One of the biggest costs associated with owning an Epson printer is paying for new printer cartridges. The Epson Company follows the printer industry practice of selling devices at a low price as a loss leader and then making a profit on the sale of new ink cartridges. To combat the practice of consumers refilling cartridges themselves, Epson has manufactured most of its inkjet cartridges with "smart chips" since 2000. These chips transmit a signal to the printer when they are empty. They will also "remember" that the printer cartridge is empty when it has been refilled, forcing the consumer to learn how to
reset an Epson printer cartridge to use the newly filled cartridge.
