I have a Canon MG8150 inkjet which I've had for a number of years. Have had to do the jet cleaning routine a number of times, but my only real gripe has been the cost of the replacement ink cartridges. If the Epson Ecotank can dispense with cartridges as Tavora suggests then this would be a big plus. Alternatively, if you want to stick with Canon then you can get yourself an ink refilling kit as I have now done. Refilling the cartridges is pretty easy (5 minutes or less each) and the cost of printing reduces to a fraction of the cost if the cartridges are replaced even by non-Canon cartridges.

Webbo

Yes the Epson Ecotank doesn't have any cartridges, it brings 4 (black/cyan/magenta/yellow) ink bottles to fill the ink tank.
According to the tests made (by GFK) the included ink bottles can print up to 4,000 pages in black and 6,500 pages in colour. Which means (for normal home use) the ink supplied will last two years.
In 2 years time if you get the 140 ml ink bottles to refill the tank that should last you 4 years. 

It is often not even a matter of cutting your losses.  A new printer complete with a "free" set of cartridges is often cheaper than buying replacement cartridges.  Sad but true.

Sometimes the cartriges given with a printer are only part fills

Yes, I agree but it is not difficult to do the maths on individual offers to decide the most cost effective alternative.  I am not saying you should throw the printer away every time it runs out of ink but it is worth checking the offers before just buying a set of cartridges. 

Thank you for all the interesting and informative replies. I took Ditape's advice and bought a printhead cleaner, not the one she recommended but from an outfit called City Ink Express who produce them in cartridges which you just drop into the printer as usual. It worked brilliantly and we're up and running again, for £10ish, rather than forking out for a new printer.

There'll be dancing on the streets tonight 

Cheers,

Chris

Good to know that you're up and running again mate. 

Well done Dianne I was going to suggest one of those cleaners, It worked for me after buying cheap ink. Another thing for anyone buying a printer check the price of ink cartridges before buying and a word of warning, I bought a Epson printer very good it was with software to print on discs etc which was why I bought it. I upgraded my pc version of windows and Epson did not support the upgrade so I lost all the features I had paid extra for, will not touch Epson now for that reason.