats easy to solve - turn it on bye bye ice....its not exactly an issue....the problem comes when the heat fails in flight....so you DO want to preserve the element life...