Does the Magna Tank Really Have 3 Times the Ink?

Earlier this week I reviewed the Magna Tank Long Lasting Gel Ink Pen that claims to have three times the ink of standard gel ink pens, and with a claim like that I couldn’t resist coming up with some sort of test to see if it was true.  After literally days of scribbling on paper with the Magna Tank and a Pilot G2 I’ve got some answers.

3 Pages of Scribbling with the Magna Tank

In the photo above you can see the results of non-stop but consistent scribbling with the Magna Tank.  I used my Whitelines A4 Squared notebook in order to make sure I followed a consistent and measurable path of draining the pen of its ink.  The final result was that I was able to fill about 2 full pages of paper and 2/3 of a third sheet of paper before the pen finally coughed up its last drop of ink.

3 Pages of Scribbling with the Pilot G2

The next photo shows a the results of non-stop and consistent scribbling with the Pilot G2.  I selected the Pilot G2 as the baseline comparison because it is probably the most widely available and most frequently purchased .7mm gel ink pen.  I’ve made my feelings known before that in spite of the wild popularity of the G2, I don’t think it deserves its status as such a popular pen.  Anyway, regardless of all that, you can see that the G2 lasted almost exactly as long in my admittedly unscientific scribble test, coming in at about 2 1/2 pages instead of 2 2/3 like the Magna Tank.

Initially I thought…”well clearly that was a false claim by the manufacturers of the Magna Tank”, but then I gave it some more consideration.  They only claim that the pen has “3 times more ink” than the standard gel ink pen, and there is no doubt that the ink cartridge is significantly larger and holds a ton of ink.  My instant reaction to that was that I expected it to last 3 times longer when writing, but as you can see already that was not the case, as both pens covered almost identical surface areas in my test.

More Ink, Not More Writing

What is the REAL difference between these two pens then you might ask?  Well taking a look at the first picture again, you can see that the results for the Magna Tank show a very minimal amount visible white spaces or gaps on the paper, while the G2 leaves behind a very noticeable path of white streaks.  Definitely click on the above picture for a closer look at the white gaps between the two samples.  My hypothesis here is that while the Magna Tank may well have 3 times the ink, it also lays down a ton more ink with each stroke of the pen, resulting in the smoother and more solid coverage than the G2.  So the lesson learned here is to be careful of marketing claims because while the Magna Tanks claim obviously appears to be true when you compare the physical size of the cartridges, it does not necessarily translate to being able to write for 3 times longer with the pen.  I’m sure there are more scientific ways to conduct this test, and I am sure that different paper might get different results, but my arm is pretty much going to fall off from all of the scribbling, so I’m done and also pretty content with my findings.  Hope that answers the question for everyone about the Magna Tank though.

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