Had enough of Epson printers

[Jonny69]

I used to like Epson printers because the ink used to be cheaper and back in the old student days you could refill the cartridges yourself. The head is in the printer instead of in the cartridge. Less waste each time etc etc.

I'm rambling.

I don't use my printer all that much and basically whenever I do I find it's missing lines or a colour is blocked and I have to go through the head cleaning procedure. I couldn't get the old printer to clear so I ended up buying a new one. Now the new one has done the same. I've emptied a whole set of cartridges through it now, at great expense, and basically after 6 months owning it I'm going to have to dump it :angry:

I tried to strip the old printer to get to the head to clean it with a swab but this was nigh on impossible so I'm not prepared to go through this again.

Is there any easy way of cleaning the print heads out to make them work again?

Do these type of products (http://www.specialistinks.com/cleaning-printer-heads.php#) for unblocking actually work or would I be better off just swapping to an HP printer which has the head in the cartridge?

[Mark]

I suspect it's very common with all inkjets. If you don't use them often then they'll block. I've had two fail in this way because I don't use them enough.

The simple answer - print more.

[Desmo]

Our HP Business Inkjet has replaceable heads as well as cartridges. Simple pull out and plug in jobby.

[LeperousDust]

Maybe seems excessive, but depending on how much colour printing you do (i find i only really need b&w even when i'm printing mostly in colour!) then maybe invest in a home office laser printer, or even look for second hand ones? They usually seem very well built, and tbh with light printing once the toner is replaced they've pretty much never run out! That doesn't help you now i realise. But i've had the exact same problem with older inkjets, and as Mark says easy way is to run a few pages off every so often and keep it fresh, leave it for months and expect to faff :(

[Mark]

Have to agree with the above. I've had a laser for nine years. The first eight of those on the original toner (probably should have changed it after seven, mind, as it's possible I left it too late).