Is buying a refurbished MacBook worth the discount? Any significant risks involved?

Battery will probably need replaced. But finding a battery with its rated capacity sucks. Other than that, mostly just opening it and cleaning out those dust bunnies+ thermal paste.

@ragecoder 100% agree, the battery is the first thing to go on any macbook.

I've had a refurbished MBP for the last 6 years, and it's still going.

Apple refurbs are basically new, just open box. Mine needs the battery replacing now, but you'd expect that after this amount of time.

I'd say go for it.