Did you know that Epson ink cartridges are purposely designed not to be refilled. They contain a chip which measures the amount of ink remaining. When the ink cartridge is empty, the chip is set to empty. Simply putting more ink in the cartridge won't work. The chip also needs to be reprogrammed to a full state.

More recent chips are purposively designed not to permit reprogramming, so this procedure regularly fails. I've seen numerous complaints on the net of folks that bought refilled ink cartridges only to have the printer report that they were empty immediately upon insertion.

Epson Ink Cartridge Refill Kit

How does the chip know when the ink cartridge is empty? It counts the pages made public and guesses ink use. At last it reports the ink cartridge to be empty, frequently when there is still 10-20% left. Once the chip is set to empty, it will not be reset. The chip still must be reprogrammed. Some chips can't be reprogrammed at all, so when they report empty they'll stay that way forever. This includes Epson T069, T078, T079, T098, T125, T126 and T127 ink cartridges.

But there are larger dangers than just having a cartridge report empty. Inkjet printers squirt ink thru 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 oxygen. Otherwise it might 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% thanks to the coagulated ink which was there at the time of refill. But the difficulty is even more major.

If that old ink clot finally breaks free, it can clog and permanently destroy your printer. Even if you refill the cartridge immediately, if you're using an ink bottle, there will be clots along the opening of the bottle. If a single clot makes it to your printer head, you could lose you whole printer in a futile effort to save a few bucks.

Some printers employ a vacuum process to suck ink to the heads. If air enters the small tubes, the vacuum is broken. When re-filling cartridges using hypodermic-type needles, it is common for air to enter the tanks.

Then there are more problems. You have to keep 4 or 6 ink bottles around with up to six different hypodermic needles. It is virtually impossible to refill without dripping ink. And it is about unavoidable that at some point an ink bottle will be dropped and spilled or break. Imagine the mess.

So why refill? It is a messy process. If you do it yourself, it's impossible for you to avoid getting ink all over the place. If some other person does it for you, refilled ink cartridges still tend to leak, clot or bleed air into the printer. You don't save cash. Places which refill generally charge about $10 a cartridge. You should purchase a new compatible for $3. And you are taking a chance on your printer. Re-filling is foolish on so many levels.

Note that re-filling a single-use ink cartridge isn't the same as doing so with an ink cartridge specifically designed for re-filling and using special ink dispensers engineered to eliminate air, leaks and spills.

Ruel Run is a researcher and author on various subject matters including Epson inks. In case you are interested obtaining more material click here: Epson Inkjet Printer Cartridge and Refillable Ink Epson.

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