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My Epson Stylus All-In-One printer, uses four ink cartridges one each for cyan, magenta, yellow & one for black ink. The black ink recently started to fade & now does not print at all. Whilst the three colours are printing perfectly.
The level of ink shown for the black ink cartridge does not show an empty ink cartridge. I installed a brand new black ink cartridge, and the printer is still failing to print black text etc. I have tried head cleaning to no avail.
I do indeed use compatible inks rather than originals (to supposedly help save money). Someone told me that the print head is blocked due to using these compatible inks, because the ink tends to be of a lower quality.
My printer is out of warranty, so there is no point using Epson Technical Support, and apparently even if it was in warranty, Epson would not help, because I have not used their branded ink cartridges.
Is their indeed a correlation between print heads becoming blocked (I am assuming that is what has happened) and the use of compatible cartridges rather than branded originals. How easy is it to unblock or flush the black ink cartridge system, either by myself or for example if I took it to my local PC store
Thanks for giving me insight into that, that is interesting. I was thinking if a technician charged maybe < £10 it maybe worth it. I guess you are saying: any saving made from compatible inks is not worth it in the long run & it is only a matter of time before the other coloured inks follow suit. I'm guessing this applies to all brands and not just Epson. – Simon – 2013-01-25T14:13:40.483
@Simon Experience with Epson and HP in Canada and we did not find any worked well. Only you can determine value. Added info to my reply as well – Dave M – 2013-01-25T14:24:18.460
I don't know how much Epson inks are in Canada here in the UK, they are approx £45...thats almost as expensive as the printer. Someone also told me that some Manufacturers incorporate the print head into the actual cartridge, i'm not sure what difference this would make ? – Simon – 2013-01-25T14:31:15.733
@Simon The cartridges with a built-in print head let you replace the whole thing in one go - prevents permanent parts of the printer from getting damaged. – Bob – 2013-01-25T15:16:36.193
@Bob Which printer brands have these type of cartridges ? But then then again which compatible inks have the print head built in for the particular brand of printer ? – Simon – 2013-01-25T17:04:19.157