Corsair "renewed" PSU on Amazon

Any reason I should worry about buying one of these?

I don't know what renewed means, and I don't want to kill my computer because I tried to save $50 on a power supply.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWL8SVK/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As long as you are aware of the warranty difference and know the seller, I think it's OK. That seller is Corsair (Outlet), so there is no reason to doubt the workmanship.

The second valuation should probably be price vs service. I bought an AX1200i from Corsair Outlet last year. It was $140 vs $350. At that price difference, it was a no brainer and I have multiple PSUs in the 1000-1200W range if something happened. It didn't. You'll have to decide if that is worth saving $50 vs new and what you would do if it did encounter an issue. My general advice is not the take risks on the PSU. It can cause the most damage and is the most difficult to troubleshoot, particularly with non-critical errors. However, as long as you are aware of the warranty limitations and are not critically dependent on that PSU, I don't see why not -- other than it looks like it is out stock.

Corsair doesn't seem to disclose much about their "renewal" or "refurbishment" process. They only make it known that these PSUs come with a 1 year warranty. That said, they're *probably* visually inspected, bench tested for performance/issues, cleaned, missing accessories are added and then they are repackaged for sale. Buying refurbished/renewed is always a risk/reward proposition. Is the greater risk worth the value?

Most likely, these were returned to Corsair for reasons other than defects (e.g. - buyer incorrectly perceives defect, buyer's remorse, etc.). Maybe in some cases units with actual issues of various sorts might be repaired depending on the issue but I rather doubt they consider it profitable to spend much time repairing these sorts of things. I would consider that true only for actual manufacturer supplied refurbished items - not for anything just out there on the used market!

Regardless, something to consider since the warranty length can be 7 years or more depending on the model, is the possibility that at least some of these didn't come back to Corsair until after they had been used for many years, in some cases under harsh conditions (e.g. - improper ventilation, mining, etc.). Such units might still function and were returned under a warranty claim but could conceivably be nearer to failure or end-of-life than a unit used only for a short time by a buyer who changed their mind. In such cases if they're bench tested and found to be working normally, depending upon Corsair's internal guidance/policy on such matters, they could be approved for sale along with other units which are far less "used". That's not because they're mean or dishonest but because unless something actually breaks, it's probably next to impossible to know a unit's usage/abuse history.

Speaking about refurbished merchandise in general, occasionally new stock is sold as "refurbished" if it has reached production end-of-life, inventory levels are at an excess, etc. Manufacturers do this in order to protect the relationship with vendors who may still have new stock to sell. They wouldn't want to undercut new unit sales across the entire retail chain by clearing out new stock at a steep discount through one or a few of their higher volume vendor customers, for example. The accounting cost per unit can be significantly lower as well if you're only forced to offer a 1 year warranty instead of a 10 year one.

Such a "selling new as used" scenario can be more or less likely depending upon the popularity of the product and whether it is technically obsolete or simply just an older model being cleared out to make way for something newer. Unfortunately in this case, as popular as these high-end Corsair PSUs appear to be, it's likely they won't be entirely unused if they're being sold as "renewed".

Thanks for the replies, especially 99wjtx.

I'm not super worried about warranty on these. In my experience with electronics these days if they work fine for the first month or two, then they will continue being fine. I had a old HX520 that ran 24x7x365 in a home server for over 10 years, and still worked fine when I parted the whole thing out.

Also, the whole limited warranty makes sense from a sales perspective; I don't think it has necessarily has anything to do with the quality of the components. If refurbs carried the same warranty as new, then the value proposition for new is diminished.

Has anyone here bought one? My only experience was with a refurbished keyboard I got a little while back. Worked great, wife still using it today. Only indication it wasn't brand new was the plain cardboard box it came it.