Home Depot Open Box Appliances: What They Cost, What to Check
Does Home Depot Sell Open Box Appliances?
Yes. Every full-size Home Depot carries open box appliances, and the appliance department is the single largest source of open box discounts in the store. Refrigerators, ranges, dishwashers, washers, dryers, and microwaves come back constantly: the buyer measured wrong, changed a remodel plan, picked a different finish, or refused a delivery with a dented door. Once a major appliance leaves the store it cannot be resold as new, so it is re-tagged, priced down, and parked in the open box area until someone takes it.
The catch is that open box appliances are almost entirely an in-store thing. The Home Depot website lists a handful of open box units under “Special Buy” style tags, but the selection is a fraction of what any given store has on its floor, and it does not tell you which store the unit is sitting in.
Where the Open Box Appliances Are
Walk into the appliance department and look for the units that are not lined up in the main display row. Most stores keep open box and scratch-and-dent appliances in one of three places:
- Along the back wall of the appliance department, often behind the main refrigerator row.
- A corner of the department near the appliance desk, where returns get staged after inspection.
- Endcaps or a clearance bay near the seasonal section during big appliance sale periods, when the department needs the floor space.
Open box units carry a yellow markdown sticker with the original price crossed out and the new price written or printed underneath. If you do not see any, ask the appliance associate. Returned units sometimes sit in the back for a day or two before they are tagged, and the associate can tell you what is coming out.
What Open Box Appliances Actually Cost
Discounts track condition, not category. Across the appliance department the pattern looks like this:
| Condition | Typical discount | What it usually is |
|---|---|---|
| Opened box, no visible damage | 10-20% off | Refused delivery, wrong size, changed mind |
| Minor cosmetic marks | 15-30% off | Scuffed side panel, small ding on a back corner |
| Visible scratch or dent | 30-50% off | Dented door, scratched top, damaged handle |
| Floor model or display | 20-40% off | Ran with no water or gas hookup, plenty of fingerprints |
Refrigerators and ranges get the deepest cuts because they are the bulkiest to store and the most expensive to move again. A $2,400 French door refrigerator with a dent on the side panel that will face a wall is routinely $1,400 to $1,700. Dishwashers and over-the-range microwaves get smaller markdowns because the store can stack them and wait.
Prices on open box appliances are not fixed the way system-priced clearance is. If the unit has damage that the sticker does not account for, ask the department manager. Additional 10% adjustments are common on appliances that have been sitting for more than a couple of weeks.
The 48-Hour Rule for Major Appliances
This is the part most buyers miss. Home Depot’s return policy for major appliances (refrigerators, washers, dryers, ranges, dishwashers, cooktops, wall ovens, and range hoods) requires you to report damage or defects within 48 hours of delivery or pickup. After that window, problems go through the manufacturer warranty instead of a store return.
For an open box unit that means:
- Inspect it in the store before you pay. Open every door and drawer, check the back for crushed coils or a bent compressor housing, and look inside the drum or tub.
- Photograph every mark on your phone before it leaves the store, next to the tag.
- Plug it in or run a cycle within a day of getting it home. A refrigerator should be cold in a few hours. A washer should fill, agitate, and drain. Do not wait for the weekend.
- Call the store, not the manufacturer, if something is wrong inside 48 hours. That is the window where an exchange or refund is straightforward.
Small appliances that do not need delivery follow the standard 90-day return policy, open box or not.
Warranty on Open Box Appliances
The manufacturer warranty on an open box appliance runs from your purchase date, not from the date the original buyer took it home. Keep the receipt. Register the appliance with the manufacturer using your receipt date, and if the registration card is missing from the box, do it on the manufacturer’s site with the model and serial number from the rating plate.
Home Depot Protection Plans can be added to open box appliances at checkout the same way they can on new units. Whether that is worth it depends on the discount: on a scratch-and-dent refrigerator at 40% off, the plan often costs less than the money you saved, and it covers the compressor and sealed system that the dent might make you nervous about.
Delivery, Haul-Away, and Installation
Open box appliances qualify for the same delivery and haul-away options as new ones, and stores will usually schedule it at the appliance desk. Two things to confirm before you commit:
- Delivery date. Open box units are already in the building, so delivery is often faster than a warehouse-shipped new unit, sometimes within a couple of days.
- Installation parts. Returned units are frequently missing the water line, the dryer cord, or the dishwasher install kit that came in the original box. Ask what is included, and buy the missing kit at the same time rather than discovering it on delivery day.
Open Box Refrigerators: What to Check
Refrigerators are the most common open box appliance and the one with the most expensive failure mode, so check them harder than anything else:
- Door alignment. Doors that sit uneven or do not seal were probably dropped in transit.
- Ice maker and water dispenser. Confirm the parts are present and the lines are not kinked behind the unit.
- Back panel and coils. Crushed coil fins or a dented compressor cover are a bigger risk than a scratched door.
- Interior shelves and bins. Missing bins cost $40 to $120 each to replace and are rarely discounted on the tag.
- Compressor sound. If the store lets you plug it in, a loud hum or rattle within a few minutes is a walk-away signal.
Refrigerators that were refused at delivery because of a cosmetic dent are the best buys in the department. They have never been used, the dent is usually on a side or the back, and the discount is set by the dent rather than by the condition of the machine.
When Open Box Appliance Stock Is Highest
Open box appliance inventory piles up in two windows:
- The two weeks after a major appliance sale. Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, and Black Friday appliance events generate a wave of deliveries, and a predictable share come back as refusals or wrong-size returns. Late September and early December are strong months for this reason.
- Model-year transitions. Manufacturers refresh lineups in the spring, and stores clear display and returned units of the outgoing model. Combining an open box discount with a discontinued-model clearance markdown is how appliances end up at 60% off.
Open box appliances also rarely get re-marked more than once. If the unit you want is priced higher than the table above suggests, it is worth asking for the adjustment rather than waiting for a second markdown that may not come.
Open Box vs Clearance Appliances
Open box and clearance are different programs, and it helps to know which one you are looking at:
- Open box is a returned or damaged-box unit. The discount depends on condition and is set at the store. It does not follow a schedule.
- Clearance is a discontinued or overstocked model at its normal, boxed condition. The price is set in the system and drops in stages, and the same SKU is clearance at many stores at once.
Endless tracks the clearance side across every Home Depot store, so you can see which appliance models are on markdown near you and how far the price has already fallen. Open box units are store-specific and are not tracked online by anyone, which is exactly why they stay cheap: the only way to find them is to walk the appliance department. If you are shopping for a specific model, check the Home Depot clearance feed for that model first, then look for an open box unit of the same model in the store. When both apply, you are buying at the bottom.
For the broader picture of how open box works across the whole store, see Does Home Depot Have Open Box Deals? and Open Box vs Clearance vs Damaged.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Home Depot have open box appliances?
Yes. Every full-size Home Depot sells open box appliances in-store, typically in a dedicated area of the appliance department. Online selection is minimal, so the store floor is where the inventory is.
How much are open box appliances at Home Depot?
Usually 15-30% off for opened-box units in good condition and 30-50% off for scratch-and-dent refrigerators, ranges, and washers. Floor models fall in between. Additional adjustments are possible if you ask the department manager about damage not reflected on the tag.
Can you return an open box appliance to Home Depot?
Yes, with the same rules as a new major appliance: damage or defects must be reported within 48 hours of delivery or pickup. After that, problems go through the manufacturer warranty. Small appliances follow the standard 90-day return policy.
Do open box appliances come with a warranty?
Yes. The manufacturer warranty starts on your purchase date. Register the unit with the manufacturer using your receipt, and consider a Home Depot Protection Plan on large discounted units.
Does Home Depot deliver open box appliances?
Yes. Open box appliances qualify for standard delivery, haul-away, and installation. Confirm that install parts like water lines and dryer cords are included, since returned units are often missing them.
Are open box refrigerators from Home Depot a good deal?
Refused-delivery refrigerators with a cosmetic dent are among the best buys in the store: never used, discounted for a dent that usually faces a wall, and often 30-40% off. Check door alignment, the back coils, and the ice maker parts before buying.