Which Pen Company Makes The Best Rollerball Refills?

[writebyhand]

I've been experimenting with rollerball pens recently, having gotten a Parker Vector rollerball. Is there any rough consensus over which rollerball refills have good reputations and which to avoid?

 

 

Some examples of rollerball pens and refills:

 

Sheaffer rollerball pen

 

Sheaffer rollerball refill

 

Parker rollerball pen

 

Parker rollerball refill

 

Montblanc rollerball pen

 

Montblanc rollerball refill

[Bill Wood]

I've found that my Sheaffer has been a good companion. I have a Cross which is very good. The box stores are good at stocking Sheaffer so I can't say much about Parker or Mont Blanc.

[Braindrain]

I think Schmidt private labels for virtually almost everybody. Having said that, their refills are very good. I've also used the Visconti refills. No idea if those are really Schmidt, but the Viscontis also perform extremely well.

[orfew]

My favorite is not on your list...Monteverde G22 rollerball refill. They are cheap and last quite a while.

[doggonecarl]

I refilled my Pentel RX15 Excalibur with an Ohto Ceramic Rollerball refill (.7) in blue-black and like it a lot.

[chad.trent]

My favorite is not on your list...Monteverde G22 rollerball refill. They are cheap and last quite a while.

 

I got my wife a Monteverde Artista Crystal roller ball. That thing writes super smooth. I haven't tried many other rollerballs so I don't have a large frame of reference, but I think it would be hard to find something smoother than that.

[NedC]

I like my Tombow better than most others I've tried but it's proprietary.

[torstar]

None of them?

[madzaxmax]

None of them?

 

After all, this is the Fountain Pen Network, I suppose!

[DriedUpBob]

Before I came over the dark side of Founatin pens I was quite the rollerball accumulator looking for the smoothest skip free. Where I landed was Visconti refills. Loved them

 

Bob

[Tonight]

For some reason, one of the cheapest refills ever made - G2 refills.

Fits your Waterman and Sheaffer.

[Nokin]

+1 for the Monteverde refills.

 

I especially like their gel refills.

[bernardo]

I've tried Cross, Sheaffer, Rotring, Lamy, Visconti and Montegrappa. I think the best one is Lamy.

[nxn96]

In general, I've found that most rollerball refills seem to suffer from the same issues to varying degrees: not terribly cheap to purchase; don't last near as long as a bp refill (even though they cost more than a bp refill); prone to skipping and "blopping" before long. I've tried a number of them, including Sheaffer, Parker, Cross and some Schmidt refills that came with the heavy corporate logo/gift pens that pass my way on occasion. While not immune to the issues I mentioned, I've had the best luck with Parker refills as compared to the others. One additonal factor in Parker's favor (at least for me) is that Parker refills are not as hard to find in the big box office supply shops as compared to some of the others. Cross is also pretty easy to find in retailers, but in my experience the Cross rollerball refills start drying up as soon as you open the blisterpak.

 

When these rollerball questions come up here, my usual advice is to consider the cost and availability of the refills in making your decision. Hope this helps.

 

PS: In terms of the various rollerball pens as examples in the OP, I'm not sure it's a fair comparison to pit a low-end Vector against a higher priced Sheaffer and a much higher priced MB. Personally, I like the Parker Sonnet as the "skin" for a Parker rollerball: nicely balanced without being too heavy, whereas the Vector is very much an entry-level pen. Again, hope this is helpful.

[ANM]

I have two favroites: Pelikan and Montblanc. Pelikan has a nice fine lined one like I like.

[Gcouch]

I hate waterman refills. Half the time I get a less than satisfactory results. On the opposite end of the spectrum are cross refills. I love them! They write smoth and are just a pleasure to use. This is why I got rid of my waterman and kept the cross rollerball for my FP backup pen.

[usk15]

Japanese gel roller-ball refills from : Pilot, Pentel, Zebra and Uni-Bal

Also German Schneider topball 850 (i just bought 10 for 4.20 GBP from Amazon) cheap, high quality

Parker roller-ball refills are very good, but work only with Parker pens and expensive...

[georges zaslavsky]

Caran d'Ache and Dunhill make very good quality refills

[torstar]

None of them?

 

After all, this is the Fountain Pen Network, I suppose!

 

 

can't say that I'm coming up with any particular brand that qualifies as consistently impressive...

[novarider]

Pentel EnerGel refills and Pilot g2 refills. Where one fits the other will fit as well. I have a tough time deciding between the two.