The Most Frequently Asked Question of 2020.

2020 is finally coming to an end! Here is the most frequently asked question of the year . And my answer.

"This is my first go at converting to sublimation ink, so I'm sorry if this is a dumb question! What would happen if you refilled the ink before it got to the low ink status. Is that even possible? Would it screw everything up and mess up the current chip?"

It is not a stupid question, Its actually a quite frequently asked one and I'm glad you asked it.

In this case NO. The Epson chips that you take from their cartridges are one time use chips. So when you take the chips from the Epson cartridges, the printer is thinking it has regular Epson cartridges inside of it. The only thing the printer "see's" is the chip. Printers DO NOT read the physical level of ink inside of ink cartridges. The ink level is determined by the information that is pre loaded on to the chip from the manufacturer. So every time you print, a number is counted down, and that number will tell the printer how much ink is supposed to be in the cartridge.

So for example, say if that number is set at 500 from the manufacturer, then the printer will read the cartridge as full. Then you print 250 pages and it will read it as half full, and so on. So say you refill the cartridge after printing 250 pages. It will still read it as half full because you are still using the same chip. So when the printer thinks that the cartridges is empty you will have to purchase more original Epson ink to get new chips. This will be the case until they are able to create a chipless firmware, or ARC (Auto Reset Chips) for the 812 cartridges.

The cartridges that come with the printer (812-I) are the initialization cartridges, they are a lower capacity than the 812 cartridges that you purchase from the store or order online so they wont last a long time doing sublimation so you may want to pick up another set if you decide to use this printer as your "daily driver". There isn't a time frame on when the ARCS or a chipless firmware will be available so refilling can get expensive if this is your only printer, but if you are selling items, ink refills will pay for themselves.

-DG Thank you all for your support and rocking with me this year! May 2021 be great for us all. I'm rooting for ALL OF YOU!