Deluxe Piston Converter, black

works fine, better than a cheaper make i tried

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.

Refill capacity as good as the cartridge. Good quality. Fitted my pen well.

This was easy to install little stuff to start but after a few uses becomes very smooth

This replaces the longer cartridges found in modern Parker pens and enables me to use bottled ink. It helps me to use pretty much any brand and colour of fountain pen ink available. The pump design lets me draw ink in and out at pressure, helping me to clean out a clogged nib. It's better quality than the cheap Chinese refill adapters I've come across. So can using bottled ink save me money? For a 57ml bottle of Parker Quink costing £6, 1ml of ink costs about 11p. For a standard 1.4ml Parker Quink cartridge costing 40p (5 pack costing £2), 1ml of ink costs about 29p. Using bottled ink is much cheaper. So this converter will be worth the investment, if the pen it goes in will be used a lot. All-in-all, its a cheap and simple device that should pay for itself with use.

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 !

If you hate using ink cartridges and think they're a waste of money then you need one of these. This Parker branded one is far easier to use than the ones for Lamy pens (and BTW they are not interchangeable, you need a Parker converter for a Parker pen). The only disadvantage of a converter is that it holds about half as much ink as a full cartridge. But the big advantage is you can use any fountain pen ink you like or mix up your own colours. Which the pen experts say you shouldn't do, but I've never had any trouble.

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.