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HP raising Instant Ink subscription pricing significantly
(www.ghacks.net)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Until the software counter decides that the waste ink pad is full and the thing blows a software fuse.
Epson's official solution to a full pad is to throw out your printer and buy a new one - literally a printer with a self destruct timer. Not very "eco".
Cursory research about this seems you can replace it yourself for $10. Are you sure about this?
Yes, the hardware (a cheap sponge, essentially) that the counter "protects" is easily replaced for little money - but you still can't just reset the counter.
https://epson.com/support/epson-ink-pads-reset-utility-faqs
For "North American users" Epson now offers a tool to reset the self destruct counter one, single, time.
There are third parties now, that offer a reset of the software destruct counter, for a fee.
The fact that a printer sold as "Eco" has a software self destruct that the user requires an unlock key to reset - an occurrence frequent enough to make it a profitable business for third parties to sell such keys - should tell you all you need to know about these printers.
I couldn't confirm, but there supposedly are more premium models with user serviceable waste ink tanks that don't have a self destruct, but most consumer models very much have this limitation.
Thanks for the info, that's absurd. I don't know why more people are talking about this then.