Epson printing technology is unique, so it is helpful to understand some of the basic mechanics of the ink delivery system. The print head built into the carriage. The carriage holds the ink cartridges and moves laterally across the paper when printing. The print head contains thousands of tiny nozzles that actually squirt the ink onto paper. The print head is the ink "control center" for the printer.

Printing regularly keeps the ink in the print head moving and fresh; preventing the ink from drying. Printing at least a page a week of black text and a page containing all three colors (cyan, magenta and yellow) is good for maintaining top printing performance. The second defense against clogs is to make sure that you power down your printer using its' power button instead of the off switch on a power strip. This is especially important if you do not print at least once a week. Turning your printer off with your power strip prevents the printers' built in shut down process from sealing the print head.