I went back and forth with myself about buying "refurbished". However my husband and I have both had good experiences with buying refurbished items in the past so I decided to give it a try. The mixer seems to be working just fine. I previously had the 4.5 quart mixer and loved, but wanted to step up to this larger commercial model to make bigger batches of batters. I seems to not even have to work hard to do the mixing - just sit there and purrs right along. I'm hoping I get as many years out of this one as my last one. My advice would be to anyone purchasing this - buy the pouring shield. It tends to puff flour, and I think the shield would help with this. That won't deter me from baking - its just a minor inconvenience. I LOVE KITCHENAID PRODUCTS!! The quality is excellent, and the price of refurbished is significantly less than buying new. When I was contemplating the purchase, I did live chat with the Kitchenaid people, and found out that the refurbishing is done in their factory, and the mixers are assembled in the USA!! That is huge for me!!