Are refurbished laptops reliable?

A well-refurbished business laptop is generally very reliable — often more reliable than a new budget laptop.

There are two reasons. First, business laptops like ThinkPads, Latitudes and EliteBooks are designed to take far more abuse than consumer models: they're tested for drops, heat, dust and heavy daily use. Second, the parts most likely to fail early, like a faulty hard drive or a weak battery, show up during testing and get replaced before the laptop is sold.

What affects reliability

• The model: business-grade beats consumer-grade
• The storage: SSDs are much more reliable than old hard drives
• The testing: how thorough the refurbisher is
• The warranty: your safety net if something does go wrong

Electronics tend to fail either very early or very late. By the time a business laptop is refurbished, it has already come through the early period. Do refurbished laptops break down more often?