Hi guys. 
ALL the cheap inkjets are made “craptacular” as lonewolf puts it. They all have weak points, and are DESIGNED to be basically disposable. Thats why they are so cheap, when it dies you buy another.
Sure you may get a clogged printhead on an Epson, BUT this usually happens after a crap load of use, or if the printer sits for a long time without being used. There are many, many people who have Epsons several years old, and still work, same for HPs too.
The generic ink thing is a crap shoot. You MAY cause your printer to die young, or you may not. You may get worse print quality or you may not. However, the original Epson inks (the newer printers that have Dura bright inks- water resistant) are nice and you won’t get that with generic inks, yet anyway.
In my opinion, Epsons are not bad printers at all. They have very good print quality, and are made well compared to some others. I’ve been a printer/scanner/micrographics/financial equipment tech for 8yrs, and I’ve worked extensively on all major brands, and some you probably never heard of. Sounds like lonewolf had some bad experiences with Epson, but I think they are well made printers. Again, none of the cheap inkjets are made to handle extensive use over time. You want a gooo000d printer, you pay $$.