PHX-Pen : A Timeless Stainless Steel Pen

The body of the pen itself is well constructed, very nicely machined and feels nice in hand. Sadly that's where it ends. Since owning this pen I've found that carrying this pen for more than an hour causes it to leak very badly. I tried replacing the ink with a fresh cartridge and same issue. The cap ends up with a pool of ink. I noticed this occurs when the pen gets warm, ie in your pocket. This leads me to believe that it's just a bad combination of both materials and refill choices. Steel retains heat...Gel inks don't fair well in heat. Unfortunately this pen will end up as paperweight. Too bad because it really looked nice.

This pen looked great on the website. I've purchased several Big Idea pens before. However, when the pen arrived I tried to find a blue ink replacement for the black refill that came with it.

I started going down the list of refill options provided on your website:
(https://bigidesign.com/collections/pens/products/phx-pen-2)
1- Muji Gel Ink Ballpoint Pen Refill 0.38mm (Sku#4548718815890)
2- Pilot Hi-Tec-C & G-Tec-C standard refills (all tip sizes & refill colors)
3- Rotring Tikky Liner Gel - 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 mm
4- Uniball Signo DX Refills (UM-151) (UMR-1) 0.28, 0.38, 0.5 mm
5- Uni-ball Signo Needle (UMR-1ND-38) (0.38 mm)
6- Uniball Signo Gel Pen (UMR-5)(0.5 mm)
7- Uni-ball Signo Gel Pen Refill (UMR-10) 1.0 mm

I found that:
#1- (Muji refill) is not available for purchase anywhere.
#2- Hi-Tec-C / G-Tec-C only seems to be available in Coleto style or the .4 needle tip is too small to fit the PHX-Pen body.
#3- Rotring Tikky Liner - not available as refills (I could buy the pen, but that seems a waste to buy the pen just to get the refill.)
#4- UM-151/UMR-1 -- I was able to buy the UMR-1-5 in blue, and I have tried three (of a pack of 10 I bought) and every one of them has leaked like crazy. In other reviews I've read about leaking refills - is that because of the PHX-pen construction?
#5- UMR-1 ND-38 - could not find available anywhere.
#6- UMR-5 is too wide and does not fit inside the barrel of the PHX-Pen.
#7- UMR-101 - is too bold for my writing, so I did not buy it or try it. However, it is probably the same issue as #6 for width.

So, I contacted customer support and had a multi message interaction with Tyler. I asked, "Do you have a source for a blue ink refill for this pen? or could you sell me a refill that works?" He replied - that they "don't keep any refills or sell them," (but they loaded the pen with a refill before they sent it?) He ended the message by saying I should reach out if I needed anything. So I replied and said it would be very helpful if the website could be updated with current refill information (the old information is still there and it's not helpful).

Has anyone else who owns this pen found a blue ink refill that will work (and not leak)?

thanks!

I have found little rust inside the cone (the pen's tip) of the PHX-pen I received (from China).

Despite repeated inquiries about which grade of the stainless steel that the pen is made of, I haven't got any reply from BigiDesign so far.

I found little rust inside the cone (the pen' tip) of the PHX-pen I received (from China).

Despite repeated inquiries about the grade of the stainless steel that the pen is made of, I haven't got any reply from BigiDesign yet.

I like the simplicity of this pen. There is not much to it which is a plus for me. I did have several incidents that have made this pen stay in the bag more than in my pocket. I work in a power plant and the area temperatures go from 68 to over 100 depending on whether I spend time in the field or not. It appears that this pen exaggerates a problem with gel ink. Gel is activated by the friction in the tip to turn the gel into a more liquid state due to the heat. This pen is all metal and it looks like it conducts heat straight to the pen tip. This might not be a problem but the pen is constructed keeping the tip down when in your pocket. I had several times after spending time in the plant that when the pen was used next, the cap was full of gel. I did full tear downs and cleaned it fully. I tried several refills that were on the list including what it came with. All leaked. I have limited its use to being on the desk or when I carry it, I won’t use the pocket clip to keep the tip up. I have not had this same issue with other Big Idea pens. I carry a copper slim bolt action and the capped black titanium one that holds millions of refills. I forget the name. Those are carried daily and have never failed. Each refilled dozens of times over 2-3 years. The plastic near the pen tip must keep this issue in check with those pens. I love the form, function and simplicity of the PHX. It just doesn’t work as an edc pen for my profession. If you have a constant temperature at work, you should be happy with the pen. Please understand the three star rating is for my application only.