Sawgrass SG400 issues and replacement recommendations

I have had nothing but problems from day 1 with my Sawgrass SG400. My original one brand new out of the box had issues passing the nozzle test as red would not print. I had to run the clean head procedure multiple times and even different magenta cartridges. The issue was so persistent Sawgrass ended up sending me a replacement Sg400 and told me to trash the original.

The replacement worked better but has had issues being color accurate and randomly requires head cleanings in the middle of jobs. I cannot run anymore than 5 - 9 copies of a print at a time. It is like the cartridges have depressurization issues if you run too many prints as colors begin to fade and not be as saturated or dark. At one point everything was becoming red hued as it printed out. Sawgrass had no real fix. Upon inspecting the capping station there was red ink all over the place. I did the simple green and blotting up of the ink from the capping station. That temporarily fixed the problem then I start getting horizontal white lines in my prints then different colors starting having issues and now I am getting random ink blots (red, blue, yellow, black) and horizontal white lines on my blue colors and I just cleaned the capping station again and it is passing the nozzle test... I am so sick of this POS... 3,600 prints since getting it July of 2020 and this thing is toast. Sawgrass told me its out of warranty and to buy a new one... not a chance is it going to be a Sawgrass again.

Rant over...

How is the Epson F170? is it reliable ? does it blow through a lot of ink when just sitting idle ?

I will mainly use it for doing mugs so I will be running sheets of mug wrap paper in the machine 3.5" x 9.125". I would go to an F570 but I only do mugs so I feel it is way overkill. Not sure what else I could do with it.

How is the Epson's black on black mugs with the white patch ?
The sawgrass black could never even come close to the black color of the black mugs so I was never able to use it for those. it either appeared brown or green regardless of time and temperature settings it never looked like a true deep black. I was told by someone familiar with dye sub printers this is a Sawgrass issue and Epson can achieve true black that will almost match the black mugs.