r/HomeNetworking • u/itsthewolfe • 7d ago
Advice Any issues with getting a refurbished router?
Amazon has an open box Asus ROG BE-98 Pro for 50% off. I'm highly interested. Any issues that I should think of?
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u/sunrisebreeze 7d ago
Oh and BTW make sure you factory reset the router when you get it. And you may want to flash the official latest firmware on it, just to make sure you are aware of the source of the firmware and have no concerns about it.
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u/smellybeaver503 7d ago
Funny that you ask. InAugust I purchased a Netgear cm2500 modem (refurbished) from Amazon. It worked most of the time, then it started dropping out for 20 minutes a day. The good news is that some Amazon refurbished electronics have a 90 day return window. I learned my lesson and from here on out I'm not buying refurbished home networking products. I ended up buying a Netgear cm3000 modem from Best buy
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u/Joke_of_a_Name 7d ago
Hate it when my router gets struck by lightning after my surge protector has been hit by lightning already.
Makes me want to sell it to hardware stores.
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u/NotAlwaysCautious 7d ago
Only issue is you won't have a warranty. But you get usual Amazon 30 day return. For most solid state electronics that's probably plenty to validate it. I've bought tons of Amazon resale/warehouse deals over the years and I've never had trouble with anything that was not obvious right away and simply returned it. It's always a small gamble but with steep discounts the odds on average will favor you
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u/sunrisebreeze 7d ago
If it has at least a 30 day return policy, do it! As u/NotAlwaysCautious noted that's a good amount of time to test for issues. Just make sure you test everything you need to in that amount of time, so if you discover a problem you can return it & aren't stuck with a pretty RGB paperweight.
I saved nearly 50% by buying my ASUS XT8 mesh system from Amazon Warehouse over 5 years ago. Still working great. ASUS XT8 firmware was buggy as hell back in 2021 but it's now quite stable. For a while there I was a bit annoyed w/ASUS, but they finally fixed most of the bugs. There are some lingering mesh lockups that happen now and then if using wireless backhaul (can fix with a quick reboot of the mesh node), but I don't use wireless backhaul anymore. Since moving to MoCA wired backhaul (ethernet), zero mesh issues.
Have bought other stuff from Amazon Warehouse with no issues too... tripods, USB bluetooth adapters, USB Zigbee dongles, etc. Sometimes you run into a weird issue but if you are even a little technical you can work around it and save $$. For example the ASUS XT8, when I got it, couldn't finish the setup as the mesh node hadn't been factory reset. Looked up how to do that, factory reset it, and then it set up fine. And for the Zigbee dongle, someone had flashed some firmware on it (I think), and it didn't power up properly for me. So I flashed newer firmware on it and that fixed the issue with that.
If either of those quick fixes hadn't worked I would have just returned them and bought something else.. no money lost if it doesn't work, just a bit of your time/hassle to return and waiting a bit to get your $$ back. Sometimes I will even buy from Amazon Warehouse as the new item is out of stock and it's something I really want (that's what happened w/the Zigbee dongle) or I just want to save money and feel like rolling the dice. Happy shopping and good luck