Experience buying refurb iMacs from Apple?

Anyone have any any experience buying apple refurb iMacs?

You get 15% off the "new " price and they usually come with the original OS they were sold with (so Mojave Not Catalina) with full a warrantee.

For a machine still being sold that came out this year, that seems ilike a pretty good deal for a Mac … I am thinking about getting a 27" early 2019 8 core i9 iMac with a 1 TB SSD… (and I want to start playing with helper apps)

My current iMac is 6 years old. My previous one is 10 years old and being used by someone else in the family. Besides being limited to High Serra, that 10 year old machine, though still usable, is starting to feel a bit pokey for general use…

I hear good things about the the new i9 machine so this might be a good time for me get a new one, and have my current one replace that 10 year old machine…

So anybody here buy Apple refurbs? And if so has that worked out for you?

Thanks
Karen

I have a 2017 MBP refurb. It needed a display cable and hinge replaced about 6 months in, and I still get occasional flicker which makes me suspect there is something not perfect with the motherboard.

It’s literally my only experience with their refurbished program though. One data point doesn’t make a pattern. I am unsure wether I’d go that route again though.

Typing on a refurb MacBook Air. Came like new. No problems at all.

I’ve had really good luck with refurbished Mac machines, depending on the model of course.

There are usually some 3rd party vendors that deal in only used/refurbished Macs too. I recently bought a 2012 Mac Mini as a test machine for Mojave from Old Time Mac, a reputable Canadian supplier.

When you need details about current or especially older Mac models, I find https://everymac.com/ a great site.

I hope that helps.

Bought a refurb MBP around 2010 (less than a year old at the time). Worked like a dream and was my daily driver until about 2015, then was used sparingly until last month when it just decided not to boot anymore.

We have purchased four refurbished MacBook Pro’s and a Mac Pro (Traschcan model) over the years. Always direct from APPLE, never a 3rd party. Our experience is the refurbs have been as reliable as the new machines, but come in a brown box instead of pretty white one. Basically, have not been able to otherwise distinguish from new. The discount essentially means you get AppleCare for the machine.

Thanks all!

Except for Thom’s, all the responses are pretty positive… And I think a laptop is likely to get banged up more than a desk top machine, so i decided to do it.

I’m going to keep an eye out for an refurb 2019 iMac equipped how I want and jump on one when I see it. And I will get AppleCare with it.

-Karen

I bought a refurbished Mac mini this past August. Works great. I’ve bought many refurb Macs and have had no trouble with any of them. Sometimes I even get extra stuff at no charge, such as my 2013 MacBook Air coming with 8GB RAM instead of the 4GB I ordered.

Check out https://refurb-tracker.com/ to get notified when a model you’re interested in becomes available.

I got a 2015 Refurbed MacBook Pro. No issues with it. Apple had it for 3 days because of a battery recall but other than that it’s been rock solid and my robotics kids bang on it on a regular basis.