All about whiteboard markers

This is without a doubt, the strangest, most well researched article I&#x27;ve ever seen on Hacker News.<p>I&#x27;ve mostly used Expo markers and it was weird skimming this because I felt like I had some weird brand allegiance, even though I have no reason to really care much about markers.

If anyone is interested, here&#x27;s how you can build your own 8 foot by 4 foot whiteboard for about $15 (they normally cost around $200):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nickjanetakis.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;build-your-own-8x4-foot-whiteboard-for-15-dollars-instead-of-200" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nickjanetakis.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;build-your-own-8x4-foot-white...</a><p>I&#x27;ve been using Expo markers for a long time. They rock.

Was on a review visit to Princeton with about 12 other people from various colleges and universities. We saw that Princeton was installing boards, I assumed it was whiteboards. I said just now installing whiteboards? No we are replacing all the white boards with chalk boards, because evn Princeton Professors can&#x27;t tell the difference between a Sharpie and a Dry Erase marker.<p>Everyone in my group stated laughing and I just thought as the guy in charge of classroom equipment, hmm how can we get rid of these $5,000 document readers at my school no on can figure them out.

Fun fact: You can use a dry erase marker to erase the writing of a permanent marker. Assuming a smooth surface, scribble the dry erase marker over the permanent mark and erase.

&gt; Expo and Sharpie go next. They are OK to hold and work. But ladies might find their caps a bit challenging to attach&#x2F;disattach — it really takes some physical effort.<p>Can&#x27;t speak to the Sharpies, but Expo caps require a completely uncommentworthy level of effort to remove. - lady with Expos

I actually prefer markers with a smell, and wholeheartedly disagree with its placement in the &quot;cons&quot; as part of an evaluation criteria. I&#x27;m also sure that I am not alone in the enjoyment of the olfactory sensations such markers provide, there are probably dozens of us who feel the same.

I prefer chalkboards so much more.<p>Reason #1: You can tell how much chalk is left.<p>Reason #2: Not filling up landfills with plastic.

I&#x27;m surprised Velleda doesn&#x27;t get a single mention. They were* synonymous with whiteboard markers here in Spain. Quality and durability were very high. The smell was strong but I liked it much more than other markers.<p>I can barely find any information about it before it belonged to Bic. It used to have the brand &quot;Conté&quot;.<p>* and still are, making it even more difficult to find information.

Is there something off about those photos, or are all those &quot;green&quot;s very cyan?

Its amazing what HN can do for you. I have never cared about whiteboard markers but just spent 20 minutes reading about the differences and then looking on amazon to see what the price differences are.

Time for some heresy... I just do not understand the obsession with whiteboards that seems to be almost a requirement among programmers and software engineers. I&#x27;ve probably used a whiteboard by choice two or three times in the last ten years. They are terrible; I&#x27;d much rather scrawl on a regular sheet of paper, if it&#x27;s throw-away stuff, or fire up Visio if it&#x27;s something worth keeping.

the most important thing is to have a huge stock of whiteboard markers, like 40 of them, and order more when it gets down to 20. much time is wasted searching for good whiteboard markers. bad markers add mental overhead of deciphering faint lines when the material presented is already challenging. chalk has neither problem.

Am I the only one that finds the caps on Expo markers tear the tip apart after a few dozen open&#x2F;close cycles?<p>A brand new Expo marker is a joy, but a month-old one tends to be a piece of shit.

Side point: can I suggest we all throw away whiteboard markers that don&#x27;t work any more? In my experience, people will just place them back in the tray and keep trying other markers until they find one that works. There is probably someone whose job it is to replace markers, but they would just replace missing ones rather than try every single one to see if they still work. So throwing away dead markers speeds up the process.<p>Or use refillable markers, of course.

Got way too much pleasure from this! I use these all day. Will now never not think about this every time I pick one up.

I feel it&#x27;s necessary to post this equally obsessive companion piece about whiteboard cleaners:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;rumkin.com&#x2F;reference&#x2F;whiteboard&#x2F;cleaners.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;rumkin.com&#x2F;reference&#x2F;whiteboard&#x2F;cleaners.php</a>

Somewhat validates my preferences, as well. Work seems to have both Staples-branded markers and Expo markers. I&#x27;ll go for the Expo markers every time, primarily because the Staples ones don&#x27;t erase well at all after being on the board for a few days.

As a coworking space operator, I thank you for this treasure trove of whiteboard marker research.

This is a great example of knowledge that should be on a webpage somewhere. I feel the Medium format is really limiting the presentation of the information.

I&#x27;ve purchased markers from Dollar Tree. I wish he had compared to those. For my purpose they work and a hell lot cheaper.

Quartet makes my favorite dry erase markers. I&#x27;m curious how they would have fared.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;smile.amazon.com&#x2F;Quartet-Accessory-EnduraGlide-Assorted-5001M-5SK&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B0054TMPZU&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;smile.amazon.com&#x2F;Quartet-Accessory-EnduraGlide-Assor...</a>

Slow day in the office?!<p>I use a roll of dry erase film for the walls of my lab. They stick to wall with static charge. I can keep pieces of work on the wall for reference for weeks by just moving them to out of reach areas. It does make me look a little mad...

Found these to be a good and cheap whiteboards, have them all around the house for notes, reminders and brainstorming: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teslaamazing.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;teslaamazing.com</a>

Are there best practices for clearing a whiteboard?<p>After a day with writing left on the board, I usually have to get a couple folks to help me scrub it down with Lysol wipes and dry that off with paper towels just to get it back to clean.

Why would anyone want a grey marker?

This is a beautiful thing.