Product dispensers that receive and dispense products from a removable and replaceable cartridge or reservoir are known. For example, many hand cleaning liquid dispensers have a housing that is configured to receive a replaceable cartridge containing the liquid to be dispensed. Once all of the liquid contained in the cartridge has been dispensed, the cartridge is removed from the housing and replaced with a new cartridge.
Often, the housing portion of these dispensers is provided to customers at a low cost, and the supplier is compensated through sales of the replaceable cartridges. This source of revenue may be lost, however, if customers begin using replacement cartridges purchased from a competitor. To avoid this loss of revenue, dispensers are often provided with manufacturer-specific lockout systems that are designed to prevent the use of third-party refill products. These lockout systems may be expensive to design and implement, may increase the complexity of the replacement operation, and may not always offer complete protection against the use of third-party products.