Refilling Epson cartridges

Refill Instructions

We have sold T29 resetters for a few years now and many people have had success refilling their cartridges.

Read below and you will see that there are reasons why it may not always be plain sailing with the latest cartridges from Epson. The same guidance applies to Epson's newer cartridges - Nos - 603, 502, 405, 34, 35, 378 and 202.

The T29 resetter does not work on these. For those cartridges there is a newer resetter. The newer resetter works on all these cartridges (603, 502, 405, 34, 35, 378 and 202)

The latest resetters for Epson Printer Cartridges all say that people should refill and reset before a cartridge reaches 15% ink left inside. If you continue printing after this there is a danger that it will completely run out of ink. It then indicates an "X". If it indicates "X" it will never reset and get accepted back into the printer.

Here are links for the resetters we stock:-

Epson Chip Resetters

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Another problem we may have going forward with these is that the manufacturer (Epson) can change Firmware in newer printers (1) to stop compatible cartridges working and (2) to stop recycling / refilling of their own cartridges. We know that this has already happened several times with these printers. The compatibles are now on Version 6 of the chips.

So - very important - NEVER accept Firmware updates. When you install a printer you must ensure that you do not select the option to automatically accept these software "updates"

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One question I have for people is - did you refill the cartridge first? I think that the old idea of resetting an "empty" or even a nearly empty cartridge and expecting to continue printing is a lottery and not going to work.

A local customer had looked on you tube and seen a video showing where to drill a hole on Epson originals. He brought his cartridges in and they all reset OK (i.e. we got the Green indication) - He had a set of 4 - however, when he took them home 3 got accepted OK but the Magenta didn't. He had also purchased a set of compats from us along with the resetter and so was delighted to get his printer up and running for much less money than he had been paying on Epson cartridges!

Below you will see images about refilling, where to make a hole.

Above picture shows the typically complicated internal construction inside an Epson cartridge.

It states on the resetter that you should reset a cartridge before it reaches 15% left inside.

If you read below, you will see the reason for this.

Epson have added a see through "window" on the underside of their cartridges, we reckon that ink must show here for a cartridge to get accepted back into the printer.

We have heard of a customer who reset a different model of Epson cartridge (but one with this window) it did not get accepted after the reset. He took it out - refilled it and then it got accepted.

So if you intend to reset a cartridge - before you do so - look at this window and make sure that ink shows there.
We recommend people who want to refill empties to refill first and then use the resetter

I took a look at our compatible cartridges. (Shown below) The latest ones don't have the window but compatibles previously did have the "Window" just like the Epson Originals do. To me this is great news, as they clearly work without it and it is just one thing less to go wrong.

We always say to customers to refill compatibles as they are made more simply. e.g. they don't have the complicated internal chamber structure that Epson employ, also they don't have the Double Skinning that Epson often use

The image above shows two cartridges with the window and two of the newest ones with no window.

IJD - Ebay Help and Support - Refilling Epson T29 Cartridges

Help and Advice for Epson 603, 502, 405, 29, 34, 35, 378 and 202 Chip Resetter purchasers

When refilling the Epson these cartridges. You need a chip resetter - refilling with ink alone is no use, the cartridge simply won't get accepted back into the printer. Also resetting alone is not guaranteed to work. You must refill first and do it before the cartridge displays an "X".

Refill Instructions