PARKERS0881380 Fountain Pen Standard Piston Fill Converter

I wondered why my trusty old fountain pen had stopped working! The bladder type reservoir had split and would no longer pump ink. I picked up this reservoir converter and it was fitted in a few seconds. It works excellently! Unfortunately I did not improve the quality of my handwriting !

Fantastic product that has saved me a fortune on not needing to buy cartridges.

I bought this Parker original to replace a non-branded converter that had started leaking. Once installed correctly, this Parker converter works very well - as good if not better than any other converter I've had. After refill, there is the normal initial heavy flow of ink. It then gives a consistent, liberal flow right up until the filler is completely empty. This seems to be achieved with a clever design, a ball-bearing inside the filler that controls the flow of ink.However, when I first installed it (on my parker IM gunmetal fountain pen) it seemed to be useless - all the ink flowed out straight away, back into the ink bottle. After a little bit of testing, I realised that this was because I had pressed the converter fully down into the barrel (as I had done with the non-branded version). This mean that the spindle in the fountain pen was protruding inside the converter. This pushed the ball-bearing away from the hole, and prevented it from controlling the flow.The problem was solved by removing and reinserting the converter, but only pushing it a little way down into the fountain pen until it was secure. I would give it 5 stars for its performance once installed, but have knocked a star off because of this installation foible.

Ok so a few months ago we discovered my autistic son will gladly write novels worth of work with a fountain pen vs any other so we ended up getting the entire family Parker fountain pens, these converters with pots of waterman ink. I ended up buying extra pens and converters as my daughter and I predominantly like to write in purple but sometimes need black whilst the guys like to write in blue. I especially write every single day with my "purple ink" parker vector, the converter has been in this one with purple (being topped up as needed of course) since around 11th November.My husband has, for early Christmas present, upgraded me to a Waterman 23K gold trim fountain pen which I've been using one of these converters and my black ink in for the last few days (Christmas cards etc) without issue. I did however just go to put my purple ink filled converter into my waterman and relegate my old "purple inked" parker to spares with my "black ink" parker being kept around for when I need black ink. Well that's going to have to wait a few days and I need to find a way to get purple ink off fabrics because when I took the lid off it turns out the converter had exploded throughout the pen. The other 5 seem absolutely fine so not sure why or what has happened, Amazon/the seller are doing a straight replacement I don't even need to send it back which is fantastic and hopefully it is just one dodgy converter as these have been fantastic and a complete money saver.

Excellent quality. After buying two other adaprots from other sellers, this one is top. The end that attaches to the nib is pliable and makes a very snug fit. No more leaks and stained fingers.

I bought this to replace the squeezy filler in my 1980s Parker 25, as I was finding my pen difficult to fill (slightly arthritic middle aged fingers), and because I couldn't fill the pen properly, I was having to fill far too often.I was slightly confused initially, having not seen a filler of this type previously. Fortunately, the ink chamber is clear, so a little playing before I installed the filler showed me that a gentle twist of the top section operates a piston inside the ink chamber. I installed it easily, and I was able to fill my pen very easily, and the ink level is very visible.I am finding the ink is flowing much better than with the original filler (maybe more ink in my pen?) so I'm happy to have resurrected my vintage pen.

I discovered piston cartriges and immediately set out to get some for two of my fountain pens. One is a standard cartridge that takes a universal converter, purchased elsewhere, and this was for my parker pen.I absolutely love the functionality - I can't see myself ever going back to disposable cartriges if I can help it. There are a couple of little things to be aware of when using these (such as making sure the breathing hole in the nib is submerged in order to fill the chamber, and accepting some ink loss when cleaning up the nib) but this item works as it should, it means not throwing out lots of small plastic cartriges and lets me use a far wider variety of inks. (Though it should be noted that there are still a number of inks not suited to pens or piston converters and you should always check the ink you want to use).The main reason I marked this down is that for being a parker product it feels a little flimsy in the construction. The plunger pulls up and sort of clicks into place but I was worried about doing so as it seems to not be fully sealed, and while it hasn't leaked to date, I feel wary of it. This is especially in comparison to the other piston converter I bought for my other pen, which has a very solid feel to it, is entirely sealed with a twisting plunger action and was easily half the cost. I know that you pay more for branding, but I'd have expected a higher standard from this product to go with the name and price.But to conclude, its apparent flimsiness hasn't actually led to any leaking as of yet. A bit disappointed for what I paid, considering, but still very glad to have it and the use of it for my fountain pen over disposables. Even if you don't go for this particular product, moving to this method is something i favour personally.

I bought two of these converters, one for a Joter Parker fountain pen and one for an IM Parker fountain pen. It's so much nicer to fill your Parker from the little bottle of ink rather than using cartridges. So if you enjoy the classical way, this converter allows you to. Great product