Refilling Ink Cartridges

by Izzy Goodman

Unlike our specially designed refillable Epson ink cartridges, genuine Epson ink cartridges and genuine HP, Brother and Canon cartridges and single-use compatible cartridges are deliberately designed not to be refilled. They contain a chip which estimates the amount of ink remaining. When the printer judges the ink cartridge to be empty, the chip is set to empty. Simply putting more ink in the cartridge will not work. The chip also has to be reprogrammed to a full state. Chips manufactured after 2007 are deliberately designed not to allow reprogramming. I have seen numerous complaints on the net of people who bought refilled ink cartridges only to have the printer report that they were empty immediately upon insertion or shortly thereafter. There are two Costco stores where the employees at the refilling machine whisper our phone number to customers because they are tired of all the complaints.

Even if the chip can be reset, there are greater dangers than just having a cartridge report empty. Inkjet printers squirt ink through microscopic holes. If these holes get clogged, it can cause problems from poor print quality to complete printer failure. All ink has a tendency to coagulate when exposed to air. Otherwise it would never dry. Now think about an empty ink cartridge which sat around for a while before someone injected more ink. The original remaining 10% of the ink in that cartridge has coagulated. Now it has been refilled. You are already losing 10% due to the coagulated ink which was there at the time of refill. But the problem is even more serious. If that old ink clot breaks free, it can clog and permanently damage your printer.

Then there are other pitfalls. You have to keep four or six ink bottles around and several needles. It is virtually impossible to refill without dripping ink.

So why refill? It is a messy process. If you do it yourself, you can't avoid getting ink all over the place. If someone else does it for you, refilled ink cartridges still tend to leak, clot or bleed air into the printer. You don't save money. Places which refill typically charge about $10 a cartridge. You can buy a brand new compatible for about $2. Refilling is foolish on so many levels.

Note that refilling a single-use ink cartridge is not the same as doing so with an ink cartridge specifically designed for refilling and using special ink dispensers designed to eliminate air, leaks and spills.

We have solutions which gives you the best of both worlds - Reusable Epson Cartridges without the mess or the risk and specially designed refillable Epson ink cartridges with specially designed refill ink bottles.