Warning on EPSON Printers
I'll bet that most (if not many) of you out there are not aware that unlike Canon, HP etc, EPSON Inkjet printers have their printheads built into the printer. Clogged printheads are impossible to clean on an inkjet printer and don't even bother asking how much to replace them. Labour plus parts add up to roughly twice what the printer cost initially. And that doesn't include the cost of all the new cartridges that you'll need (or the technician will) to test and fail.
If you search on the net you will see various success stories about using 99% isopropyl alcohol and hydrogen peroxide to clean clogged printheads in situ, even ultrasonics. Don't believe them. Any printer technician will tell you that these solutions don't work and that those fairy tales have been lodged around the Internet so as to preclude EPSON getting the bad name that they so richly deserve. Epson flog a solution-filled cartridge that you can try - but they don't guarantee any results for it. I tried it and it was just another expensive failure.
I have just consigned my two Epson inkjets, both just out of warranty, to the basement - permanently, after trying all the recommended solutions. They weren't used for a period of only a month -during a family holiday. When we aren't on holiday they are used all the time - and were working well. Mine was out of ink on both cartridges but my son's was sporting new cartridges. It made no difference. Neither was salvageable.
Obviously the answer is to buy an inkjet that has the printhead as part of the cartridge - marginally more expensive only (but still refillable). HP and Canon have gone that route - not sure about Lexmark or others. Epson should really be up before consumer affairs.....for flogging stuff that's not of a merchantable quality. And before anyone makes the comment about using non-Epson cartridges..... we weren't. That's the Epson standard comeback. They also tell you that if you take out a near full cartridge, you cannot reinstall it. Just chuck those two away (at a cost of $75 a time minimum).
Just IMHO of course, but if you buy an Epson you are throwing your money away - and asking for hassle.