Inkjet refill kit
An inkjet refill kit is a set of tools and ink used to refill ink cartridges. The specific tools and the amount or type of ink depends on which cartridge the kit is designed for. The purpose of an inkjet refill kit for consumers is that it offers a low-cost alternative to buying original, genuine cartridges. Contents. Typically, a refill kit comes with a cartridge holder, bottles of ink and needles. The exact tools that come with the kit can vary by manufacturer or by which cartridge the kit is for. Some tools are found in  all kits because they are necessary to refill, but others, like the cartridge holder or a needle to withdraw air from the cartridge, are optional. The most common refill kits come with either: bottles of black ink for black refill kits; or one bottle each of cyan, magenta and yellow for color refill kits; or one bottle each of photo cyan, photo magenta and photo black for photo-color refill kits; or combination of all colors for combo refill kits. Refilling process. The refill process typically involves the following steps: Anti-refilling protections used by printer manufacturers. Many printer manufactures  provide their cartridges with chips and/or sensors to prevent refilling. These chips can also serve as a "copy protection," so that the printer does not work with cartridges made by other manufacturers. In such cases, the refilling process must include the bypassing of those anti-refilling protections. (Refill instructions, chip resetters or autoreset chips [the latter are reset each time the printer is switched on] for different cartridge models, along with other tools, are widely available on the Internet.) Time-coding of ink cartridges To make more money, some manufacturers outfit their ink cartridges with a time chip, so that  after a certain period of time has elapsed or after a certain number of pages have been printed, the ink cartridges will no longer work and/or a cartridge-is-depleted message will appear, even if the cartridges remain nearly full. The goal here is to prevent the user from buying several ink cartridges in order to stockpile them for a longer time. This forces the user to regularly buy new ones. Region-coding of printers and ink cartridges For price discrimination, some printer manufacturers (e.g. Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Xerox) give their printers and ink cartridges region codes (which are  similar to DVD region codes) so that the users can only use printers and ink cartridges from their region and cannot import cheaper ones from another region. Some manufacturers allow the region to be changed several times; thereafter the printer is "region-locked," much like an RPC-2 DVD drive, while others only allow the region to be set once. This form of "digital handcuffing" thereby forces the user to purchase cartridges from only one certain region. Consequently, if this region happens to be a higher-priced one (i.e. a region of fully developed "First World" nations), then more profit  is extracted from the customer (given that the cost of manufacturing the cartridges remains the same). Sometimes the region change must be done by the manufacturer's customer-service department and cannot be done by the user. Xerox solid-ink printers are shipped with neutral "factory" ink sticks with no region coding. Upon the installation of the first new ink stick after these factory sticks, the machine will set a region code based on the installed ink stick and will only accept ink sticks for that region from that point forward. "Officially, " only three starter ink sticks per color  can be used; then, the printer will no longer accept them and will want region-coded ink sticks to be inserted. However, there are workarounds for this problem. When moving to a new region, it seems a good idea to store empty toner cartridges from the old region (or to re-use the region-free Xerox factory ink sticks) and to refill them with ink from the new region. However, toner cartridges usually also have chips and sensors to prevent refilling (such as the "time chips" mentioned above). Some manufacturers of region-coded printers also offer region-free printers specially  designed for travelers. However, in general, "the best solution seems to be to avoid region-coded printers." Integration of the print-head in the cartridge For inkjet cartridges in particular, some manufacturers install the print-head not in the printer, but instead integrate it directly into the cartridge. This makes it more difficult or even illegal (because of patent laws) for other manufacturers to rebuild cartridges, and just refilling the cartridge (including cleaning the print-head and resetting or disabling chips/sensors, if necessary) is sometimes not sufficient, because one cannot print anymore once the print-head no longer  works. Advantages and disadvantages. The main benefit of using a refill kit is the claimed cost savings. Environmental benefit is also claimed, as the process reuses a cartridge that would have otherwise been thrown away after one use. The downside to refill is the time associated with it and the unpredictability. Refilling a cartridge can take 10–15 minutes for those unfamiliar with the process, and some may prefer buying a new cartridge to the effort it takes to refill. Also, ink cartridges usually last for 4-5 refills, but there are those that can only be refilled one time before  they are worn out. The biggest perceived downside to refilling is the mess associated with it. Many consumers shy away from refilling either based on past experiences or stories they have heard. Many of the unsuccessful refill kits of the past were so-called "universal" kits, meaning they were designed for use with multiple cartridges. Because all manufacturers use different types of ink, and because different cartridge designs require different refilling processes, these universal kits had a high failure rate. Today these kits are harder to find, as refill kits made for specific cartridges have become more the norm, but  perception that all refill kits are messy still remains. The main reason for the decline in refill kits is the emergence of large chains of ink stores that offer a refill process. This is similar to the evolution of the automobile oil change. Just as cars became too complex for the average driver to change oil, the new cartridges have also become too complex for the average consumer to do it by themselves. Inkjet refill kits are available in different sizes and with different grades of ink.