Some of Our Old Answers Were Wrong. The Nail Printer FAQ, Corrected for 2026
- Several answers on this site went stale or were wrong this year: ink cost, the return window, shipping, warranty scope, training.
- This is the corrected nail printer FAQ as of September 2026, every number pulled live.
- Where two of our pages disagree, this one wins. Email us and we fix the other.
I'll say the uncomfortable part first. For most of this year, if you emailed hello@nailprinter.ca you got the right answer, and if you read certain pages on this site you sometimes didn't. Our return policy changed and older pages kept the shorter window. I quoted our ink cost using the pricier of two ways to buy it, as if it were the only way. One page describes shipping in a way that no longer matches what we charge. None of it was dramatic. All of it was ours. So here is the nail printer FAQ again, corrected, with every figure pulled from the live store on the day I wrote this.
What's the quick version of what changed?
Answer first: five things. Returns are now 90 days, no questions asked. Shipping is a flat $119 to North America and $249 to the rest of the world. The warranty is 1 year, parts and labour. Ink costs about $2.14 a set on the 5-pack, not the ~$4 a set I kept quoting from the subscription. And every machine includes a 10-week live training course that older pages never mentioned. The rest of this post is the long version, one question at a time, because "what changed" is only useful if you can see the new answer standing on its own.
How long do I have to return a nail printer?
90 days, no questions asked. The machine has to come back undamaged and complete, and that's the whole condition. This is the answer that went stale most visibly: the policy moved to 90 days this summer, and pages written before the change kept a shorter window. Three months is the point. A lot of owners want to test the business model, not the machine, and you can't learn whether a $20 art tier sticks with your clients in a couple of weeks. You can in a quarter. If a page on this site still shows a shorter window, it's a leftover, and the 90 days is what we honour.
What does shipping actually cost?
$119 flat to anywhere in North America, $249 flat to the rest of the world. I'm putting the number in plain text because it's the one our own pages have been least consistent about. If you find a page here that says something else about shipping, this article is current and that page isn't; tell us and it gets fixed. One honest note for international buyers: a flat shipping fee is not the same as landed cost. Customs and duties are set by your country, not by us, and we can't quote them.
What's the warranty, specifically?
One year, full parts and labour. If anything goes wrong in the first 12 months, you send it to us and we repair it at no cost to you. Older pages said "manufacturer warranty against defects" and left the duration out, which read as vague because it was. The scope is the machine. Cartridges and accessories are consumables and aren't covered, which is the same as every other piece of equipment in your salon. Taking the machine abroad doesn't void it, though on an international warranty return you may need to contribute to the shipping. The support page is where the day-to-day process lives.
What does ink really cost per manicure set?
About $2.14 a set on the 5-pack; about $4 a set on the Starter monthly plan. This is the answer I got wrong most often, and it's the one that matters most, because cartridge cost is the first question almost every buyer asks. Here's the math, in the open, so you can check it.
| How you buy ink | Price | Per cartridge | Per full set (~70 sets/cartridge) |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-off 5-pack | $749 | $749 ÷ 5 = $149.80 | ≈ $2.14 (about $0.21 a nail) |
| Starter plan, 2/mo | $559/mo | $559 ÷ 2 = $279.50 | ≈ $4.00 (about $0.40 a nail) |
| Salon plan, 4/mo | $839/mo | $839 ÷ 4 = $209.75 | ≈ $3.00 |
| High-Volume plan, 6/mo | $899/mo | $899 ÷ 6 = $149.83 | ≈ $2.14 |
The ~70 sets per cartridge is our reference yield, an assumption, not a guarantee; dense full-coverage designs use more ink than an accent nail. For weeks I quoted the Starter-plan figure as if it were the floor. It isn't. The 5-pack is live on the store and costs less per cartridge, and if you print fewer than two cartridges a month it's the obvious buy. The monthly plans are about never running out mid-week, not about saving money, and I should have said that from the start. Whichever path you pick, ink is a few dollars against a service most salons price at $15 to $45 a set, which is why the ROI calculator asks for your prices and not mine.
How fast does it print?
In seconds, not the 30–45 minutes hand-painting takes. You'll see different second-counts around the web, and frankly on older pages of ours, measured different ways on different designs. Until we've timed both machines one consistent way, I'm not publishing a number I can't stand behind. What I can stand behind: the client's hand goes in the cradle, the design prints, you seal it with your usual topcoat, and the time you save is the 30 to 45 minutes of hand-painting, not a few seconds either way.
What training comes with it?
A 10-week live online onboarding course, plus two 1-hour 1:1 sessions. Every buyer is enrolled; it runs monthly, ten classes covering setup, maintenance, replacing ink, the app, loading designs and printing on press-ons. The two 1:1 hours are yours to use any time. This was the biggest omission on our older pages, which pointed only at the paid extras: the Print Studio Membership ($49) for the design library, and Elite Coaching ($399) for the weekly small-group mastermind. Those are optional. The course is included.
What's in the box?
The machine, 2 ink cartridges (about 140 full sets), the gel system, 1,500 practice tips, the holder, power and docs. On the V11 that's the $499 Startup Package, and it's included, not an upsell. I mention it because "do I need to buy anything else to start" is the second email most people send, and the answer is no, you can do a paying print out of the box.
Which model, and what do they cost?
V11 at $2,999; X12.5 at $5,999. The V11 is the mobile, app-controlled unit, and it's the right call for a 1–3 chair shop or a tech who works weddings and events. The X12.5 is the wall-mount salon flagship for a 4+ chair floor that wants nail art as a headline service. On payment: the V11 is $2,999, or 4 interest-free payments of $749.75 with Shop Pay. Our own Rent-to-Own plan is a different product at 4 × $899.75, which is $3,599, so it costs $600 more than paying cash, and it's an application, not cancel-anytime. I wrote a whole piece on when each payment path makes sense because a couple of our pages had mixed the two up.
Do I get exclusivity in my area?
Generally, about 25 miles around your business. It's a practice, not a franchise right, and I'd rather understate it than have you hear "guaranteed territory" from us. The point of it is simple: you get something to offer that the salon down the road can't, for long enough to build the service.
Is it FDA approved?
It carries FDA and CE certifications, covering safety and power requirements in roughly 150 countries. That's a device certification, and I'm careful with the wording because it's easy to hear it as something more. We make no claims about the ink beyond that it's O'2Nails ink for O'2Nails machines, and any page here that says more than that is wrong.
Does it replace my nail tech?
No. The prep, the base, the topcoat, the shaping, the conversation in the chair: all of that is still your tech. The printer takes the 30–45 minutes of hand-painting and turns it into a design the client picked on a screen. Salons that do well with it treat it as a tier on the menu, priced and sold by the same person who was already doing the nails. Salons that expect it to run itself send it back inside the 90 days, and that's fine too.
Best for: who should read this twice?
Anyone who read our site between spring and August and walked away with a number in their head. If your objection is ink cost, re-run it with $2.14. If it's risk, it's 90 days. If it's "who fixes it," it's us, for a year, parts and labour, and we're the only North American O'2Nails distributor, so there's no ocean between you and the answer.
NailPrinter.ca recommendation: buy ink by the 5-pack until you're printing more than two cartridges a month, run your own prices through the ROI calculator before you buy anything, and hold us to this page.
FAQ
How long is the return window on a nail printer from NailPrinter.ca?
90 days, no questions asked, as long as the machine comes back undamaged and complete.
How much is shipping?
$119 flat to North America and $249 flat to the rest of the world. Duties and customs outside North America are set by your country and aren't included.
What is the warranty on the V11 and X12.5?
One year, full parts and labour; repaired at no cost in the first 12 months. Cartridges and accessories are consumables and aren't covered.
What does ink cost per manicure set?
About $2.14 a set on the one-off 5-pack ($749 ÷ 5 = $149.80 a cartridge ÷ ~70 sets) and about $4 a set on the Starter monthly plan ($559 ÷ 2 = $279.50 a cartridge). The ~70 sets per cartridge is a reference assumption, not a guarantee.
Is training included with a nail printer?
Yes. Every buyer is enrolled in a 10-week live online onboarding course and gets two 1-hour 1:1 sessions to use any time. The Print Studio Membership ($49) and Elite Coaching ($399) are optional extras.
What do the V11 and X12.5 cost?
The V11 is $2,999 (or 4 interest-free payments of $749.75 with Shop Pay) and the X12.5 is $5,999. The V11 includes the $499 Startup Package: 2 cartridges, gel system, 1,500 practice tips, holder, power and docs.
Next step
If you read an older answer here and it moved you off the decision, ask me the question again. I'll answer with the numbers on this page.
— Maya, NailPrinter.ca