Is it Advisable to Refill Ink Cartridges?

While printer manufacturers keep the cost of printers at a bare minimum, the ink cartridge – often referred to as rainbow gold - overtakes the device price within a few months of usage. While branded ink cartridges cost a hefty sum, there are other smaller branded cartridges available for a much cheaper price. Yet another option would be to bank on refilling the ink cartridge by ourselves. How safe is it?

Refilling ink cartridges on our own requires confidence and more importantly talent to do so. It offers us both sides of the coin – most affordable rates and a disaster if refilling doesn’t go right.

One way of refilling involves drilling a small hole in the cartridge and pushing ink into it using a syringe. Once done, the hole can be sealed off either by pouring liquid wax on it or melting the plastic around the cartridge with a hot object.

There is one risk though with refilling. Chips mounted on ink cartridges are so smart that they recognize refills and can instruct the printer to reject refills. Simply refilling the cartridges does not trick the chip. It must either be reset using software, taped over or otherwise rendered inoperable.

Another hack could be to disable the chip and the user must actively check ink levels during usage as he could run into the risk of spoiling the printer by running them dry.

“Our refilled cartridges are 40 to 60 per cent cheaper than the original models,” says Antje Kiewitt from Cartridge World.

Ink cartridges can be refilled between three and seven times before the print heads render useless.
So, is the risk worth taking to save some valuable money? Maybe not! The risk of spoiling the printer stands at a higher chance and the savings aren’t worth the trouble as well. But, at the end of the day, it all depends on the volume one prints.