Expo Click Retractable Low Odor Dry Erase Markers

Looking for some good dry erase markers that dont smell?  Looking for some good dry erase markers that have a nice bold color to them?  Well, the Expo Click dry erase markers do all of that, plus they come in a nice retractable form factor.

The three pack of the Expo Click Low Odor Dry Erase Markers

I’ve used dry erase markers for quite some time now, but for the most part I dont think that I’ve ever bought my own (ie. paid for by my employer) or even selected (came with the dry erase board) my own.  Finally having a need to pick up my own, I figured I would go with the Expo brand since I was well aware that they come from the same people who make Sharpie.  When I saw the retractable version, I was intrigued because this was the first time I ever saw this option in a dry erase marker, so I grabbed the 3 pack of the thicker chisel tips, but they have a fine tip 6 color package as well.  Hopefully this doesnt mean I have a problem or anything, but one of the first things I did upon opening the package was to give it a click to expose the tip, and take a deep sniff to see exactly how “low odor” these things were because truth be told, I kinda like the smell of dry erase markers.   Based on my non-scientific smell test, I would say that the strength of that recognizable smell is very much reduced as compared to the regular versions.  It still has the SAME smell, it’s just much less powerful.

Close up of the buttons on the Expo retractable dry erase marker

The picture above shows a close up of the two buttons that control the retractable tip of the Expo dry erase marker.  The top button that you see that kinda sticks out and has the scoop out of the top is the one that you push down on to get the tip to reveal itself.  The oval shaped button that is more towards the bottom of the picture is the one that you push on to get the tip to retract back in.  These two buttons (and Im guessing the spring inside of the body of the marker) are seriously heavy duty.  They arent hard to use at all, but there really seems to be some force behind each of these buttons when you press on them.  From the user perspective, I love it because there is no doubt that the tip is going to stay in whatever direction you select.

Writing sample of th Expo Retractable Low Odor Dry Erase Markers

After giving these markers the sniff and click test, I figured I should take them for a spin on my new dry erase board since I wasnt too thrilled with the marker that came with it.  The writing sample above was obviously done just for this review, but when I tested these out, the first one I tried was the red marker, and I was very impressed.  Usually dry erase markers tend to have a faded or light look to them when you write with them, but as soon as I put this red one to use, I was shocked by how bright and bold the color was.  Moving on to the blue and black , I saw that they had the same bright and solid color too…very impressive.

The bodies of these pens are thick, which I personally like a lot, but I know some people prefer a thinner body.  If the thinner bodies are more your style, there are thin versions of the Expo retractable, available that I linked to in the first paragraph above.  Although I just usually like thicker writing implements because they feel more comfortable,  I like the thicker dry erase markers because many times I find myself gesturing and pointing with the dry erase marker, so in this case, bigger is better.  Another benefit of the retractable feature of these markers is that the two buttons on the side that expose and retract the tip also completely stop the markers from rolling if you lay them on a flat surface like a desk or table.

Id definitely give these Expo dry erase marker a big thumbs up if you are in the market for some new ones, of if you just want some dry erase markers that dont smell.  You can find these in lots of places, I picked these up at Office Depot, but I Amazon.com also has them and Im pretty sure I’ve seen them at Staples too.

© 2009, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.

Quartet Magnetic Dry Erase Board

Dry erase boards usually are not really that exciting, they dont jump out as being unique office supplies, but when I saw this silver-colored magnetic dry erase board it really grabbed my attention.  I actually did need a new dry erase board, but this one just looked really cool because of its silver surface, so before I even really looked at any of the others that Staples had, my mind was pretty much made up.  Read on though, because this is another example of why making impulsive purchases is not a good idea.

The Quartet Dry Erase Board in use

This particular dry erase board is from ACCO, and is part of their Quartet Brand.  It measures 11″ x 14″ and comes with both sticky foam pads and magnets for two different methods of mounting it wherever you prefer.  It also comes with two round magnets, and a thin tipped black dry erase marker with a magnetic cap.  The marker writes ok, but it is pretty light in color, even for a dry erase marker.  Pretty basic stuff, but again, I was just impressed with the silver finish that I thought made this stand out as a pretty unique office supply.

Close up of the back side of the two magnets provided with the white board

So now we get to the interesting part about this dry erase board review.  You might wonder why I decided to put up a picture of the back side of two magnets that came with this dry erase board, and you would be right in thinking it seems a bit odd, so let me explain.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the center of each magnet has a blurry smudge in it.  This blurry looking smudge is actually a small strip of double sided tape.  When I took these off the dry erase board after opening it, I was surprised because I figured that magnets shouldn’t need tape to hold them to a magnetic board, right?  Let me answer that for you…”Right!”  So after I saw this I was kind of annoyed because I realized that it left some residue on the board’s surface itself, but I decided to move on.  Next I peeled off the cardboard label that was under the shrink-wrap, and to my surprise, what did I find?  I found more double sided tape to hold the cardboard to the board…the cardboard that was shrink wrapped to the board.  Seems pretty unnecessary, not to mention that it left even more sticky residue on the surface of the board.  It took about 20 minutes of rubbing with warm soapy water to remove all of the residue from the double sided tape that ACCO decided that they needed to use on the cardboard and the magnets.

You're kidding me, right ACCO?

Now the beauty of this whole thing is that the sticky residue REALLY ticked me off even before I noticed whats above because all I wanted to do was open this thing up and hang it.  This should have taken all of 5 minutes, but no all of the extra cleaning of the sticky tape residue added 20 minutes to what should have been a simple task.  So if you look at the care instructions in the sheet provided by ACCO with the dry erase board, you find the following:

“5. Do not use adhesive tape of any kind on the board surface.”

Hmm, well isnt that odd?  You found it appropriate to put not one, not two, but THREE pieces of “adhesive tape” directly on the board’s surface, and now you tell me I shouldn’t do this?  Seriously?  Well at least I see why you shouldn’t do it now, it’s because it makes it an absolute nightmare to clean, and Im guessing that it has the potential to ruin the board itself.

Bottom line with this white board is that yeah, it looks cool, and it seems to function fairly well, but at the end of the day, Id probably never buy another ACCO brand product just because of the absolute carelessness that they displayed here.  None of this is particularly life threatening since we are just talking about office supplies here, but the frustration really isnt worth it for a $12 white board.

© 2009, OfficeSupplyGeek. All rights reserved.