Refurbished Gear From Phones to Vacuums: It’s Cheap, But What’s the Catch?

It is not usually possible to know the history of any given refurbished product you would encounter on the shelf. But broadly, most products get refurbished after having been returned to their manufacturer. This could be either because they weren’t wanted anymore or because they were broken or malfunctioning in ways that let buyers cash in on warranties. In some cases, items to be refurbished are recovered from a recycling facility. However they’re sourced, these products are repaired and reconstituted by the manufacturer, a third-party retailer or an independent repairer until they’re back in good working order (and might be reincarnated multiple times). Finally, they’re re-offered for sale, sometimes a bit scratched or discolored, but usually indistinguishable from new.

Kyle Wiens,

CEO of iFixit, a website that publishes detailed guides on how to repair a plethora of home electronics, said that refurbished products have a bit of an image problem. “Though most don’t flinch at the concept of buying a used car, many people still shy away from buying refurbished tech,” he said.

Mr. Wiens and his staff at iFixit are ahead of the curve. All of the about 150 employees practice what they preach, using a refurbished computer. The most common laptop in the office, said Mr. Wiens, is the decade-old 2012

Apple

MacBook Pro.

Repair advocates aren’t the only ones embracing refurbishing programs. They’ve become big business for Apple, Dell, Dyson, KitchenAid and countless other retailers and third-party vendors. Even construction equipment giant Caterpillar sells refurbished versions of its massive mining trucks and compactors. “It’s a win-win since refurbishing gives people the ability to buy things for less and companies the chance to sell inventory that would otherwise be sold overseas or recycled,” said Mr. Wiens.

The cost savings are probably the most common reason people consider refurbished products. Sometimes the discount is relatively small, as with something like the Nintendo Switch Lite gaming console. Its retail price is $200, but Nintendo sells refurbished versions for $30 less. But the discount is often significant. Apple sells the iPhone 12 for $700, but you can usually buy a refurbished version in good condition for $450.

But advocates point out that rehabbing is also better for the environment. Most of the carbon footprint produced in the lifetime of many household items happens before they leave the factory, said Mr. Wiens. Consider that 70% of all of Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions come from product manufacturing, according to the company’s 2022 Environmental Progress Report. There is also some evidence that buying refurbished products can help grow the U.S. economy. In 2009, Princeton economists Alan S. Blinder and Alan B. Kreuger found that about 25% of American jobs overall can be offshored, but only 1.3% of repair jobs can. That indicates most of the work to refurbish products has to happen here in the U.S. “If you have a product that gets resold three, four, five times, you end up creating a lot more value and job creation potential at home than you do overseas,” said Mr. Wiens.

John Bumstead, the owner of Minneapolis-based Roadkill Incorporated, is one such American refurbisher. Since 2008, he has specialized in repairing Apple laptops and iPads. Most of the devices he gets come from corporate, academic and governmental institutions who, as he put it, “arbitrarily buy new hardware after a three-to-five year lifecycle.” Those don’t need a ton of TLC, he said. But he does see a lot of smashed screens and physical damage, especially on school devices, where the original owners weren’t exactly benevolent stewards of their gear.

Mr. Bumstead said approximately 60%-70% of laptops he gets from recyclers are salvageable, and that he uses the rest for parts. He usually adds new hard drives, memory modules, and batteries. Once a computer is running again, he uses a 15-point diagnostic test to check his work. When he’s confident everything is running as it should, he sells his wares on

eBay

and on his personal website, as well as to wholesalers and other refurbishers.

In the years since Mr. Bumstead started his business, a growing number of retailers have been founded to get refurbished gear in front of the eyes of people that might not otherwise consider buying older gear. One example is Back Market, founded in 2014, which mostly relies on a network of 1,500 professional refurbishers to buy and sell a range of gadgets and appliances, including ones from brands like Apple and Shark, known primarily for its vacuums.

But the company doesn’t just seek to be a source of refurbished products. Its stated mission is to help build trust and desire for renewed devices among Americans. “When Back Market was created, we wanted it to feel similar to the experience of buying new,” said general manager Lauren Benton. The site is slick and easy to navigate, and offers a minimum one-year warranty. Even better: Mrs. Benton said the company passes on an average of 30-70% in cost savings to its customers. (For instance, you can buy a refurbished iPhone 11 in “Excellent” condition for $344, while a new one still retails for $500.)

Another option, also launched in 2014, is Decluttr, which does all refurbishing for its products in-house. The company actively positions itself as a place to sell your used tech—when you open its website, you’re immediately prompted to “start selling” or “start shopping.” Devices that are sold to Decluttr go through a thorough quality assessment process carried out by trained technicians, using industry-leading diagnostic software, said Liam Howley, Decluttr’s chief marketing officer. That amounts to up to 90 checks for every device it sells to ensure the tech is in quality condition. Products are accompanied by a “Certificate of Identification and Functionality” and are sold with a one-year warranty.

If you’re a bit hesitant to buy from a third-party marketplace, many manufacturers sell refurbished products directly. Dell, for instance, started refurbishing in 1997, and now lists renewed laptops, desktops and tablets. Page Motes, head of global sustainability at Dell, said it performs several tests on each refurbished product and takes the process of getting things in working order (or recycling them if they’re no longer usable) very seriously.

Want a vacuum or fan? Try the Dyson Outlet, which the company redesigned in 2020. “Machines sold on the platform have passed a detailed inspection and hundreds of tests to ensure they meet the same functional standards as a new machine,” said Sarah Behrendt, Dyson’s vice president of Ecommerce, USA. She added that, when needed, Dyson replacement parts are used to fix the machine, and owners of refurbished machines are provided the same level of support as purchasers of new products.

There are countless other places to purchase refurbished goods, including big box electronics retailers like BestBuy and

Walmart

and online-only marketplaces. The latter can offer great deals but might also unintentionally host a few unscrupulous vendors. Beth Hutchason, 55, an editor in Poulsbo, Wash., encountered one such seller on eBay about 15 years ago, when looking for a KitchenAid stand mixer. “Money was tight so buying new was not a great option, but I needed help with mixing due to a nerve problem in my arm,” she said. She’d never bought a refurbished appliance before and worried her rehabbed find would not arrive as advertised.

Her fears proved somewhat founded—the mixer came in the wrong color. But it worked perfectly, so she kept it. And to this day, she said, her KitchenAid “still functions without fail, holding up through many pandemic baking workouts.”

Experts like Wiens say that issues like this are rare on eBay these days, especially since it launched a hub for “Certified Refurbished” products in late 2021. But if you’re looking for peace of mind, Consumer Reports’ deputy tech editor Yael Grauer said you should make sure that, at the very least, you purchase something with a return policy and, ideally, a year of warranty coverage.

For the most part, though, people are just as satisfied with refurbished gear as they are with new ones. Take Todd Saunders, 37, CEO of FlooringStores, a décor retailer in New York City. As a college freshman in 2004, he bought an

HP

printer for $40, down from its list price of $200. For Mr. Saunders, the driver wasn’t price, but panic. “I had a last-minute assignment to turn in and wasn’t yet familiar with the library’s printing services. But I did know my way to a nearby electronics store,” he said. That the printer happened to be refurbished had no effect on its performance, he said. In fact, he never bothered to learn how to use the ones on campus. As he acquired a family, the printer traveled with him. “That thing printed most of my college assignments, my wife’s master’s thesis and more than a few of my kids’ digital drawings,” he said.

The reliability of his refurbished printer sparked a genuine change in attitude for Mr. Saunders. Now that he’s “a bit older and more thoughtful,” he says he’s increasingly looking to buy refurbished items to cut down on waste.

Mr. Wiens, who spent the entirety of an interview for this article conspicuously attempting to repair a smoking Makita drill, takes this as a good sign. “We have a little bit of an obsession with buying new,” Mr. Wiens said of the average American.

“The biggest enemy we have,” he said, “is people with old cellphones in drawers.”

Renewed and Improved

Four refurbished gadgets currently available at significant discounts.

KitchenAid Artisan Series Stand Mixer

New: $450, KitchenAid.com

Refurbished:$300, KitchenAid.com

Fitbit Versa 2

New: $150, Fitbit.com

Refurbished:$130, BackMarket.com

Sony

WH-1000XM4 Noise Canceling Headphones

New:$350, Sony.com

Refurbished:$274, BackMarket.com

iRobot Roomba i7+

New: $800, BestBuy.com

Refurbished:$500, eBay.com

The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.