There's a thread currently with good info on edible printers, but it's also somewhat confusing. I called Kopy Kake and they were extraordinarily neutral--you'd think there's no difference at all amongst any of the printers! What I was trying to find out from her was: is one brand/model more maintenance free than the other? Which offers the best quality color/picture? Which lends itself more to using the refillable cartridges? (Her answer to each of these questions and more was "they're all the same".) The only input she gave was that they recommend the Epson over Canon because the Canon have been discontinued. I currently own an Epson CX5400. I had purchased the refill kit for it online--it requires drilling a hole in the cartridge. Print quality was iffy with the refilled cartridges (frequent problems with streaking) and after a year the printer was ruined and had to be replaced. I don't want to repeat history here! I do know that I want a multi-function so I can copy as well as print from the computer. Can anyone help me sort this out? TIA
Sorry, I don't know a whole lot about this topic but I can tell you the little I do know. THe bakery I work at just bought a new printer, they hadn't bothered with one for years because they seem to be such a headache, never work right, quality bad and such. It is a Canon, (sorry I don't know what model, I'm not at work right now or I'd check) It worked pretty good at first but we really had problems if the picture had a lot of black in it. We finally called our dealer, who called the Canon people and they said that they were actually having a lot of people call, I guess the black print heads were defective. They sent us a new print head and we did 3 picture cakes this weekend and they all turned out really nice. Good quality, nice colors. So except for that, the canon has worked well, for us. It is the larger sized one, so we can print on half sheet sized paper too!
Hope this helps a tinsy bit!
I purchased an Epson CX7800 all in one printer. This is the one Kopykake sells with their complete systems as do a few other companies.
I don't do a lot of full edible images, so I was worried that it might clog up on me or cause problems. I've had it for 3 months and so far, not a single problem.
You can buy refilable cartridges on ebay for the epsons so you don't have to drill a hole in them. Stephanie214 posted a thread a week or so ago about them. I just received mine so I haven't used them yet but you could PM her for info or do a search for the thread.
Here's a link for one of the sets of cartridges but they have others. You can email them and see if they have what you need to fit a certain printer. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250127897596&ssPageName=MERC_VI_RCRX_Pr4_PcY_BIN_Stores_IT&refitem=250127914070&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=active_view_item&usedrule1=CrossSell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget
On page 4 of this thread dmmjj posted the comment below:
http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=5424123#5424123
I was glad to see this and bookmarked that thread. I'll be buying a Canon based on the bolded part at the end.
I was at the ARBE in vegas and got to spend time talking to several vendors about the cake printers. There are Epsons and Canons, both now use the chips. Epsons have a printhead that does not come out and Canons do. I asked Decopak about what happens when the epson clogs, and he stated that they replace the ENTIRE MACHINE since the printer cannot be fixed at this point. He didnt say anything to me about the spongeless cartridge so I cant remark about that. But decopak is pricey because of the royalties they pay for Mickey Mouse. I talked to Icing Images about the Canons. They just recently introduced the New Chipped Cartridges for the Canon printers. I saw their displays and was blown away by the colors. I went so far as to have CTP print an image on their epson and I brought it over to the Icing Images booth and compared the two. Hands down, Canon won. THe reds are amazing, they are actually red! They dont use a chip resetter and they come with instructions on what to do when it is time to refill. They said in their testing, they let the printer sit for a month without using it and when they went to print, they just had to run a cleaning cycle in the printer properties and then everything was running fine. They also came out with a new Non Toxic cleaner, its about $20 and seems easy to use from what they told me. I hope this is useful.
My epson sits for months at a time without being used and I've never had a problem with it clogging. With the refillable cartridges on ebay you don't need a chip resetter, they reset themselves. I'm not condeming the canon I'm just stating my experience with epson. My colors are bright and true. I have the cx4200 all in one. The cartridges from kopykake can only be refilled 4 times.
I bought the Epson cx4800 and think it works great. It's an all in one which is nice. I just couldn't find the right canon for the cartridges. So I went with Epson and it has been good for me.
Katie
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