We have summarized the current developmental progress in the refill industry.  Some Epson cartridges can only use resetters, while refillable cartridges or ink systems are available to others.  This document will help us to form a strategy to attack Epson's refilling problem.

We often receive inquiries such as, "Do you have a refillable cartridge/CIS/ink for Epson xxx?"  BCH's ink works on all Epson printers if we say it is "compatible with Epson."  However, Epson has a memory chip on each cartridge.  The chip stores the number of pages printed with a cartridge.  For a printer to recognize a cartridge as full, we need to reset the page count to zero.  Epson cartridges are not always refillable, because of our ability to reset the page counter.

Currently, there are three solutions:

1. Chip Resetter

A resetter makes the page count go back to zero.  It works when a cartridge has at least 15% of its ink left.  Once the ink is low, we take the cartridge out and put it on this device.  An LED will flash red a few times, and then a green light indicates a successful reset.  After that, we will refill the cartridge with ink and use it as new.  The resetter works for both original and third party compatible cartridges.

2. Refillable Cartridge with Auto Reset Chip (ARC)

Each refillable cartridge has a refill hole on the top.  The refill process is simple: unplug and add ink.

The "A" in ARC means automatic, by which the chip doesn't reset at will.  The chip only resets when the page count reaches a critical number.  

1)  If we see a low ink level and refill the cartridge, the chip will not reset.  

As a result, the printer will still show low ink.  The actual ink level will be out of sync with the printer's estimation.  Thus, we should ignore low-ink warnings and keep printing, until there is an automatic chip reset.

2) After a reset, the printer will be confused because we haven't changed the cartridge yet.  

The printer will display "Cannot detect [xxx] cartridge" or "[xxx] cartridge is missing."  To fix this, we will go to the printer's control panel and select "replace the cartridge." Then, we will open the printer lid and check the actual ink level within the see-through casing. If the cartridge needs ink, we will take this opportunity to refill it.  Otherwise, we will just close the door to fool the printer.  Once this is done, the printer will show a full tank of ink.

3. Continuous Ink System ARC (CIS)

These chips are similar to refillable cartridges.  However, all chips are together in one array.  A continuous ink system supplies cartridges with tubes.  Therefore, we will add ink to external tanks and not take the cartridges out.  A reset button is on the top of the chip array.  Once pushed, the button cuts off the chip's electricity for a few seconds.  Consequently, the printer will think we've taken out the cartridge and changed it.

 The availability of one solution doesn't guarantee the availability of others.  For example, some models only have resetters.  These cartridges are often rare, and ARC development is not profitable.  Furthermore, some newer models may not have any refill solution at all.

This summary is not only for BCH's solutions.  We will try to get the document updated.  

• If you see a newer solution not listed here, please email support@bchtechnologies.com.  We will contact the manufacturer and verify the result.  
• If you find a cartridge without a solution, however, please DO NOT contact us.  We will reply "this cartridge does not have a solution that we know of." 

No solutions for T220, T288, T410, T702, T802