Buying a refurbished Videojet printer is rarely the cost-saving move most people think it is. In my experience reviewing equipment specifications for a mid-size packaging company over the last 4 years, the upfront savings of 30–50% on a refurbished unit are almost always wiped out by downtime, non-genuine parts, and hidden compatibility issues within the first 18 months. I've rejected roughly 15% of first deliveries in 2024 due to spec deviations, and a disproportionate number of those were refurbished units.
Let me be clear: I'm not saying refurbished machines are always a bad idea. I'm saying the calculation most buyers make is dangerously incomplete.
What the Price Tag Doesn't Tell You
The question everyone asks is, "What's the best price?" The question they should ask is, "What's the total cost over three years?" Here's what I've found, in practice.
Most buyers focus on the purchase price and completely miss three major cost drivers: service call frequency, ink and parts sourcing, and compatibility with current production lines. In our Q1 2024 quality audit, we tracked 12 refurbished printer installations across our network. Over six months, six of those units had at least one unplanned downtime event. The average cost per event—including lost production, an emergency service call, and rework—was about $2,800. The initial savings of $4,000 on the purchase price evaporated in two breakdowns.
I don't have hard data on industry-wide failure rates for refurbished CIJ printers, but based on our experience with roughly 40 units over two years, my sense is that the risk of a major issue in the first year is around 35–40%, compared to maybe 5-8% for a new unit from a certified channel.
The Real Problem: It's Not the Machine, It's the History
A refurbished printer—especially something like a Videojet 1510 or 1880—was decommissioned for a reason. Maybe it ran 24/7 on a harsh line. Maybe it had a fluid system that was starting to corrode. Maybe it was damaged in a line changeover. The refurbisher might do a good job cleaning it up and replacing wear parts, but they rarely replace everything. And they certainly don't test it against your specific substrate—say, a coated pharmaceutical label or a high-speed snack food film.
Take this with a grain of salt, but I've seen refurbished units that looked immaculate on the outside and had a failing printhead driver board on the inside that nobody caught until we tried to print a complex barcode. That specific issue cost us a $22,000 redo on a client order and delayed our launch by two weeks.
Genuine Parts vs. Compatibles: A False Economy
The push to save money on consumables is the other trap. Many buyers of refurbished units figure they'll save even more by using non-genuine ink or cleaning solutions. I ran a blind test with our maintenance team last year: the same machine running Videojet original parts vs. a popular compatible brand for six weeks. Our team identified the compatible batch as 'less reliable' 67% of the time—inconsistent print quality, more frequent nozzle clogging, and shorter intervals between cleanings. The cost increase for genuine parts was roughly $0.08 per 1,000 prints. On a run of 50,000 units, that's $4.00 for measurably better reliability and output.
The vendor selling the compatible solution claimed it was 'within industry standard' for ink viscosity. It probably was. But the real-world performance was different. We rejected the batch, and they redid it at their cost. Now every contract we sign explicitly references the OEM-approved consumables list.
Wait – When Does a Refurbished Unit Actually Make Sense?
I can only speak to my context: mid-to-high throughput manufacturing where uptime is critical. If you're in a completely different scenario—say, a low-volume packaging line where a day of downtime isn't a crisis, or a secondary line doing simple date codes—the calculus might be different. A refurbished unit used as a hot spare or for low-volume backup coding could be a perfectly fine decision.
The upside is the price. The risk is the downtime and the potential for a hidden defect. I kept asking myself over the years: is saving $4,000–$8,000 worth potentially losing a client over a missed delivery? For me, the answer has almost always been no.
If you absolutely must go refurbished, here is what I’d insist on: a written guarantee that the printhead has been tested with your specific substrate, a 12-month parts and labor warranty from a reputable provider, and a contract stipulating only genuine OEM parts will be used. If they won't sign that, walk away.
Looking back on the decisions I've seen—and the ones I've made—I should have pushed harder for the stricter specification upfront. At the time, the refurbished machine's price tag looked like a win to the finance department. It wasn't. The lowest quote has cost us more in roughly 60% of the cases I've tracked. Based on our 40 units over two years, the math is clear: for critical lines, new is the baseline. Refurbished is a risk you take knowingly, not a shortcut to savings.
