refilling your permanent marker is fun and a good way to save money.
edding T100 refill (100ml) can be had for ~8-10eur, working for dozens of refills while costing less than 1-2 permanent markers.
do note that this post is primarily about the “drop dispenser system” (refills: T25, T50, T75, T100), which is a traditional bottle of ink, and you squirt it inside your marker, then it’s good to go in no time. there’s also the “capillary system” (refills: MTK25) which involves you inserting the tip of the marker inside the refill bottle, waiting a few hours for it to suck up ink through capillary action. many eddings support both, but some only support one or the other, check the list on the official accessories page before buying. generally, I prefer a quick refill and the wider range of markers supported by the drop dispenser system, and it’s also cheaper (T100 and MTK25 cost about the same, despite former having 4x ink). it’s also easier to make a mess.
edding’s official page on the topic can be found here, unfortunately it doesn’t specify the full weight for anything, instead giving a rough number of milliliters and drops (which go up to hundreds btw).
quote
The refill quantities stated are guidelines only. We can’t give a general rule of thumb for optimum refill quantities, unfortunately, because the problem here is that the perception of when a pen is “running out of ink” is very subjective. What may seem like an empty pen to you may be considered by another user as “fit for use”, which means that refilling takes place at completely different points in time and this has an effect on the amount of refill ink required.
there’s a solution to this that edding clearly hasn’t considered, which is just having full weights of permanent markers, then having people put their marker on a scale while they squeeze ink into it. so, I’ve been keeping a table of my own.
the table
| marker | full weight | notes |
|---|---|---|
| edding 800 | ~44.2g | 39g (25g without cap) when fully dry. cap likes to open in bags, store carefully. |
| edding 400 | ~11.8g | 10.9g when faint. |
for what it’s worth, for most non-large markers, you’ll be adding 0.8-1.7g or so.
instructions (for “drop dispenser system”)
you’re suggested to use something like a coffee scale with 0.1g accuracy for this, in a pinch even better ones will do, though watch the maximum weight limits. a 1g accuracy scale like a regular kitchen scale may work for larger pens like edding 800, but for smaller ones you’ll struggle and may overshoot.
full weights are including cap, if you don’t account for this you’ll overshoot by several grams.
first, take a weight measurement of the starting point on the scale, before you open your marker.
once you’ve made sure your marker can be refilled this way, twist open the cap from the pen body. righty-tighty, so turn it left. most models don’t make it very obvious that this will open it, but it will.
afterwards,
- if your marker can stand upright safely then squirt a tiny bit of ink while it’s on the scale, wait for it to settle, remeasure.
- if it cannot, then after measuring, take it off the scale, squirt a bit, close it back up (no need to fully tighten), remeasure.
when you’re at or slightly below the target weight, stop and close your marker.
beware
it is possible to refill your marker too much. if you do so, it’ll leak ink into its cap, and potentially elsewhere too. if this happens to you, get a fresh A4 and go to town, giving it time in the middle for the ink to spread around. you can also leave it upside down and let it drip within the cap, cleaning the mess within the cap with a kitchen towel every now and then. you can also leave it open to evaporate, but that mainly removes the solvent, not the pigment, so this isn’t my recommended approach.