2 No-Nonsense Ways to refill Brother cartridges: LC 61, 65, 71, 75, 79, 101, 103, 105 and More

There are two kinds of LC Brother cartridges. Today, I’ll be going over how to refill them. The difference between the two kinds of LC brother cartridges, to start with, is that one kind doesn’t have a chip (LC61, LC65, LC71, and LC 79), and the other kind does (LC103 and LC109).

If you have one of the latter, the printer will not recognize that the cartridge is full after you’ve refilled it. To resolve the issue, you’ll either need to replace its chip with an automatic refill chip (ARC for short) or purchase a refillable cartridge that already has an ARC built in. You can order one from my website, BCHTechnologies.com, if you opt for the latter option. An ARC chip is designed to reset itself to full automatically upon receiving an ink depletion error message from the printer.

Let’s Get Started

I will start today’s lesson by reviewing how to refill one of these cartridges with standard ink. Then I will go over how to do it using BCH premium ink, which is what I recommend using. You can also order BCH premium ink off of my website. All brother cartridges are similar. There will be an ink tank, ink outlet, air vent, and front cover. The front covers on some brother cartridges can be slid back, while others are fixed. You do not need to remove the front cover to refill this cartridge.

For a visual demonstration, feel free to watch this video I posted on my YouTube channel, Kevin at BCH, going over the process myself. Since I thought it would be easier to show you the details of this process, I removed the front cover to better illustrate how everything works.

I find that using a flathead screwdriver to remove the cover works very well. If you look closely, you can see small openings around the top and bottom edges of the housing. These openings have little tabs on the inside. Using the flathead screwdriver, I depressed these tabs and gently pulled at the front cover to release it.

You will probably notice that the standard ink bottles have a flexible tip. When prepared properly, they will make the process of refilling your cartridges very simple and eliminate the need for further modifications.

Prepare the Nozzles

Therefore, I need to explain to you how to prepare the nozzles on these ink bottles properly before we can use them to refill the cartridges. Using a sharp knife or blade, cut a small notch in the tip of the nozzle. Since the nozzle is flexible, you need to be cautious to avoid slipping and cutting something you didn’t want to. The purpose of this notch is to make it easier for the ink to flow into the ink cartridge’s outlet hole.

Once you have finished cutting the notch in the nozzle, insert the modified bottle tip into the ink cartridge’s outlet. This will be located near the bottom side of the cartridge. Make sure that the spring in the outlet nozzle is fully compressed. Press down on the air valve. If you removed the front cover like I did, you should be able to do this just fine with your finger. If not, you can use a tool like a pencil or something else of a similar shape to do it.

Pump the bottle to force the ink to flow into the cartridge. It’s important not to overfill, so if you notice some ink spilling out of the cartridge, it is vital that you stop what you’re doing immediately. Once the ink in the cartridge is full, carefully remove the bottle and put the front cover back in place if you chose to remove it.

If you took my advice and decided you want to use the BCH brand premium ink to refill your cartridge, there will be one significant difference in the process. Rather than using a squeeze bottle to insert the ink into the cartridge, you will have to use a syringe.

Fill the syringe with a few mL of premium ink. Insert the tip into the cartridge’s outlet nozzle as far as it will go. Press down on the air vent and inject the ink from the syringe into the cartridge. Replace the front cover if you removed it, and you should be good to go.

I hope this blog helped! For more DIY printer tips and tricks, follow me on YouTube at Kevin at BCH. You can find a video walkthrough of this process here. Happy Printing!