Is there any evidence that factory refurbished products are inferior to new products after they’ve been “fixed”?
I would think that a product that gets sent back because of a failure, would undergo a more rigorous series of tests in order to be put out on the market again.
No good cite but I have always heard pretty much what you said; you know that a refurbished unit has been tested and checked out before being shipped out again. A new unit probably wasn’t.
I’ve had numerous starters, alternators, etc. replaced in my time, and I’ve never noticed them having a shorter lifespan than the original part.
Disclaimer: YMMV, obviously, and the plural of “anecdote” is not “fact.”
I work in manufacturing. While I can’t speak for every factory in the world, I’d say that there is no way to maintain as tight of tolerances in a rebuilding shop as you can when assembling new products.
Rebuildable cores will have parts from random batches and will have worn differently in the field, so every part will have to have a different amount of machining or other work done to it. My guess is that at best you are custom making every piece (I could very well be wrong, and I invite someone with rebuilding experience to explain.)
Contrast this with new manufacturing where every part placed on the assembly line was either made in batches or was made one after another on its own assembly line. Because of this, each operation should require a similar amount of work (i.e., machining, plating time or force on a press.) This predictability allows for a statistical process control*, where the random variation between measurements can be filtered out. It really can be more accurate to take sample measurements and adjust based on a moving average than to adjust the process for every part that comes down the line.
I’m not saying that it is done this way everywhere, I am only saying that it can be done this way.
That said, it’s entirely possible that the refurbished product was a more robust design and is better (however you measure “better”) than a new replacement that was made to inferior specifications.
*Factory people: I know. Having said that, I’m gagging and reliving the 1980s myself.
This is just a WAG, but when it comes to consumer electronics, an RMAed failed unit is probably checked for damage and put into the bad pile. At that point it’s picked up from the bad pile and taken apart into as many separate parts as possible. Each part is tested and the ones that work are put into piles. The broken ones recycled. The piles of tested parts are then used to assemble refurb units. Again this is just a WAG but this seems to be the cheapest way to do this on a large scale.
Many returned units are not defective. They were returned for other reasons, such as not meeting the customer’s expectations or needs.
Not every refurbished product is refurbished under the control of the original manufacturer. In my last job, the company I worked for would only allow a 30-day warranty on refurbished products.
ETA:
At this same company, returned product that was found to not be defective would be repackaged, and distributed as “B” stock (usually to satisfy warranty claims on RMA’d product that actually was defective). “B” stock product was permitted to carry the balance of the customer’s original warranty.
It depends on the device. Many “things” are built on automated assembly lines and are not meant to be serviced (easy example, housings glued together instead of screwed together).
I bought a clock/radio/phone that had been refurbished. Phone works great, radio works great, clock runs slightly fast (digital), it gains about a minute a day.
Something liuke that wouldn;t be worth the while of the remanufacurer to test (lets plug in 5000 clocks for 24 hours and see if the are accurate).
So I get a $10 radio/phone witha wonky clock…
I use it by my computer, which has the “right” time displayed in lower right hand corner anyway… added bonus… my wife hates it as it is the only "easily visible"clock in basement… so she keeps resetting it to accurate time
grin
regards
FML
Most of the plastic cases are sonic welded together.
Some items that are rebuilt from long used consumer goods, will have parts that are maybe half way through their lifespan. Alternators are one of those items.
Product that is returned defective at purchase and refurbished, will not have all the wear on the parts, when the bad part is replaced. You should get the same use from it as the off the line units.
Anecdtoal evidence will reign supreme here, but offers valuable insight.
I bought a ‘refurbished’ mower. How was it refurbished? The bag had a tear in it, and they refurbished it by stitching it back together, and then I called the customer service number and told them the bag didn’t look right, so they sent me a new one rather than worry about the details. So, refurbished in this case meant I got a mower 100 bucks less than standard price and a free/extra bag.
I bought a refurbished LCD TV. The refurbishing consisted of a new cord.
Since ‘refurbsihed’ can mean many different things, it will be hard to define for GQ purposes and it will be hard to get to meaningful data to make a comparison with non-refurbs.
I’ve bought several refurbished power tools, the most recent being a Porter Cable circular saw, and they’re just fine. The significant savings off new doesn’t hurt, either.
Years ago, I worked for an electronics outfit and we refurbed several name brands of car stereo and CB radios. Every unit that crossed the bench was tested in all operation modes to make sure specs were met, and if not, repaired/adjusted.
How did you determine what the refurbishments were?
I’d by refurbished in a heartbeat for relatively simple devices like car parts; but I avoid it for anything electronic.
Refurbished often means “it’s failed someone already,” and electronics can fail in cases that are almost impossible to reproduce. I see devices all the time that pass every electronic test, but nevertheless don’t work: anecdotally, I seem to get a lot of these when I have some brand-new item “repaired” by them sending me a refurb replacement – the refurb appears on the surface to work, but has a bunch of dead pixels, or gets a color cast when it gets warm, or shuts down abruptly every midnight or somesuch. Even if the person who returned it told them what was wrong, there’s little chance anyone actually read it: “the tests will take care of it.”
Many places tell you exactly what was done to fix an item for sale.
I bought a refurbished Onkyo home theater receiver. It seemed to work OK initially, but as I used it, “little” things started to appear. For instance, every 15 minutes or so the sound would go off for 1 - 2 seconds. If I rewound the TIVO and played that section again, the sound WOULD be there.
Slightly after the warranty expired, I lost all sound on Video 2. After a lot of mucking about, I found that Video 2 DID work – as long as I didn’t have anything plugged in to Video 1.
Long story short: I don’t think I’ll buy refurbished electronics again. It’s too easy for the factory to miss intermittent problems.
J.
Re: “rebuilt” car parts: there seems to be no standards for rebuilding-do they replace all of the parts, some of the parts, or just the parts that failed? Stuff like brake calipers are OK-but I would never buy a rebuilt alternator-it might be as good as new , or it might fail 15 minutes after you’ve installed it. The bad thing is-most of the labor is in the installation-so stick with new.
All of the labor is in the installation. 
I buy refurbs all the time, and have never had a problem. Of course, YMMV.