The current business model for ink jet printer manufacturers is to make money on the inks. The hardware is essentially free.

You would not believe the profit margin on inks for Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark and others. The printer is simply bate to draw consumers into the ink jet printer market. Remember, laser printers were the original competition for the ink jet printers.

My history is with Lexmark in Lexington, Kentucky. I managed a team that developed ink jet print heads using the Canon ink jet technology.

There are significant technical differences between Epson and all other ink jet printers.
Epson uses a piezoelectric technology to disburse ink on the page. That is also why Epson paper is different. The Epson printers disburse smaller ink dots and consequently ink viscosity is critical.

All other ink jet printers use Canon's technology. In this case, the ink is heated up rapidly and is then forced out of the nozzle on to the paper. In this case, the viscosity of the ink may not be as critical as other factors. like boiling point of the ink.

That is why you should only use Epson or "Epson-like" inks in Epson printers. This is also why non-Epson paper does not render the best results.

Eventually using non-Epson inks in an Epson printer will eventually damage the print head.

Nate47