Although Lamy are one of our favourite pen brands in the world, their m66 ink refill is definitely one of their more controversial products and we can definitely see why. The refill can have problems with skipping, it is only available in a broad or medium nib, it can be a pain to find in local stores, and it can also have issues with drying out.
Due to the m66 being the only refill in the official Lamy range that can mount their capless pens, people who purchase pens such as the Lamy Swift or any of their other capless pens are stuck with it. This is why we have seen more and more people reaching out and asking for advice on a Lamy m66 refill alternative as more and more people who use pens from the capless Lamy range look to use other ink cartridges instead of the official Lamy m66.
Although finding alternative refill options for the majority of other ink refills on the market tends to be easy, due to the very small market share of the Lamy capless range of pens, there are no direct alternatives to the Lamy m66 on the market at the time of writing. Even with the number of people reaching out and asking for assistance in finding an alternative to the m66, we doubt that any brand will start to make one due to the market share being so small but there is hope!
Lamy M66 Refill Alternative
In our opinion, the closest thing to a Lamy m66 alternative currently on the market is the Pentel Energel Refill but its not perfect. Although it is similar dimensions, it is a gel refil for the Pentel range of pens so it does deliver a slightly different writing experience than the official Lamy refills.
Although the Pentel refills will fit the barrels of pens such as the Lamy Swift, the retractable mechanics of the pens will not function due to the top mechanisms of the refills not matching the pressing mechanisms on the Lamy pens. As you can imagine, this is less than ideal but its the only real workaround other than going with a Lamy m22 and switching up your pen type completley.
Opting to go with the Pentel refills allows you to use fine and extra-fine nibs rather than being stuck with the medium and broad nibs that the Lamy m66 locks you into. Although it is definatley a faff on to do, some people will mount the Pentel refill in their pen from the Lamy capless range to do any writing or drawing with an extra fine or fine nib and then switch it back out to their m66 to depress the nib for storage.
This is not for everyone but due to the limitations of the market share of the pens that use the Lamy m66 refill, we feel that it is the best that you are going to get as we doubt any third-party brands will release their own alternative to the Lamy m66. Depending on the price point of the pen model that you use, it may even be a better option to just switch pens and go for something like the Lamy Safari that does not use the Lamy m66 but is still a budget friendly pen model.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over the best Lamy m66 alternative to an end, we know that we were not able to offer a perfect replacement this time but opting to try the Pentel Energel Refill is the only real alternative on the market right now. As we mentioned, some people drop their capless Lamy pens due to the poor performance of the m66 to opt for another Lamy pen model that uses one of their other ink refills or to go with a totally different brand.
