Prices checked September 2026. Dyson's pricing moves constantly, so verify before acting on any of this.
Dyson's own refurbished Supersonic is around £250 with a one-year guarantee, when in stock. A cable replacement on the one you already own is £79 with twelve months on the workmanship.
For the most common fault these suffer, that isn't a close comparison. But there are situations where the refurb is genuinely the better buy, and one respect in which it's straightforwardly better than anything I can offer. Both are below.
What you're actually choosing between
It's tempting to frame this as around £250 against £79, but that's not quite the real choice.
Repairing yours means a machine with a known history — you know how it's been used, how it's been stored, and what's wrong with it — with one identified part replaced.
Buying a refurb means a machine with an unknown history, reconditioned by Dyson to a standard they stand behind, with a fresh guarantee on the whole thing.
Both are reasonable. The question is which of those two uncertainties you'd rather carry, and how much you're willing to pay to swap one for the other.
Where the refurb genuinely wins, and I'll say it plainly
The guarantee covers everything; mine covers what I did.
This is the honest asymmetry and it matters. Dyson's one-year guarantee on a refurbished machine covers the whole dryer — if the motor packs up in month ten, that's theirs. My twelve months covers my workmanship on the repair I carried out. If I replace your cable and the control board fails six months later, that isn't covered by my warranty, because I didn't touch it.
If whole-machine peace of mind is what you're buying, the refurb provides it and a repair doesn't. That's a real difference and anyone telling you otherwise is selling.
It's also the better answer if:
Your fault is the motor on a tired machine. A motor repair is from £109 against about £250 for a reconditioned one, so on an otherwise healthy dryer repair usually wins. On an older machine with other wear, the refurb's whole-machine cover can be worth the difference.
There are several things wrong. One fault is a repair. Three or four is a decision.
Your dryer has been repeatedly overheating for a long time. Heat goes through everything, not just the part that failed.
You actively want a different colour or a fresher machine. That's a purchase, not a repair decision, and it doesn't need justifying.
Where repairing yours wins
The fault is a cable. The most common Supersonic failure by a wide margin. £79 against around £250, and you keep the motor — which on these is the component that outlives everything else and most of what you originally paid for.
The fault is restriction. Cutting out, weak airflow, overheating. A £49 service on a dryer that's never been apart often returns it to close to new, and no refurb is needed.
It's buttons, cold shot, or controls. Cheap faults on a fundamentally sound machine.
You want to keep your machine. Some people are attached to a particular colourway, or would rather not send a working motor to be recycled because a flex wore out. Both are legitimate.
The maths in one line: if the fault is anything other than the motor, repairing is very likely the better value. If it's the motor, it's from £109 against about £250, so repair usually still wins unless the rest of the dryer is tired too.
What Dyson don't tell you about refurbs
Not criticism — just gaps worth knowing about before you spend £280.
You don't know what was replaced. Their pages describe the machines as refurbished to their standard. They don't itemise which parts are new and which were retained. So you don't know whether the cable on your refurb is new or is the original one from someone else's four-year-old dryer. Given that the cable is the part that fails on these, that's not a trivial unknown. It may well be replaced as standard — I simply can't tell you, and neither can their website.
The guarantee is half the length of a new one. New hair care carries two years; the refurb carries one.
Stock is intermittent. Of the two refurbished colourways I looked at, one was out of stock. These appear and disappear, so it isn't an option you can rely on being there when you need it.
Availability generally is odd at the moment. Dyson's own page for the new standard Supersonic showed out of stock, and John Lewis listed it as no longer available online. Whether that's a temporary gap or the standard Supersonic being wound down in favour of the Nural and the newer range, I don't know — but "just buy a new one" isn't the simple fallback it used to be, and that pushes the decision back towards repair.
The used market, honestly
eBay, Facebook Marketplace and the like will get you a Supersonic for well under the refurb price. Here's what you're actually taking on.
No guarantee of any kind. Private sales carry no warranty and very limited comeback.
No service history. You cannot know how old that cable is or how the machine was stored — and storage is most of what determines how long a Supersonic cable lasts. You may be buying a dryer that's three months from doing exactly what yours just did.
Attachments are frequently missing, and they're not cheap. Dyson's styling concentrator is £29.90 and the diffuser £34.90. Both were out of stock when I checked. So a "bargain" without attachments can quickly need another £65 spending on it, assuming you can get them at all.
A filter that's never been cleaned. Most used dryers arrive needing the £49 service before they're really fit for use, which closes the price gap considerably.
Used isn't a bad option if you know what you're doing, you can see it working, and it comes with its attachments. As a way of avoiding a £79 repair on a dryer you already understand, it's a poor trade.
The one thing to check before deciding anything
Switch it on, hold the dryer completely still, and flex the cable gently where it enters the handle.
If anything changes — cuts out, stutters, comes back — it's a cable, it's £79, and you can stop comparing. That test resolves the majority of these decisions in ten seconds and costs nothing.
If it runs steadily and the fault is something else, £4.99 buys a proper diagnosis before you commit to anything, and you get the dryer back either way. Spending £4.99 to make an informed choice about £280 is decent value in itself.
Common questions
Is a Dyson refurb as good as new?
Reconditioned by the manufacturer with a guarantee behind it, so it's a long way from a gamble. It isn't new, the guarantee is half the length, and you don't know its history. "Good" rather than "as good as new" is the fair description.
Is a refurb at around £250 a good price?
It's less obviously good than it used to be. Refurbs historically sat well below the new price, and at around £250 that gap has narrowed a lot — which is exactly why repairing a machine with one worn part has got more attractive.
Could I just pay Dyson £99 to repair mine instead?
Possibly. Their repairs page asks hair care owners to contact them for a price, so confirm it covers your Supersonic. If it does, for an expensive internal fault that's good value. For a cable or a service it's more than an independent would charge. Full comparison here.
What if my repair fails after the twelve months?
Then you're where you'd be with any out-of-warranty machine. Worth weighing honestly against the refurb's whole-machine cover — it's the strongest argument on that side.
Do refurbs come with attachments?
Check the specific listing, because it varies and it's worth £30–£65 either way.
I've got two Supersonics, one dead and one working. Worth repairing the dead one?
Often yes, particularly if the faults are different — and if you've got a spare, do the ten-second cable test on both while you're at it. The repair-or-replace rule applies the same way.
If it's the cable, repair it — £79 against around £250 for a refurb isn't a decision. If it's the motor, it's from £109 to repair against about £250 for a refurb, so repair usually still wins on an otherwise healthy dryer. If you don't know which, spend £4.99 finding out before you spend £250 guessing.
And if whole-machine cover is what you actually want rather than the cheapest working dryer, the refurb gives you that and a repair doesn't. That's the one part of this where Dyson have the better product.
The Repair Works is an independent UK repair service, run by me, Paul — 25 years of hands-on repair experience, working by post for customers across the whole country. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Dyson.
