Pineider Avatar Twin Tank Touchdown Review

[Inkoherent]

If you are travelling by air with a fountain pen, then you know you might have to be a bit careful.  As the ambient pressure changes in the cabin, the air pocket in the pen’s reservoir expands (and contracts), potentially causing the pen to leak.  There is some useful info here:  https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/346149-air-travel-friendly-fountain-pens/ - comments  .  According to this thread, this is less of an issue with newer pens than older ones.

 

That being said, if you do want to take some precautions, you have some options.  The smartest thing to do would simply be to take some other type of writing implement with you, but then you probably wouldn’t be browsing this site, would you?  You can make sure the pen is totally empty (no ink to leak) or totally full (minimizing the air in the pen), but then you have to take ink with you (and/or empty the pen before your return flight).  You can bring a safety pen (the above thread suggested that a “modern” safety, such as a Noodlers Boston might be better than a vintage one in terms of seal integrity).  I believe that one of the purported advantages of the capillary filling Parker 61 was that it would not leak during air travel.  Or you can find a pen that has a shut off valve.

 

The Pineider Avatar Twin Tank Touchdown falls in this last category.

 

 

 

First Impressions:  Very nicely packaged in what looks like a miniature travel writing desk.  The “desk” also contains a few Pineider cards and envelopes, which is a nice little bonus, and I suppose good advertising for their stationery business

 

Appearance and Design:  Meh.  The shape and finish of the pen give it a very generic, bland, graceless look.  Pineider attempts to offset this with accents.  The clip is a stylized quill.  The band at the bottom of the cap has a stylized skyline of Florence, with “Pineider Made in Italy” centered over the Ponte Vecchio.  

 

 

There is a plain steel band where the section joins the barrel.  Finally, the nib has what at first appears to be an abstract design, with a letter representing the width in the center.  Rather cleverly, the design is actually based on the name “Pineider”.

 

The problem is that these accents are all very different stylistically, and you end up with a visual mishmash.  

This is definitely a pen I bought for function, not for form!

 

I would have liked to get the clear version, but there was a special going on, and the clear version with a fine nib was out of stock.  I figured I could deal with the “Graphene Black” version in order to save $55.    The other alternatives:  (“Devil Red”, “Forest”, and “Neptune Blue” were sort of like those preppy slacks—too aggressively RED!!, GREEN!! and BLUE!! for my taste.

 

The clip is very well thought out functionally.  It slides over the front of my pocket easily, yet is secure.  There is a tiny upcurve at the end which pretty much ensures that the clip will actually fasten to the pocket (rather than having the pen just drop into the pocket without clipping on).  On the other hand, this upcurve is subtle enough that it does not catch on a sweater or jacket, causing the pen to be pulled out of the pocket and to drop onto floor (a fate that befell my Omas 360 frequently enough that the cap finally cracked). 
 

 

One feature I really like is the magnetic cap closure.  It’s quick and easy to open, yet very secure, and makes a very satisfying "click” when the cap is replaced.  I have yet to have an unintended opening.

The cap posts well.  I find the pen well-balanced and comfortable to write with regardless of whether the cap is posted.

 

 

 

 

Construction and Quality:  The pen appears to be very well made.  It’s made of “Ultra Resin” (looks & feels a lot like acrylic to me, but what do I know?), which is billed as being very durable There are a couple of videos on the web showing Pineider Ultra Resin pens surviving various mechanical shocks (although not a bear trap!).

I’ve used it on and off for about 3 months, carrying it mostly either in my shirt pocket or a pen loop in my briefcase, and the finish has held up very well so far.  The clip also seems to be very well made.

 

 

Weight and Dimensions (from online sources): Length closed:  153mm (6”).  Length posted:  164mm (6.5”). Grip diameter 10.5mm. Weight: 27 grams (empty).

 

 

Nib and Performance: I the nib is a #6, I believe by Bock.  It’s steel, and fairly rigid.  It is smooth.  In retrospect, I would probably have been slightly happier with an extra fine (and then could have gotten the clear version after all).  On the other hand, one of my workplaces seems to have upgraded its paper in the last couple weeks and so the bleeding and feathering I had experienced seem to be better.

I generally prefer gold nibs for some degree of flexibility (yes, I know there can be steel nibs with flex) and aesthetics, but one could make an argument that if you are taking one pen on a trip, a fairly stiff steel nib might be a bit more practical.

 

Filling System: Plunger.  Just before the barrel meets the section there is a small auxiliary chamber in direct communication with the feed.  There is a knob at the top of the pen which lets you move the plunger slightly to allow ink to flow from the main reservoir to this chamber (or back, if you hold the pen nib up).  You can thus fill the small chamber completely or drain the ink from the chamber.  When writing using ink from the small chamber (Pineider tems this the “Short writing” mode) you periodically have to let more ink in.  You can leave the knob in an open position (they call this the “Long writing” mode), where the ink can continuously flow from the main reservoir into the chamber, but this strikes me as an invitation to all sorts of problems, and it’s not a big deal to refill the small chamber periodically.  

I recently flew with this pen.  To test it, I intentionally filled the pen only partially.  Before the outbound flight I emptied the small chamber.  The pen was clipped nib up in my shirt pocket.  On the return flight, I filled the small chamber before the flight.  The pen was mostly horizontal in my bag.  I did not have any problems with leakage on either flight.

 

The overall ink capacity is quite good (2.8cc from an online source).  

 

Cost and Value:  It lists for $248.  The prevailing Online price seems to be about $198.  I bought mine from Atlas Stationers for $142 (I think there was a Black Friday special).  At the list price, I think it is over-priced.  At $198 it’s not inexpensive, but it’s a reasonable buy.  If you can get it for around the price I paid, it’s definitely worth it.

 

Conclusion:  The Pineider Avatar Twin Tank Touchdown will not be the pen I use every day.  I have other pens which I prefer both in terms of appearance and how they write.  However, when I travel by air, it will be my trusty companion.

Edited Sunday at 04:36 AM by Inkoherent
I (mostly) figured out how to add photos!

[amberleadavis]

What a wonderful review. Thank you and welcome aboard!

 

[amberleadavis]

This pen reminds me of the Pelikan Level.

 

 

@OCArt what do you think?

[OCArt]

@amberleadavisTwin tank sounds like the Level pens and they are great for air traveling but I thimk this is a vacuum filler like a Omas or Pilot 823. Isn't Pineider by a former Omas designer??

[Inkoherent]

It is a plunger filler.

Years a go, I briefly had a Visconti Manhattan that filled the same way (but didn’t have the small chamber).

 

I don’t know if there is anyone from Omas at Pineider but Dante Del Vecchio used to be with Visconti and is now with Pineider.  I read here  http://blog.giardino.it/2018/08/the-renaissance-of-pineider-with-dante-del-vecchio/  that at one point, Visconti was going to be making Pineider pens, but instead Del Vecchio left for Pineider.

[jchch1950]

Maybe is time to take out the Pelikan Level again.

[OCArt]

4 hours ago, Inkoherent said:

I don’t know if there is anyone from Omas at Pineider but Dante Del Vecchio used to be with Visconti and is now with Pineider.  I read here  http://blog.giardino.it/2018/08/the-renaissance-of-pineider-with-dante-del-vecchio/  that at one point, Visconti was going to be making Pineider pens, but instead Del Vecchio left for Pineider.

Thanks for the correction, I got my Italians mixed up along with the wrong filling system. 😄