Parker Ball Point Refills

[rowdy]

I know this is about ball points not fountain pens but gives me more reason to use fountain pens. In the past year I've had three of the blue UK Jotter BP refills explode on me. This isn't through travel or undue, hard use. I had 2 fail in Jotter ballpoints where there was ink all over the place and last night I was taking a refill out of a Big Red ballpoint to put in a Jotter and there was ink everywhere.

 

Ink appears to ooze out of the top of the refill.

 

It's at the point where I won't store my Parker BP's with the refills in them. I take them out and put them in a ziploc baggie. As well I've also had leaking issues with the blue Parker rollerball refills leaking in my IM. Appears not to be an issue with the black refills in either BP or RB.

 

Anybody else experience this issue? I'm going to write Parker and let them know.

 

Rowdy

 

 

[vectorguy]

I know this is about ball points not fountain pens but gives me more reason to use fountain pens. In the past year I've had three of the blue UK Jotter BP refills explode on me. This isn't through travel or undue, hard use. I had 2 fail in Jotter ballpoints where there was ink all over the place and last night I was taking a refill out of a Big Red ballpoint to put in a Jotter and there was ink everywhere.

 

Ink appears to ooze out of the top of the refill.

 

It's at the point where I won't store my Parker BP's with the refills in them. I take them out and put them in a ziploc baggie. As well I've also had leaking issues with the blue Parker rollerball refills leaking in my IM. Appears not to be an issue with the black refills in either BP or RB.

 

Anybody else experience this issue? I'm going to write Parker and let them know.

 

Rowdy

I've had it happen once in a while, but not in a long time. Were they stored point up? Exposed to some heat? I've had dozens of refills stored horizontally for months now, and no problems.

[rowdy]

The weird thing is they have been stored both horizontally and vertically both with same effect. The Jotters were in my briefcase and the Big Red was stored vertically in a little pen cup on the end table - I use it for doing crossword puzzles, etc.

 

No areas where they could be exposed to excessive heat. They didn't explode per se but just leaked ink from the top of the refill. The response from Parker didn't really make much sense or show that they seriously read my email. They said the tip gets damaged and the pen is causing it. Now I don;t usually use my pens as knives in a stabbing motion - moreso for what they are intended:).

 

Telling me how to get repairs for my Big Red BP. Ummmm not the pen that is the problem. Hmm the reason I use FP's alot:). I hate to say it but my experience with ballpoint refills made in England is they have been even blobby even on the pointy end even if they are a brand other than Parker.

 

Regards

 

Rowdy

 

[hatherton_wood]

I've had serveral do this recently as well - only the recent refills though. I have some from the seventies which have been on their side for years and still work fine amd have never leaked. But are we sure they are UK made (ignore what is printed on the refill - that might refer just to the printing!). Bear in mind Newhaven closing - where are they coming from now? All China? The IM ones are I think.

Edited August 31, 2009 by hatherton_wood

[J English Smith]

Only ones that do this for me are the 0.7 Gel refills. The regular Parker BP ones are pretty well-behaved.

[gvl]

I have had several leak from the top as well. Gums up the internal mechanisms nicely.

 

I did have an old T-Ball jotter leak, but most faulty refills have been more recent. Papermate ballpoint refills suffer from the problem too.

[rowdy]

Glad to see I'm not alone on this issue. It's really weird for this to happen and I can't figure out why. Perhaps something in the QC?

 

I must confess as to my crack about UK made ballpoint refills I remember as a kid we learned to write using the Staedler capped ballpoint with the conical writing tip back in the 60's and they were horrible. Probably why I went to fountain pens like the Sheaffer cartridge pen and 15 cent Bic's:). Believe those Staedler's were made in the UK.

Though the Toronto school system used to hand them out.

 

Good point - although they say UK they may not be. I know the IM refills are made in China and those aren't the best either. I've got a couple Jotters that I just have to carry for those weird times (BP usage) and hope I don;t have any further problems. They are bugger to clean up.

 

Parker wrote back giving me advice that was totally out to lunch but hey they are sending me a free refill.

 

Regards and thanks for comments

 

Rowdy

 

 

 

[rminj]

Regards and thanks for comments

 

Rowdy

 

The refills you speak of; do you know how recent they are? I know for a brief time, say up to 3 years ago, the Parker refills

had a much more tapered tip. Think of an upside down triangle with the sides pushed in/curved. I assumed this was from

when Gillette owned them..it seemed to me they were trying to make the tip more like the Papermate refills (which I liked by the way).

This point could write at more of an angle on the paper. I never did like the Parker blue refills from the seventies/early 1980s

and thought they were designed to keep as much of the ink in the refill (and hence not on the paper) as possible to make them last

for 5 years.

 

Parker refills I have brought in the last year all seem to have gone back to a regular tapered tip. ie. the sides of the tip slope straight to the

point. This is like the refills from the seventies. But the refills from the seventies did not have the papermate ink in them. I find

the newer refills write similar to the older Gillette era ones as the ink now is still Sanford/Papermate ballpoint ink but the point does not

allow as much of an angle when writing. I suspect cost cutting as possibly why then went back to this ballpoint tip as I can't see it as

superior in anyway. It could be surmised then that perhaps costs cutting could be the cause of the your ink leaking.

 

All that said, I still continue to write with Parker refills as the ink still writes smoothly and consistently. Haven't had any blow up.

It baffles me that they think they can change the refill tip without the consumer knowing. I can see and appreciate why people use

fountain pens (where one has control over the ink and tip) and is not subjected to the whims of the refill manufacturer.

 

 

[rowdy]

Good points. I believe these refills are within the last three years. I'm trying to figure where the ink is coming from and just pulled a refill to check. The ink leaks at the top of the refill and I note where the plastic cap of the refill joins the barrel there appear to be little breather holes in the plastic at the join between the plastic and metal.

Though these refills have the tip joined to the barrel I note there is a minor bit of ink at this join that when I rubbed it around my fingers there was a bit of ink that rubbed off.

 

I'm thinking that the ink in these pens are remarkably similar to Paper Mate (we get issued the Flexgrip Ultra's as work pens) and there appears to be no noticeable difference. Although owned by the same company I know the Paper Mate's are made in Mexico and the Jotter refills say UK but that could be the same ink used in two different locations.

 

The odd thing is that I liked the refills from the 70's and 80's as it seemed they never ran out of ink. Just for fits and giggles a couple years ago I decided to see if I could run a Parker BP refill dry and used nothing but a Jotter, with this new UK made refill. I put in a refill and used it every day. Lasted about 6 months. I was really glad to get back to my fountain pens:).

 

The tip on this refill seems to not be too tapered but smooth going to the tip. Last word I got from Parker was they were sending a note off to where they are produced - France was mentioned in the email? to get some feedback.

 

Hey maybe some good will come from this. Hopefully their QC process has identified this already. There appears to be an ISO standard stamped on the refill. One would think Parker is following ISO (International Standards Assoc). I've taken auditor training for Quality Assurance/Quality Control and ISO is taught. Oddly enough the model taught in training is around manufacturing. This perpelxed me as I do audits in the oil and gas industry in Calgary.

 

Anyhoo hope this helps. Regards

 

Rowdy

 

 

[pvector]

just noticed a french refill exploded, must have happened recently, still wet the ink. hell of a mess

[Mike 59]

I carry a Jotter flighter with black powerpoint refill, as every couple of weeks I have to use it on forms, nothing else will do, (so I am told.) Really can't remember a refill leaking in the last 20 years, blue or black.

Other refills that work well and fit, are W.H. Smith own brand, and Fisher space pen refills, with off white convertor to extend them to fit the Parker pens. The Fisher black refill is noticeably 'blacker', and never fails to write first go. More expensive though.

I would think a powerpoint (or any pressurised refill) would leak in a car in the hot weather, but I live in the UK, so mine have never been tested in that way. (!)

[AlanE]

Easy option is use Fisher Space Pen refills, they come with a parker adaptor. They have a shelf life of hundred years, dont leak, will write upside down and under water and it all extremes of temperature. And just the thing for that weekend trip to the moon where FP's will have trouble functioning. You pay a bit more but in the long run they are cheaper IMO because you dont have to keep throwing the duds away.

 

Alan

[stuartk]

Easy option is use Fisher Space Pen refills, they come with a parker adaptor. They have a shelf life of hundred years, dont leak, will write upside down and under water and it all extremes of temperature. And just the thing for that weekend trip to the moon where FP's will have trouble functioning. You pay a bit more but in the long run they are cheaper IMO because you dont have to keep throwing the duds away.

 

Alan

 

Fisher Space Pen refills surely do leak, and they've been doing so for decades. They're pressurized,and this forces ink out through the small space between ball and socket. It may not be as noticeable if you use the pen multiple times a day, but if you let it sit for any period of time, it leaks.

 

Even worse, for me anyway, is that the ink Fisher uses doesn't dry as fast as other ballpoint inks, so it smears horribly and gets all over everything. They also write rather stiffly, so your hand gets tired faster than with other ballpoint pens. (It's too bad, because the pens themselves are built well.)

 

I've given up on the Parker BP refills. They're simply not as good as they used to be. I use Schneider or Schmidt refills instead. They work quite well, last a decent amount of time, also use an archival ink like Parker (Papermate) ink, don't smear, and they cost a lot less than Parker refills.

 

I don't like Pelikan refills either. They're quite expensive, and the ink smears a lot. So, I use Schneider or Schmidt refills in my Pelikan ballpoints too.

 

If you like roller ball or gel pens, Itoya has some Parker-style refills that are pretty good. The thing I don't like about these is that, like most roller ball and gel pens, they don't last very long. However, they're quite inexpensive, so they could still be a good option.

 

Sheaffer BP refills also don't seem to be as good quality as they used to be when Sheaffer was more than just a brand name.

 

One BP refill that has really improved is Montblanc. I have a Meisterstuck pen that I never used because the refills were very expensive and were lousy. You just had to look at them wrong and they'd start skipping and blobbing. I recently bought a refill because a local office supply place was discontinuing them, and I was surprised to find that it writes well and has lasted without any issues. They're still quite expensive if you have to pay retail price, but everything Montblanc is expensive.

 

About Monteverde refills, the less said the better.

Edited December 3, 2011 by stuartk

[nxn96]

For what it's worth, I've had pretty good luck with Inoxcrom refills made to fit Parkers. Nice flow, long lasting, consistent color.

[pvector]

Yes, the parker standard refills from france actually has a notable gap where the black piece attaches to the metal barrel of the refill. thats where the ink leaked out on mine. considering throwing the other one away now, cause i for sure cant leave it inside a jotter. this has not happened with any other refills that i possess or know of in my other stored jotters that just lying on their sides.

 

Also have seen bunches of refills for sale on amazon/ebay, are they reliable at all? looks like china mass produced garbage.

or must I stick with some brand name. Has anyone noticed how absurd the parker refill prices are in stationary stores? 5 dollars for the refill, 6-7 for the regular jotter, 10-11 for ss jotter occasionally with gel refill included or not. This of course refers to the other production, prior to newhaven closing. not sure what the prices are now, but still absurd probably. Rant over :roflmho:

[AlanE]

The moral of the story is........... Stick to Fountain Pens

[grandpasmurf]

The moral of the story is........... Stick to Fountain Pens

 

I agree Alan, But its not always possible

 

I keep a sonnet fp/bp set on the side of my filofax as i sign a lot of agreements and never hand any fp to anybody,. also the bp is handy when the paper wont work with proper ink!

 

What i have noticed is the number of parker refills that do empty themselves in the guts of my bp's and it is not limited to any particular type of refill!

 

I have a parker classic with a very very old refill that works fine and dandy and has never leaked but opened a new pack of black parker refills the other day to find that they had both leaked before ever being used (i did get a replacement from the shop for that)

 

It is about time that parker realised that this is not good enough and go back to making simple good quality pens instead of trying to re-invent the wheel with this new '5' thing

 

Rant over

[MR. PEN MAN]

I had the same situation on my parker classic imperial and it leaked inside the cap,luckly no major damage.

 

This definitely sounds like a quality control problem, they are probably cutting corners to save a few bucks.

 

I have a parker 45 BP with a usa refill from either late 70s or early 80s and no problem.

[rminj]

I had the same situation on my parker classic imperial and it leaked inside the cap,luckly no major damage.

 

This definitely sounds like a quality control problem, they are probably cutting corners to save a few bucks.

 

I have a parker 45 BP with a usa refill from either late 70s or early 80s and no problem.

 

I did have an older Parker ballpoint refill, say 3 years old, leak in an unused pen. Like in this thread, it leaked from the top where the plastic is crimped to the body. I can't say if its a universal problem..

 

I will say I have not been too pleased with the writing experience of Parker's latest refills. The broad blue skips on paper of some types. The regular ink medium I have given up on..they seem to have reduced to point size to .7mm (although they say it is 1.0mm). The Quink flow seems to have the same point size and seems better than the regular medium but one still needs to carve one's writing with it to get a good amount of ink on the paper. I had to call to get a replacement Quink flow as the one I purchases would

fade/skip; I think the ball/socket failed. I'm not sure what's up with the refills lately.

 

I have been using the Schmidt Easyflow 9000 lately. While it has trouble with long lines and some types of paper it puts a smooth amount of ink on lots of type of paper....one does not need to press hard to get

ink out of this refill..making it closer to a gel ink but not quite. It has not leaked or globbed and the top plastic part seems crimped to precision.

[pajaro]

I have recently bought some Parker ballpoint refills in medium and broad sizes. Black ink and blue ink. No problems. I use them in Jotters, Jotter desk pens, Big Reds and in Pelikan ballpoints, K200 and K400. No issues whatever. Must be Michigan. Out here in BFE farmerville there must be some kind of energy field.