Playing like a maniac

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Last week I sat down at a 6 max NL $25 table at UB. I soon recognized there was a maniac at the table. He raised and reraised almost every pot. After watching this for some orbits, me and another player started playing back at him. After some more orbits he left. I guess because he realized that 2 players started to play back at him. I put a note on him and a day later, I met him again. This time, I played several hundreds of hands with him, but he played normal, nothing really unusual happend.

Sometimes I wonder whether a maniac is a "true maniac" or whether someone from an upper level is running a test at a lower level for whatever reason, maybe to impove his skills or to test typical reactions of other players at this level where it is cheap to run that test.

Now, here's my question:
Did You ever try such an approach and what were Your experiences? Did You loose or win money temporarily turning into a manic at Your normal or at a lower level? Did You improve Your skills by trying that a few times, maybe to become more comfortable in reraised pots or to improve Your reads on other played in expensive pots?

It's rare, but sometimes over months it happens that a maniac-like player sits down at a table, only to play a few orbits, takes a few reraised pots without having to go to a showdown and then disappears before other players start to adapt their playing styles and call him down. I wonder anytime I see this - it is rare but it happens maybe once in a month - whether these kind of players are true maniacs, whether these are tryouts from better players or whether there is some kind of strategy behind it.