Hi
this is s a great site - I have learned so much from all of the sharing. Thanks! Just wondering if there is anyone online that lives in the toronto canada area or even anywhere in Canada that has purchased ink, icing sheets etc from icing images. I am wondering about the border duty - is there any extra charges for bringing the order into Canada. I would like to buy my supplies from icing images because the products sounds great. However am concerned over the possible extra taxes and duty costs . I am new at this and just getting started
I am buying a canon mg5220 today on sale a best buy! Next will be the supplies I need.
thanks

Last year I bought ink from icing images..Debbie was very helpful and even replaced a cartridge that was defective at their cost...It was however a costly investment.I bought my printer here and already had Kopykake icing sheets.The inks with shipping cost me $138.00 US..This was a full set of gold cartridges and the set of 4 ink refill bottles.And then I had to pay an extra $20.00 at the door for duty fees.At one time there was supposed to be a canadian online supplier but her site never did take off and they never did end up selling Icing image products.Not sure what else to tell you except it was expensive..and too boot..My printer clogged 5 moths later and I could fix it..ended up throwing EVERYTHING into the recycle bin...Costly adventure....

Hi.
We have hundreds of Candian customers who currently order directly from us. We have made arrangements with Fedex for lower shipping costs which include the brokerage fees. Duties and taxes are somehjng that we have no control over as they are regulated by the Canadian government. While we are finalizing details with a large Canadian distributor you will find that Canadian pricing will be a bit more expensive then buying direct from the USA since they will have to pass along their costs as well. While purchasing from a Canadian distributor will be much more convenient, my guess is that you will see a higher price point on the same product. Overall however there may end up being a cost savings since distributors are able to purchase in bulk to help keep costs down.

In he meantime please know that we have hundreds of satisfied customers. You must however print regularly. When you let your printer sit unused you will run into problems no matter whose ink you use. So if you take his venture on make sure you print regularly. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Hi Debbie,

I am a Canadian living in Toronto. Any updates on teaming up with a large Canadian distributor? What is the best and cheapest way to purchase your products? Is there a Canadian distributor I can deal with directly or do I purchase through you?

I am in the process of purchasing a printer, edible ink, and frosting sheets. Do I need a special program to run with the printer? Or is it as simple as arranging images in MS Word and printing from there? What do you use to set your images on a document to print?

Thanks in advance.

Also, for the printer, reading through many of the threads here, it seems the top printers are the canon MG5320, MP560, and IP3600. However, I cannot seem to find these at reasonable prices here in Toronto. I did find the Canon MG5420, may you please verify that this will work with edible ink. And if it does, what kind of edible ink will work with it? Is it the Elite Edible Ink Cartridge set? Or somehting else?

Please advise.

Hi Billy,

The Canon 5320 is the best printer on the market. The 5420 is not a good printer for edible printing for many reasons.  The printhead is not removable, the icing sheets have to be pulled from the bottom and the cartrdiges available for that machine are all sponged cartridges.  For that reason, we suggest you look harder for the mg5320 or find an canon 6520 which is the next choice.  Personally, I like the 5320 the best.  We do still stock some, but if you look hard enough you may still be able to find one here or there.  Our products are also carried through Pheil and Holing which I believe distribute in Canada. As for a printing program, whenever you use our icing sheets, you have access to our free online software called iPrint.  It helps you print all your pictures easily and beautifully! Thank you

Hi Debbie,

Thanks for you response, really appreciated. Here is my issue - I cannot, for the love of all that is holy, find an MG5320 printer at a reasonable price. As you know they are discontinued, so I cannot find them ANYWHERE in Toronto. Another issue is that they are only available with the different edible image companies, but as you are aware they are unbelievably marked up. A printer that would sell for $50-60 in shop, is going for anywhere from $250-500. I cannot afford to put down that kind of money knowing full well the printer is actually far cheaper in reality.

Anyhow, I ended up purchasing an MG5420 (against all your warnings) simply because I was left with no choice. I would like to go through your reasons against the MG5420 and try to understand them in more depth:

1. Printhead cannot be removed: This is required to help with troubleshooting/fixing printer issues. However, I looked into this and came across this thread in a Canon forum: http://forums.usa.canon.com/t5/Printer-Multifunction-Support/does-the-canon-mg5420-have-a-removable-printhead/td-p/24839 The Canon representative mentioned that all their inkjet printers have removable printheads. I am hoping this person is correct.

2. Icing sheets have to be pulled from the bottom: Could you explain that a little more to me, I do not understand what you mean by this and how it poses a problem - perhaps if you can also compare how ice sheets are pulled from a MG5320 so I know what the difference is.

3. Sponged cartridges: I looked into this a little in your forums and have found that the issue with sponged cartridges is that they waste ink that gets caught up in it (apparently I will lose half the ink). And with refilling the cartridge, the sponge harbours bacteria. Since you have been doing this for over 10 years, do you think edible ink manufacturing companies will manufacture SPONGELESS cartridges for the MG5420 at any point in the near future?

Bottom line is, I have the MG5420 - apart from the potential problems listed above - will it produce good images on icing sheets? That is probably my main priority right now, I just want to know that it will produce a good image.

I do not mean to be difficult and ask so many questions, but this printer situation has proven to be an exercise of frustration. I have spent over a week straight trying to find the MG5320 but to no avail.

Thanks in advance, your knowledge in all this is fantastic!

BillyH

Hi,

I am glad to be able to answer your questions.  I don't think I ever found the MG5320 for $50-60.  The reason ours is marked up is because we offer a one year warranty within the Continental US.  In addition to the warranty we offer supplies with ours as well as a free trial to iDesigns and free use of iPrint. To answer your specific questions:

1. The printhead is not removable.  I am not sure why he would say that it is when it is clearly not removable.  This is important because it makes it very hard to clean it should you have a deep clog.

2. Icing sheets have to be pulled from the bottom: On the 5320 there is a rear tray.  This allows almost a straight path for the paper to follow through the printer. This is ideal for icing sheets.  The bottom trays require you to put one icing sheet in at a time.  Icing Sheets should never be put in more than one at a time as they are more prone to jamming printers when you stack them.  So every time you go to print you will have to open the tray and put the icing sheet in.  If you plan on printing pre cut circles, you will find inconsistencies when the icing sheet is pulled through the printer causing you more waste as you will find it nearly impossible to line them up to accurately print.  If you plan to print 8.5x14, you will find that the tray does not properly hold it and that the tray is too short so the icing sheet sticks out of the closed bottom tray.  It is a bad design and one that is prone to complications.

3. Sponged cartridges: Since our company switched to cartridges with no inner sponges we have found more successes then ever before.  We are currently at the fewest problems with cartridges/printheads/refilling then ever in our history with the current cartridge design that has no inner sponge.  Are they perfect, no, but they the problems with them are so few that I will do my best to stay clear of sponged cartridges if I can as it is my job to sell the best possible product that I can.

The 5420 prints just as good as the 5320, but the frustration level based on the items listed above makes it a high risk. If paying a bit more gives you a more reliable printer, to me it would be worth it.  If you get a bad clog, you may find yourself buying another printer and then another.

I will tell you that in our testing with our cartridges and our inks we have not been able to clog it as of yet.  We are trying to get it to clog so we can test some theories in getting it to clear a clog.  But not all inks are the same. Some companies that may sell the product may not have the same quality inks and may not have the same standards that we do.  Depending on where you find cartridges for this printer, you may not find the same successes that we have had with it.  But If our customers buy this products, they need to be able to fix problems that may occur effectively.  So we are moving closer.

In summary, we feel at this point, until we are finished trying to resolve the issues found with this printer, you will end up spending more money and time fighting with this printer than the investment you would make in purchasing a higher priced model.  I can put these cartridges out on the market now and earn all kinds of money off of people who are desperate, but it would not be the ethical thing to do.  I know from the experience in working with these newer models that they are prone to more problems then not and if I sell the cartridges that we have in stock and do indeed work, I would be doing a disservice to you.

I will tell you that we are trying to work on the solution and we are hoping to have a solution for you soon, but I will not sell printers or cartridges that will cause my customer problems. I believe in taking care of my customers and being honest with them and not steering them in a direction that I know to be wrong.  I am sorry that this is not something you really want to hear, but again, I believe in selling only good quality products that you will be as happy as possible with.  Perhaps you may want to out source until the problems are resolved.  Spending the money on the printer and the cartridges and paper and having difficulties can be more of a waste of money than not.

Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will be glad to assist you.

You may want to search for the ix6500 by Canon, that is still out there and easier to find then the 5420

Thanks

Aicingimages I actually need help. I bought the 5320 few months ago($250) and was it stopped working a few weeks ago. Saying the yellow colour ink was not recognized by the printer. I did everything I could to fix it till someone told me to switch the edible cartriage chip with a chip from an actual cartriage. Spent another $20. It worked one time and then had the same issue. What do I do now?

IT sounds like the contacts may be dirty. Open the lid of your printer then unplug the printer (without turning it off). Take a q-tip and place it down where the chip meets the printer.  See if any ink comes out.  If it does, then clean that area first with the q-tip alone and then once it is clean, put some rubbing alcohol on the q-tip and see if you can get more off of it.  Then dry it thoroughly. Let it sit for about 1/2 hour to ensure it is dry.  Then go ahead and try it again.  Make sure the chip itself is clean and straight and in position. Then go ahead and try everything to see if it recognizes. If you are still having trouble, contact our office directly and we will try and help you. I checked our database and couldn't find you as one of our customers, but we will still be happy to try and help you.

AHi im sorry i didnt know we had to be a customer of yours. I was just desperate for help after spending so much money on this. We did try your suggestions and still doesnt work. I wouldnt mind contacting your office for help if the offer is still available, even if we are not your customers?

You don't have to be a customer of ours, we will try and help anyone if we can! Give us a call and we will try and help. 540 869 5511

Hi...Today we have done some more testing and made some headway on this printer.  Before you  do anything, hold tight. Give us about a week or less and we may have some answers for you!

Hi everyone,

Ok, to update everything above, we have finally found success with the Canon 5420 and 5520. While it is not the perfect printer, we have been able to conquer some of the problems.  First, the bottom feed, there is no way around it. It is a fact and while it isnt perfect, it seems to work very well with our premium icing sheets.  I would warn people though that because it pulls from the bottom, sheets that tend to dry faster than our premium sheets may be problematic since they could dry and then crack and crumble as they get pulled through.  A lot will depend on how dry the environment is.

Printhead...It is removable!!! It is a little tricky, but it is removable and our customers have access to the documentation showing this!!!

Cartridges: we finally found some that are refillable and successfully refillable!  So far so good, no reported problems with them after our vigorous testing! 

Sponged cartridges...well, there is nothing that can be done with that, but our inks are well balanced and seem to hold up well without clogging and have the proper amount of ingredients to avoid sponge associated problems!

While we are big supporters of the cartridges with no inner sponges, we were able to find enough solutions that we are happy to give it our stamp of approval!!!

Please let us know if you have any questions and thanks for your patience and support while we were doing all of our testing!

Hey, there is a business in Kitchener Ontario that sells cake supplies. I am not sure if they will have exactly what you are looking for but you could probably email them and find out.

http://icinginspirations.myshopify.com/

also there is a company that I am pretty sure is in toronto that is called l&m, not sure if they sell to the public or just certain companies though.

Icing Images Products are now available from Cavalier Cakes in Victoria BC.  Visit us at www.cavaliercakes.ca to order.