Tired of hearing avionics guys trash talk refurbished units

Was at a bench the other day and overheard this tech say he'd never touch a refurbished radio. Said they're all junk and a waste of time. I've been running a small landscape biz on the side for years, fixing up old mowers and trimmers. Same principle applies here. Last month I put a refurbished Garmin GNS 430 in a 172 for a client. Cost them $4500 instead of $8500 new. Bench tested fine, installed clean, and it's been solid for 6 weeks now. Not every refurb is a gamble if you know the repair history and check the components. Most of the failures come from cheap shops that don't verify anything. Anyone else had good luck with quality refurbs? Or am I just lucky so far?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.susan19d ago

Lazy shops just slap parts in and call it a day" - that's basically me trying to fix my own car and hoping for the best lol. I'm the same way with my lawn equipment, if I can't find the repair log I assume they just threw a new belt on and called it restored. But hey, if it's been solid for 6 weeks that's pretty promising, I've had brand new stuff fail way faster than that.

nathan_hill6019d ago

Double down on that point about knowing the repair history. A shop that actually documents every component swap and test result is worth its weight in gold, lazy shops just slap parts in and call it a day.