Yes, I am considering doing a power clean. I think I'll try that tonight. I just received a replacement cartridge for the one the printer killed. I'll give it a go and report back in case anyone's interested.
BTW, how much ink is used during a power clean? My maintenance tank is almost full (only 14% capacity left). I'm wondering if the printer is going to refuse to do a power clean because the tank is almost full.
<rant>
One other thing. I guess I need to blow off a little steam here, so bear with me. I've been using Epson printers for about five years now. I started with a little 785 EPX (which I still use as my everyday printer) then on to a 1280 and a 2200 and now the 4000. I consider myself an experienced printer and I am very familiar with the Epson line. So now I finally get a Pro line model and the thing ends up practically useless in one year! After resolving the problem with tech support temporarily, who were great except for one incident, I still had faith that the printer would serve me another year or two.
Then the problem came back. I now have five carts sitting on my desk destined for recycling that are full! That's ~$250 down the drain. Everytime I think about this I get upset. So I wrote a letter to Epson's VP for Customer Service. I explained in detail the problem and asked politely if they could work with me to fix the problem. I don't expect them to foot the bill for repair, but at least share in the expense somehow. I mean this is supposed to be a professional printer after all. Well, its been about three weeks and no response, zero, zip. I am now changing my perception of Epson as a responsible company.
Yes, they make great printers with great output, and frankly I don't know if I would go with another brand. The Epson user community is hard to match with the other brands. But what am I to do? I feel that if I am going to get a new printer I should go ahead and get the next size up, the 7800. Then my brain tells me, "What are you kidding?" "Are you that much of an Epson junkie?"
So, I start to put two and two together. The class action suit, the constant clogging, the maintenance tank gigging they do on you, the cost of ink, are we all just chumps? I frequent another big photo board and I have always kind of chided people (politely mind you) when they would bash the Epson design. Well, now the shoe's on the other foot. And it is pinching the hell out of my toes.
</rant over>