My simple solution with my 1270, is to remember to turn it on one a month, rarely necessary since it gets used for a LOT of photo printing. (and you though hacking empegs was my major hobby.. ha!).

The older epson I had before the 1270 was crap, noisy, clogged up, printed beautiful pics, and noisy as hell.

Things improved considerably with the 1270. An excellent printer.

The 870 is the 8.5x11" version of the 1270 (13"x19"), both are 1440x720.

The 880 and 1280 are the newer 2880x720dpi versions of the same machines.

-ml