I've had 2 Epsons both of which blocked up and became unusable.  I gave up with Epson  after that and got an HP. 

Not had any problems with this so far.  I think the epson printers have the print heads built into the machine so when they pack up thats it.  The HPs on the other hand have the print heads in the ink cartridge, now this makes the cartridges more expensive (all ink cartridges are way to expensive any way!) but at least you get new printheads each time. Also with the Epson iIused to waste loads of ink  anyway trying to clean the heads.

I've left my HP for weeks with out using it and it never seems to get blcoked up so I think I'll stick to HP.