How to Restore a Dried Out Marking Pen

Written By: Alex Diaz-Kokaisl

Comments: 10

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

1 hour

Introduction

Use this guide to restore a dried out Marking Pen.

Note: You may have to repeat the procedure a few times depending on how dry your Marking Pen is.

Step 1

Fill a cup with enough isopropyl alcohol for the marking pen's tip to be fully submerged.
Place the pen into the cup with the tip side down.
Keep the pen as upright as possible to prevent the alcohol from going around the side of the pen nib.
Wait 15 minutes for the alcohol to soak into the pen tip.

Step 2

Remove the pen from the cup and wipe off any remaining alcohol from the pen tip.
On your FixMat, or another dry-erasable surface, draw the pen back and forth until you see alcohol leaving the pen nib.
Rotate the pen while drawing to ensure all sides of the pen nib are exercised.
If no alcohol is coming out of the pen nib, repeat the previous step.

Step 3

Fill a cup with enough water for the marking pen's tip to be fully submerged.
Place the pen into the cup with the tip side down.
Keep the pen as upright as possible to prevent the water from going around the side of the pen nib.
Wait 30 minutes for the water to soak into the pen tip.

Step 4

Remove the pen from the cup and wipe off any remaining water from the pen tip.
On your FixMat, or another dry-erasable surface, draw the pen back and forth until you see ink forming in solid lines.
Rotate the pen while drawing to ensure all sides of the pen tip are releasing ink.
If no ink is coming out of the pen nib, repeat the previous step.

Step 5

Congratulations! Your pen has been revived.

Brand new pen turned up dry and this fix didn't work.

Paul Nevin -

Conclusion

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9 comments

Unfortunately this did not help for me.

Sven Alleblas -

This is such a great pen I wish I could find replacements.

lupinm -

Apparently this pen that comes with the FixMat cannot be purchased, but is covered by the lifetime warranty. Send an email to support@ifixit.com to get replacement pens.

P.S. It's called the iFixit Marking Pen

Andrew Chen - 27/11/23

Same for me, I repeated the guide 3 times, it didn't helped, I wish I could just open it and use a replacement, it's cheap to buy but I feel bad of throwing everything, and also the pen dries super fast I think I need to buy another one and just glue some metal plate to use with the I fix it magnetic mat

thematho -

See my reply above

Andrew Chen -

Echoing the consensus that this did not work for me - will be seeking warranty replacement.

Fevix -

Seems to have done the trick, thanks. It was a brand new pen and must've dried out on the shelf.

Further tip:

If you wrap a pair of tweezers around it, and lay the tweezers across the top of a glass, it's pretty easy to stand the pen perfectly upright, even if it's a short+wide glass.

Sam L. -

Update: the fix only lasted a few days. It's dried out again. The cap may have been slightly loose though (friction fit, not clicked into position).