Please, does anyone out there know how to clean an edible ink printer, and what cleanser to use? I called Canon tech support, and they said that I should clean the printer head, but they weren't sure what cleanser to use. PLUS, I read that the inks can become toxic if not cleaned properly?!

Please, anyone? I need to clean this printer for a cake I have due on Sat., but I have no idea how to do it or what to use, and no one at the Canon support center can help me. I'm in desperate need of help!

I am assuming that this is already being used as an edible printer? If so, what is wrong that you need to clean it?

Yes, thanks... we bought it solely for the purpose of printing with edible inks, but now the head is clogged and it won't print black. I need to clean the head and anything else, but don't know how or with what... Can you help?

If you do not have the cleaner, you can take the printhead out, let hot water run through the printhead where the ink enters and exits the printhead. Let it run until it runs clear then put a paper towel in the bottom of a bowl. Place the printhead on it and put hot water on it. DO NOT BOIL IT. Let it sit for about 20 minutes, then flush it with hot water again.

What printer do you have?
How old is it?
How long did the printer sit unused?

Thank you so much - my husband and I will try this asap. It's a Canon MX870 and it's only about 7 or 8 months old. It just suddenly stopped printing black, even though the cartridge is full.

My canon did the exact same thing. When I tried cleaning the cartridges via the computer option they just got worse and because you actually use ink when doing that I wasted all my ink I had left. What WORKED for me was taking out the ink and the print head and not just running hot water through it but I used a syringe with an open end, filled it with hot water, pressed ir against the "ink ports" on my print head and pushed hot water right through those. Lots of clogged ink and color started to come out. I did that until it ran clear, dried everything GOOD, replaces the print head and inks and everything worked great! Good luck!

Thank you guys so much!! We're waiting on it to completely dry right now, so we'll see if what we did worked. If not, I'll try the syringe idea - thanks again! You guys are the best!!

faith is right, you do not want to run too many cleaning cycles as it does use your ink. But there is a time and place for a cleaning through the printer. When you put your printer back together with the cleaned printehad and cartridges, go ahead and run one cleaning cycle then so it pulls the ink back through, then a nozzle check to see how it works.