You defintely have to research for ink refill machines or hand doing it, but I too thought that the ink refill machines were expensive once before I got one and starting using it ALL THE TIME! I'm very confident that I'll even out the costs in a few years, not to mention the money potential I...
The best cartridge testing equipment that I have used so far is st-200 (see http://www.stsrefill.com/category_s/92.htm). The quality is very good and the nozzle check test pattern confirms print head function which I liked