"Bob Parker" wrote in message
...
Back in the late 90s I paid heaps for an Epson Stylus 500 printer.
It was great at first, but then started producing "banded" printouts.
I wasn't really surprised, because it didn't get much use. Eventually
it got so bad that it was unusable.
When I took it apart, I was stunned by how much massively expensive
ink the thing had pumped into the huge absorbent pad under the
mechanism in its unstoppable self-cleaning cycles. I vowed that I'd
never ever touch another Epson printer, or inkjets in general if I
could avoid them.

Yes, I had the Stylus Colour 500. It cost me about £275 IIRC and never lived
up to the print quality of the 'sample' image. After a period where it was
unused, it clogged up so badly that nothing would shift the blockage. It
ended up in the bin. I always used Epson cartridges BTW. Not only was the
print quality disappointing, the paper feed was dismal.

Some people knock HP printers, but at least I can put any old crap ink in
the cartridges and it can't damage the printer. If the print head gets
blocked beyond hope, I simply throw the cartridge in the bin and start off
with a new one.

Dave