I just bought an Epson NX400, Kopykake printer sheets, and the edible print cartridges. I've yet to print any edible images because when I printed a test sheet on plain paper, I had "bands" of washed out color. The user manual said to use the nozzle check.. etc... I did what the manual said to do and have pratically ran out of expensive ink without even having printed on a frosting sheet!!! As I understand the manual and Kopykake site, the Epson print head can not be removed. I don't want to spend the money on new cartridges just to get the nozzles clear. Anyone else had this problem? I tried a search here on cc and didn't come up with anything... Thanks for any comments!

Hmm, do you need to change the print quality settings? Call KopyKake. I hear they are really great to work with. Maybe they can walk you through what to do. I hope you figure it out. I know the supplies aren't cheap!

I have both an Epson and a Canon and hate them both! No matter what I can not get either one to work right. I have contacted KopyKake with little success. It really bites the big one!

Good News / Bad News:
Good News: I called Kopykake tech support and a gentleman named Milton (who was incredibly helpful) walked me through the process. He said I should not have been trying the clean the print head with the edible ink. Being water-based, the edible ink will not work to clean the nozzle head. I put the regular Epson cartridges in and after a few head cleanings, I had success. He then did tell me to change the print settings like you were thinking, MichelleM. He told me to change my selection from text to photo and to choose premium photo matte paper. IT WORKED!!

Bad News: I did so many nozzle checks and head cleanings (which uses up a ton of ink) that I ran out one color of my edible inks. bummer!!
I'm placing an order with Kopykakes tonight for ink refills and different sized sheets-- just to have a variety.
Eventhough it was a little time and money consuming actually getting the printer and inks to behave, I am so excited about the possibilites.

You said you put in the regular cartridges. You mean you put in the regular ink cartridges? If I understand correctly you are not to use regular ink in your printer if you are going to use edible ink. Am I missing something in your post?

According to a gentleman I spoke with at Kopykake, you can interchange the cartridges. However, that does not seem to be the consensus here on the CC forums. The tech support at Kopykake made it very clear that the regular Epson inks had to be in the printer for the head cleaning to work properly. I can't think that very much ink from either type of cartridges "contaminates" the other when the ink sprays onto the frosting sheets (or paper). I believe that's how ink jet printers work.. I am no means a printer expert. But, if the ink sprays from the cartridges onto the frosting sheet or paper, then the ink never comes in contact with the printer itself. I'm sure there's someone here on CC that can either confirm or contradict that theory. All in all, it seems to be a matter of personal choice... whatever you feel comfortable doing given the information you have. Seems like a very gray area... I wish it was black or white!

I am interested in hearing more about this as well. I haven't ordered mine yet. We just got back from a trip and are leaving for another one today...busy packing, made 2 cakes this week, and spent too much time on CC. I have to get mine ordered though. Hopefully our hotel will have Internet and I can order it while I am gone!

Glad you got it figured out! I'm on my way to printing edible images. I have the printer, black ink, and the paper. I still need to get color ink. I can't wait! I call YOU if I have problems.

I've checked several sources and have been told the same thing as tljkids, using regular ink in a printer will not cause a problem with using it for edible inks. I'm not sure why the consensus here seems to be you can't.

The folks at Kopykake told me to go ahead and run a couple of pages through the printer after re-installing the edible inks if it made me feel better, but that it wasn't needed.

So, according to the experts, you can use a used printer or refurbished and you can clean the jets with regular ink. All printers are tested with real ink during the manufacturing process so even if it's brand new, it's still had ink run through it.

Thank you for clearing that up, justme50. I just wanted to make sure that this was not wrong info. that customer service gave to someone. I have heard that you should not use regular ink in printer if being used for edible images here on CC. Now that I see more than one person has heard this from Kopykake's customer service makes me feel better. I don't want anyone taking offense. Just needed clarification!! Thank you to all who have posted with info!!!

I'm glad to know someone else verified this, too. I was afraid maybe I had misunderstood the information given to me from customer service.
Now, I'm very comfortable with interchanging. Thank you, justme50, for posting what you found out.

A couple of years ago, kopykake said that they were going to come out with a beta software that corrected some of the issues with their current software. When i tried to contact them again about this, they said they had no idea what i was talking about. Has anyone gotten any other software from them recently?
One problem i'm having with the current software is that i can't print different things on one sheet. I have to print the same image or message on all the circles or rectangles on the sheet.

I have problems with the colors on my printer...If I want gray I get purple if I want green I get blue and I get absolutely no yellow..I did the head cleaning and it did not work..I called KopyKake and they also told me I should use the original ink that came with the printer and then do the head cleaning..I haven't tried this but as soon as I do I'll let everyone know how it turned out...

DO NOT EVER PUT REGULAR INK IN YOUR EDIBLE PRINTER. Regular ink is TOXIC. You cannot get it out of your printer once it is in there. There is a purge unit which is like a hard sponge and you cannot get the ink out of there. The printhead rests on those sponges and keeps the NON edible inks moving throughout the printer. Would you draw on a cake with a regular majic marker? NO, you use edible markers that are food safe. The cleaning cycle does work with edible inks, we use it all the time. And it works just fine.

DO NOT USE A REFURBISHED OR USED PRINTER EITHER. You CANNOT get it cleaned of the TOXIC inks. The purge unit retains the ink and the printhead will spread the non-edibles throughout the printer and on to your edible products.

I am sorry to be using all the CAPS, but it is dangerous. If you poison one person by doing this it will be a regret that I know I couldnt live with. It's just not worth it. Think about what you are doing and the risk factor. If you have to use NON-edibles than you should be questioning the quality of the ink.

Again, sorry to be so direct, it's just to serious and not worth the risks.

Do you know how I can fix this problem? Or where I can order a different ink? KopyKake says its ok to do this...

The purpose of my coming down so hard regarding mixing edibles and non edibles is that I dont want anyone to get sick.
Depending on your printer, my favorite ink is our gold label inks. We have no major issues with clogs due to the design of the cartridges and the high quality of ink. There are other ink manufacturers out there as well, but we have yet to need to stock printheads and have been using these selling these cartridges to thousands of people for several years. The question is, if you already purchase KK and need to get them working, how do you get them to work without contaminating your printer. I wish I knew. You may want to try to remove the refill plug and let some air in, replace the plug and put the cartridge back in to your printer and see if it works for you. It may be that their cartridges do not have enough flow for the printer to be able to pull the ink through the printhead.

What printer do you have?