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Are you new to fountain pens, or trying to decide if fountain pens are for you? Reply here with your questions and our helpful members will do their best to answer!

@penfount - starting my first winter with fountain pens, and my house is chilly. Any tips for keeping them working well when the room temperature is low? I can't knit them tiny sweaters (I mean, I could, but I don't think that would help).

@NullNoMore how chilly are we talking about? As long as it doesn’t freeze I think you are fine

@paradoxmo - low 50s F in the morning. I can see my breath sometimes. We wear hats inside.

@NullNoMore I think you should be alright, the concern is if it becomes below freezing, ice takes up more room than water and may damage an inked pen or an ink bottle

@paradoxmo - I'm more curious about drips etc. when using them. I already learned that one pen burps when it warms up (almost empty piston filled extra fine). Wonder which inks will behave differently than they did during the heatwaves.

paradoxmo

@NullNoMore that’s related to air expanding when it warms. It happens when you have a lot of air in the reservoir and it’s an eyedropper or very large piston filler. You can keep that to a minimum just by keeping the air level low— with a piston filler, with nib up, turn the piston knob until the feed floods slightly. Then retract slightly.

It doesn’t happen much with cartridge/converter pens because there is an air gap between your hand (source of warmth) and the ink reservoir