[Pen/Pencil Review] The Pilot FriXon Caused Me Friction
I’ve seen a lot of chatter on many of the pen blogs and sales sites on the awesomeness of the Pilot FriXon Erasable Gel Pen. A lot of people seem to really like this pen, and why not? It’s a gel pen that comes in a variety of colors – and now highlighters. It’s a fairly comfortable barrel. The ink flowed pretty well, The eraser mechanism did its job.
When they first came out, I was an early adopter. I was ready to LOVE this pen. Then why did this pen end up on my Never, Ever Again List? The fact that the ink is quite temperature sensitive. I get that’s the “genius” behind the FriXon. The heat from the eraser rubbing turns the ink invisible. I think it’s now even a selling point for kid to send “invisible” messages to friends. For me, that’s a “game over” point.
Is this fact NOW on their packaging and on their blog? Yes. But come one, how many of us read the BACK of the packaging that closely? I will from now on when it comes to erasables, that’s for sure. That’s the only place where the temperature sensitive nature of the ink is revealed. 
I discovered this the hard way. I live in Texas. We get SUMMER. I used an early FriXon pen to do some writing and some personal journal entries. Those notebooks were inadvertently left in the car. There may have been some sunlight – but it would’ve been indirect lighting. I lost I don’t know how much work and at least one lengthy journal article. Some time had elapsed, so I remember it more as a de-ja-vu moment. A “didn’t I do this before”, and then as I was recreating that work, I began to see evidence of the previous work now “invisible”.
So yeah, NOW the packaging says Do Not Expose to Heat or Direct Sunlight. But it’s too late. They now have a “fix” for disappearing ink – put the notebook or paper in the freezer for a “short” amount of time. What does that mean? Five minutes? An hour? And does that lock the ink?
I’m sorry. No. I love Pilot. They are a great pen company. But this pen is SO not for me. I can’t take a risk on either losing work because I’m not keeping track of the temperatures around me – such as leaving some writing in a car after work to run into the grocery store and then having to freeze it to recover it. That’s too iffy and random. I can’t count on this pen or the results.
Which is why this is my first ever 1 bronze pencil review. It’s too unstable for my uses.
