Consider Refurbished Equipment

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

When it comes to setting up your home gym or a community gym as part of a homeowner's project, you may consider investing into refurbished equipment. Refurbished equipment provides you with health club quality gym equipment at a fraction of the price. Let's be honest, commercial equipment is designed to be used by hundreds of people on a daily basis. So you may not necessarily need commercial quality equipment for your home gym.

However, if you were setting up a gym in your local community center or in your garage - the price of refurbished equipment may make it far more doable for your budget than you might think. When commercial equipment is refurbished - they don't just mean treadmills and elliptical trainers, they also include stair steppers, stationary cycles, floor matting, hand weights and weight training machines.

Remanufacturing Companies

There are plenty of remanufacturing companies out there. Among them are names like Global Fitness, Kacor Inc, Fitness Equipment Depot and more. These companies will specialize in purchasing equipment from health clubs that have either gone bankrupt or that have upgraded to new equipment.

The remanufacturing process involves taking the used equipment apart. The equipment is then put back together, cleaned, powder coated, tested and tuned up. Much like rebuilding an engine or a bike, each part is cared for and tested in order to ensure maximum performance. The idea is to make it as good as new once more.

There are three levels of refurbishment: remanufactured, refurbished and serviced. The remanufactured process does the most work and offers the longest warranty. The refurbished job involves touch-ups, testing and a shorter warranty. The last, serviced, means it was just cleaned with some minor touch-ups and testing.

Don't be mislead, just because a machine was serviced rather than remanufactured does not mean it will have less of a lifespan - just that in all likelihood it needed less work. When you go out shopping for your refurbished equipment, do your homework.

Check out the company; not all of them are the same and warranty conditions may vary. Also, they may advertise refurbished equipment not yet in stock. So you want to make sure they have the items you are interested in before you buy them rather than purchasing and then waiting for them to get that piece of equipment in stock.

Ask for customer references and then call and check them out. You also want an honest assessment of how long the equipment was originally used and life expectancy of the current machine. It couldn't hurt to check with the original manufacturers about pre-existing mechanical defects - this helps you avoid surprises with your new equipment.

Cost is always going to be a factor as well as condition. Investigating the possibility of refurbished equipment is worth it. You may end up not purchasing it - but you may just find a great deal. For families with multiple members planning to use the equipment - refurbished may offer you the longevity that made for home equipment cannot match.

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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