Aurora Optimas frequently fail?

[marlinspike]

I have an Auroloide Aurora Optima. I've had it for many years to be fair, but that is true of many of  my pens that have never broken. I first had to have the cap replaced because it separated at the band. I stopped posting, but then then next cap the threads stripped off when unscrewing. Now the barrel is seeping ink from where the gold trim meets the plastic. Is this common with these, or a cursed pen?

[Lam1]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

I'm not an expert on Aurora Optimas, having only one.

Mine failed within a month of buying it: the piston started leaking.

I also have seen several reports of the same piston failure.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, marlinspike said:

Is this common with these, or a cursed pen?

 

I can't answer that. What I'll say is that I have two Aurora Optima pens with aurolide bodies, and my wife has two I gave her, and none of those have failed in the months or years of ownership of each of those. Failure is therefore, from my perspective, not frequent (to be measured by MTBF, i.e. mean time between failures, of either the ‘average’ Aurora Optima pen, or a particular unit we own); and we have no data to suggest it is common (as a percentage of all units of Aurora Optima pens in the hands of users ‘out there’).

[fabri00]

As far as I know the very first serie of Optima has problems, and also mine, the first I bought in 1994, needed a repair.

The break was about 10/12 years after the purchase, and the repaiir was done from Aurora free of charge as I payed only the shipping costs.

That one repaired and with body changed, and the other 2 I bought later one, has no problems at all.

The 3 modern 88 I own, 2 big piston filled and one small cartridge filled has no problems. For modern I mean not that one designed by Nizzoli, but the model sold around the mid 90's.

[Mezu]

I've had no serious issues with either of the Optimal I have/had.  However, both suffered from a loose ink window trim ring.  It's not loose enough to even see the separation but it can be felt on occasion.

[Calabria]

On 7/19/2021 at 1:06 PM, Mezu said:

I've had no serious issues with either of the Optimal I have/had.  However, both suffered from a loose ink window trim ring.  It's not loose enough to even see the separation but it can be felt on occasion.

Interesting I have that problem in two of mine as well. The slight clicking sound of the loose ring used to irritate me but I’ve gotten used to it.

 

The only other problem I’ve encountered with an Optima is resin cracks in the clear demonstrator. I sent it in twice to be repaired. Seems ok now. 

[gerigo]

I have had 2 Auroras' break where the ink window meets the body. I baby my pens, always carry them around in pen cases, and have never dropped them. I have over 3 hundred pens and have been collecting for over 10 years seriously and have used fountain pens since high school in the 70s. In all those years, I have never needed to send a pen back to be repaired. This is the first time with breakage. Actually there is one other time where the pin in the cap of a 1911 Montblanc fell out.

I have a sneaking suspicion its because I store my pens in a pen case with elasticized loops. I have a theory the elastic bands put undue pressure on the pen body. But this is not confirmed. Out of the 10 or so Auroras I have, only 2 have broken spontaneously this way.

[Dione]

Don't know where I saw it but recently saw an image showing that Aurora piston filler pens had a weak spot because of the very thin clear plastic at the junction where the ink window meets the section. If you ever drop an Aurora that's where it will break. It also seems that it can sometimes break at that point all by itself. Shame.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, gerigo said:

I have a sneaking suspicion its because I store my pens in a pen case with elasticized loops. I have a theory the elastic bands put undue pressure on the pen body.

 

That would sound somewhat more likely if there are two loops around each pen body, one pulling on the cap and the other on the barrel, instead of one wide band of elastic (such as in the Sailor leather five-pen cases and Kaco Alio canvas pen cases).