Are SFAIH Markers Refillable?

What a refill claim is worth

“Refillable” on a listing means one of three quite different things: that the barrel unscrews and takes ink from a bottle the brand sells; that the nib can be pulled and reversed or replaced; or nothing at all, because the word was typed into the bullet list and no refill was ever stocked. The third is common enough that the claim is worth checking against what is actually buyable rather than taken at face value — which is what the table on this page does.

How long a marker actually lasts

Ink volume is almost never published, so the honest answer is that nobody outside the factory knows. What can be said is what governs it: nib width first, then how long the cap spends off. A broad chisel lays down several times the ink of a fine nib for the same stroke length, and a marker left uncapped on a desk for an afternoon loses more than one used hard and recapped. Store them horizontally, cap them between strokes, and the difference between brands matters far less than the difference between habits.

When one dries out

Before replacing it: press the nib until the ink re-wets, leave it nib-down for a few minutes, and check the nib has not simply been pushed into the barrel. If the brand does sell nibs or ink, that is cheaper than the set. If it does not, the practical answer on a budget range is that the marker is a consumable, and the sensible move is to buy the set size you will actually finish.

What the numbers behind this page are

Everything on this page is read off SFAIH's own Amazon listings rather than from a press release or a review round-up. That catalogue is 75 listings, 75 of them carrying a star rating, 40,639 ratings between them. The average sits at 4.5, with 62 listings at 4.4 or better.

An average across a whole brand is a weak number, though, and it is worth saying why. Amazon pools ratings across the variations of one parent listing, so a set sold in five sizes can show the same score five times; and a 5.0 from six ratings sits in the same average as a 4.4 from three thousand. That is why the table below is sortable by rating count as well as by score — sorted that way it shows what people have actually bought, which is a far better guide than the score alone.

The strongest listings in the range by score, among those with enough ratings to mean anything, are SFAIH Black Permanent Markers Bulk, 24 Pack…, SFAIH Green Permanent Markers Bulk, 24 Pack…, SFAIH Red Permanent Markers Bulk, 24 Pack…. The weakest on the same basis are SFAIH White Liquid Chalk Markers for…, SFAIH Liquid Chalk Markers for Blackboard…, SFAIH Chrome Silver Paint Markers Pens with…. The most-reviewed are SFAIH Acrylic White Paint Pens - 8 Pack…, SFAIH Gold Acrylic Paint Pens - 8 Pack…, SFAIH Acrylic Red Paint Pens - 8 Pack 2-3MM… — and those are the ones whose scores you can lean on.