About that Factory Reconditioned stuff...

Most items are sent back to the factory for "reconditioning" . More often than not they are just inspected and tested for proper function and sent back out labeled as reconditioned .

When John Deere still owned Homelite , reconditioning was steady work for them at their Greer, SC plant .

One of the engineers told me that they never bought new Homelite products even with their employee discount ! They always bought the reconditioned models at a big savings over new .

The engineers joked about something they called a "three day rental" . This is when there is a storm or power outage , someone goes to Lowe's or Home Depot , buys a saw or generator , uses it for the weekend and returns it for a refund .

That's where a lot of the candidates for reconditioning come from .

Just my .02 worth .

Ford Man

The only reconditioned tool I recall giving trouble was a drywall screwdriver-bits wouldn't stay in it.

I also recall working at a remodeling project once where my boss purchased a steamer to remove wallpaper. When the job was over, he took it back claiming it "Didn't work right". I wonder what kind of miracles he was expecting.

If it was resold, somebody got a barely used wallpaper steamer.

Lots of other stuff is done that way. I once worked in retail. I'll bet half of their lawnmower/weedeater returns were because of operator ignorance and not because of any defect in the item.

What do you expect a manufacturer to do, junk all the returns? They ship it to Mexico, fix it if need be for practically nothing and sell it as "reconditioned" to at least break even.

There is a certain amount of stuff that is returned to retailers for any number of reasons, not just that the item is defective. Lots of retailers don't want to bother with trying to resell the stuff if it has been opened or used at all, so they send it back to the manufacturers. At least some manufacturers do appropriate checks of the merchandise, make sure it will work properly and then make those items available to discounters for very attractive prices. They even give warranties sometimes.

I am mostly concerned with a tool doing the job for me and being the best deal in terms of price and longevity. The reconditioned factory return tools have usually worked out well for me and have saved me a lot of money. It's always a gamble, but so is buying brand new at full price.