How to make gel pens work again? You’re in the middle of an important writing or art task when suddenly your gel pen stopped working. There is nothing quite like more frustrating than a pen starting to fade and skip, while you’re taking down important notes, sketching, or journaling. No one likes it, so it would help to know how to make your gel pen work again.
Prevent ruining your mood (and your paper) by learning how to restore the function of your gel pen, which is known for its smooth ink flow that paves the way for comfortable writing. However, it can dry out fast because it’s typically with a water-based ink. It can also get clogged when they’re mishandled.
In this article, we’re going to discuss if gel pen can store its function again after it stops working. If you’re ready, let’s begin.
Contents
Why does a Gel Pen Skip and then Stop Working?
One of the most common reasons a gel pen can skip or even stop working is dried ink, which clogs the ink flow; thus, it cannot flow down the pen’s nib, resulting in an inconsistent and fading mark.
Improper storage is another reason that your gel pen stops working. Remember, it is sensitive especially its thin ink. It can easily leak and lead to unnecessary loss of ink. To prevent this from happening, you should store it in an upright position.
It can also be due to the air being trapped inside the ink cartridge.
Following, this ink being to dry out and start clogging the nib. When this happens, the ink will slowly flow until it stops altogether until you try restoring its function. This scenario typically happens when you left the pen uncapped.
How to Restore Gel Pens and Make Them Work Again?
What other people usually do when the pen starts skipping is scribbling random lines on a scratch paper continuously for a few seconds or minutes until the ink flows properly and becomes stable again. However, some may find this method ineffective, though.
There are several things you can do if you want to make your gel pens work again effectively. For one, you can soak its nib in hot water, and let its tip there for about 30 seconds. Doing so will help in dislodging the clogged ink. This method can liquefy the solidified ink inside the pen’s nib. When done, you must return the nib into the ink cartridge, and then try scribbling the pen again.
Another thing is shaking the pen, which would help in removing the air bubbles that form inside the pen’s cartridge. However, it might not work for major issues, although can be tried on small pen issues. This should make the pen working again.
In other cases, it might not be enough to soak the pen’s nib in hot water to restore the gel pen’s function. If this fails, you can also insert a safety pin inside the nib of the pen to unclog it. This is very effective to make the pen working again.
Alternatively, you can put warm water inside the cartridge from the hole of the pen because sometimes the entire ink is what dries out and solidifies. You can get a small dropper that you can use to put a small amount of water inside the cartridge.
Another possible solution is to try blow the ink cartridge from the pen’s ventilation hole until you notice that the ink starts reaching the nib. This action is one of the most effective ways of helping the ink flow properly.
You can also dip the pen’s tip in rubbing alcohol, which is an excellent solvent. It will dissolve whatever ink hardened inside the pen’s nib. But then, you might want to try the first methods we’ve shared above before trying this method out.
On the other hand, some people soak their gel pen into acetone, which might be better as a solvent versus. However, this method is not advised to use on plastic pens that might suffer from corrosion if they’re dipped into the acetone. And remember not to soak pens into the acetone for a long time, but just for a few seconds. It will be more than enough in solving most of the gel pen issues.
There you have the simplest ways of getting your gel pens working again unless they’re really out of ink. Try each of them until one works. It might be better to start with the hot water method first before trying alcohol or acetone, though.
How to be Extra Careful with Gel Pens?
These pens are very useful because they can be used in a lot of tasks, including writing, journaling, labeling, and drawing. They can also offer comfort and a smooth writing experience for many of us. However, they can dry fast, skip, or fade, especially if mishandled, like if you don’t store them upright or leave them uncapped and exposed to air. It is why you need to take care of them and store properly after every use
Again, you must keep them capped after every use to prevent drying out. If your pen is retractable, you must keep them retracted after every use to prevent ai r exposure, which quickly dries the pen out. More so, you must keep them in an upright position to prevent leaks, which wastes ink and make you buy new gel pens sooner.
Conclusion
How to make gel pens work again? We hope that we’ve answered this question with our tips above, including properly storing your gel pens. Keep them in an upright position and capped when not in use. Now, if they start skipping or fading, you can also try one of the simple methods that we’ve shared above, such as soaking the nib in hot water for a few seconds to remove the dried ink that blocks the ink flow and nib.
Did you like this post? Tell us in the comments. Finally, share your thoughts if you think we missed a tip on how to restore the function of your gel pen in the comment section.
