Digital BW, The Print

I just discovered Mike Johnston's article about these printers
and they perform doing black and white at:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-03-14-12.shtml

Do other in this forum have any experience, knowledge, or pinions about 
these HP printers used for black and white printing?

I've got an Epson 1160 that I've tried intermittently to print
B/W with. Those endeavors have foundered on the shoals of
clogs, step wedge printing, and endless test prints.

The dedicated Epson printer for B/W approach has been too
'tweaky' for my temperment. These days I stick to color on
my Epson 1270. It would be great to have a solution for B/W
that is as straight-forward as the 1270 is for color. I'm not
averse to dedicating a printer to B/W if I can actually use it
to make pictures.

Cheers,
JimD