Ink Cartridges

Many consumers opt to have their cartridges refilled or purchased remanufactured cartridges from third parties to save money over buying new cartridges. This is much cheaper (as you need only buy the ink and some other small raw materials), and a whole industry has grown up around this idea. The legality of this industry was brought to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in the case of Lexmark Int'l v. Static Control Components. The Court ruled that reverse-engineering the handshaking procedure to enable compatibility did not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

There are several qualities and types of refilling, some of them being safe and successful, while other types can ruin the printer[citation needed] and/or give bad quality prints. Options include taking empty cartridges to "refillers" or "remanufacturers" who pump in new ink and buying store-branded ink.[3].

Another option is for the consumer to refill the cartridges. Instructions for most cartridges are available on the web[4], as well as sources who sell "bulk ink" in pints, quarts, and even gallons. This can be extremely cost effective if the consumer is a heavy user of cartridges. One pint (473 ml) is sufficient ink to fill approximately 15 to 17 large cartridges of a typical 27 ml capacity.

Generally speaking, Canon, Dell, HP, and Lexmark cartridges are not difficult to refill, while Epson cartridges usually require the additional purchase of a chip resetter to reset the counter chip inherent in the Epson cartridges. And some, or maybe all, Brother printers have scanners, where if the scanners recognizes the cartridge "empty", it will stay "empty" even though you have already refilled it. Since the process involves handling ink, it can be inherently messy until experience has been acquired. Alternatively, 3rd party manufacturers have been offering refillable cartridges with auto reset chip [5] to simplify the refilling process. These refillable cartridges are environmentally friendly and easy to refill.

 
Resetting Epson ink cartridge using a resetter toolLaser/toner cartridges sold as "compatible" are usually re-filled cartridges, although many third-party newly manufactured cartridges exist. Inkjet cartridges sold as "compatible" are newly manufactured cartridges. Inkjet cartridges sold as "Remanufactured" are cartridges that have been used at least once by a consumer and then refilled by a third party.