Interesting post, Fitz,
As a printer engineer (mostly...) my company insists that if the user is using refills/3rd party consumables we should walk away!
I had HP refills a few years ago for my deskjet 690c and they were terrible - ink bled, smudged, took a long time to dry, etc.
Recently I needed to print some stuff but was skint, so I went to a local Cartridge World-type place. The result really impressed me, and I would recommend the shop.
However, where Laser Toner Cartridges are concerned, the story is not so good. I have seen leaks of toner, poor quality due to the drum having marks on it, or repeated lines caused by problems within the cartridges. They don't seem to last very long, either, so maybe Toners are in a different league from ink cartridges![]()
I use my Epson Stylus PHOTO 785EPX printer a lot and it seems that I have to do the Head Cleaning routine every two or three days, usually the black ink check pattern has gaps.
Ayway, I found the following site that has a lot of information about Epson head cleaning and a link to download a program, SSC Service Utility, that allows cleaning selected print heads instead of all of them:
http://www.maxpatchink.com/epson-tips.shtml
I haven't tried the single head cleaning yet but the SSC Service Utility looks interesting and does all kinds of stuff with the printer.
By the way, I refill my cartridges and have excellent results although I am sure refilling isn't for everyone...and don't tell me the refill ink clogs the heads. I don't clean the heads any more than I had to with new Epson ink cartridges.

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