As this is the third cold pen test we have done, this was by far the most revealing test and had a clear winner at the end. At the request of a couple of readers, we used only cheap, everyday pens to see what would hold up in the winter cold weather environments. If you want to check out the previous year’s tests, The First Cold Pen Test and The Second Extreme Cold Pen Test.
If you would like me to test any additional pens please let me know and I’ll watch for negative degree weather to try them out!
The Pens
BallPoints
Bic Cristal Ballpoint Blue and Black Ink
Field Notes Ballpoint Pen
Standard Cheap Doctors Pen
Gel Ink Pens
Muji Gel Ink Pen
Uni-Ball Signo 207
Uni Bal Vision Fine Point
Pilot G-2 0.7
Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4 and 0.7
Marker Pens
PaperMate Flair
Sharpie Black Permanent Marker
Milwaukee Inkzall Fine Point Perm. Marker
The Test
Living in Green Bay, WI has its advantages when doing these kinds of tests…At least that’s how I choose to look at it when the temps drop this low.
I left the pens out for two sub-zero nights and tested them the next morning while they were still outside. I have found that the ink will warm up quickly when I am holding them inside and can affect the outcome.
I used one of my favorite composition notebooks from Doane Paper for the writing portion. Find it Here.
The Results
The results surprised me as I assumed the ball point pens would not be a problem. What you don’t see in the test page are ALL of the ballpoint pens! I couldn’t get them to write at all!
The Gel Ink pens did okay after a moment of writing and the marker pens worked perfectly without any trouble at all.
The Finalists
Before the last test… The marker and gel inks clearly beat the ballpoint pens.
The Final Test
This year I decided to go a step further and freeze the pens into a block of ice for a day and see what happens :)
The Winner
While the ice block didn’t completely freeze, we did end up with a winner after I broke the pens out of the icy/watery block. The water got into all the pens and affected the writing of all the pens except for…The Sharpie Permanent Marker!
The Gel Ink pens were decent after drying them off and letting them thaw a bit, and the nock/clicker actions did freeze up so it was hard to get them to engage right away. While they still did work, I had to give the win to the Sharpie for avoiding all these extra issues.
Nothing can hold this workhorse back and is the clear winner of this year’s cold pen test.
If you have any ideas for next time, please let me know!
Thanks,
Mike
As always, I didn’t receive anything from these pen companies and my thoughts are my own.
