Quote:
My friends with Epson printers have had huge problems with the heads clogging up and the only solution is to buy a new printer.


Many times with Epson printers (specifically the C8x series), it's not the print heads at all. Through much research and dissection of my own Epson printers, I discovered another common problem. There's a clear tube that connects just below the print head cleaning thingy that conveys the ink that's been forced through the print heads to a reservoir in the bottom of the printer. This tube can become clogged with dry ink or get dislodged, causing the print head cleaning process to not function. If you're patient enough to take the thing apart and clean out or reattach the ink tube occasionally, you can keep them running for quite a while. Unfortunately, they still require the normal print head cleaning quite often and waste a lot of ink.

Picture of ink tube here.
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~ John