DJI Care Refresh provides additional drone protection coverage — for an extra fee

DJI Care Refresh is DJI’s extended warranty plan – and it could come in handy if you accidentally drop your drone or crash it into a pool. For an extra cost, you can get additional protection beyond the standard warranty.

The cost of coverage varies per DJI product, so a more expensive piece of gear, say, the DJI Inspire 3 drone will cost a lot more to get DJI Care Refresh coverage for than an Osmo Pocket.

To get Care Refresh coverage, you must purchase it within a certain (and short) window of the product being activated. Additionally, the product must be brand new and cannot have been previously activated. You can purchase coverage for either one, two or three years.

If shopping directly through DJI, you can purchase Care Refresh alongside your DJI purchased made through its online store. Some flagship and authorized stores also sell DJI Care Refresh activation codes, which can be bound to your product after purchasing.

For purchases made through authorized resellers like Amazon and B&H Photo, go to the DJI Online Store and navigate to their Service page, and from there click on DJI Care Refresh. That takes you to a new page allowing you to input the serial number of your product to purchase DJI Care Refresh.

The difference between DJI warranty and DJI Care Refresh

DJI’s product warranty guarantees repair service will be provided when your DJI product is malfunctioning due to non-user error, and the item broke within the covered warranty period. With DJI Care Refresh, you’re entitled to replacement service if damage occurs to the product during normal use or accidents that — at least in some capacity – was your fault (or at least wasn’t DJI’s fault), such as water damage, collisions, and dropping.

In most cases, if your drone or other DJI breaks — say, you accidentally fly it into a pool — you can return it to DJI if you also purchased DJI Care Refresh. The catch? You’ll still owe a fee to get a replacement, and there are caps on how many replacements you can get. So don’t try to think you can perform dangerous drone stunts and get away with free replacements.

Holding DJI Care Refresh’s 2-Year Plan also extends the official warranty period by two years. And in summer 2023, DJI added the option to have a 3-year plan, too, for even more coverage.

What’s covered under DJI Care Refresh?

DJI Care Refresh can get you coverage for accidental damage, as well as normal wear and tear.

Covered situation include:

• Collisions
• Water damage
• Normal wear and tear

Coverage for the DJI Mini 2 and Mavic Air 2 is even more extensive, as you’ll be covered for flyaways (though the cost of a replacement in the event of a flyaway is higher than most other situations). Read more about whether DJI Care Refresh Flyaway Coverage is worth it, here.

Is DJI Care Refresh worth it?

It’s hard to say. Given the upfront fee on top of the additional cost of a replacement, in many cases it can be worth it to buy a new drone altogether.

But for drone power users, DJI Care Refresh is likely a good way to buy some piece of mind, and get a massive discount on a replacement drone when the (hopefully not inevitable) time comes.

That said, you should consider the pace upon which DJI iterates upon and launches new products. For example, DJI in 2020 gave us the DJI Mini 2. But within just three years, DJI had launched two upgraded versions, first the DJI Mini 3 and then the DJI Mini 3 Pro drone.

Because of that DJI Care Refresh cost and replacement fee, you might rather just have a new, DJI Mini 3 Pro drone rather than pay money for a second DJI Mini 2 drone.

A history of DJI Care Refresh

DJI Care Refresh was first launched in 2016 alongside the introduction of DJI’s Mavic Pro. At that time, DJI was offering DJI Care Refresh for the Mavic Pro for $99.

• Buy Mavic Pro from B&H Photo for $999
• Buy Mavic Pro from DJI for $999
• Buy Mavic Pro from Amazon for $999

At the time of launch, DJI Care Refresh covered accidental damage to the Mavic Pro’s aircraft, gimbal or camera during normal use for up to 12 months. As is still the case now, you had to pay an additional fee to get a new drone (which is new or equivalent to new). At the time, the first replacement cost $79 and the second cost $129.

One big complaint with DJI Care Refresh at rollout was that it did not cover water damage or flyaways (presumably so DJI can profit off of the parts that still work, and so users couldn’t say they “lost” it and get a second drone for $99). Thus, DJI added Flyaway coverage in early 2021.

And in summer 2023, DJI rolled out even more DJI Care Refresh changes, such as increasing the coverage period from two to three years while also upping the number of replacement drones you’re entitled to. Here’s a look at what those summer 2023 DJI Care Refresh changes entailed:

What other types of extended warranty coverage does DJI offer?

If you’re a drone power-user (as in, you fly drones pretty much all day, every day, rely on them as your primary source of income, etc.), DJI offers a few other extended warranty or service programs that provide additional protection and customer support than what you’ll get from DJI Care Refresh.

DJI Care Enterprise: DJI Care Enterprise is similar to Care Refresh, but is geared toward enterprise-level (i.e. more expensive) products. While you can’t buy Enterprise Shield for a DJI Spark, you can buy Care Refresh. Likewise there’s no Care Refresh for the Mavic 2 Enterprise Series of drones, but there is Enterprise Shield.

Like Care Refresh, DJI Care Enterprise provides broad accident coverage, repair and replacement services, free shipping and free delivery. But there’s one big difference, with DJI Care Enterprise, there’s no deductible. Though for each replacement, a fee equivalent to the damage assessment cost for the original product is deducted from the coverage amount.

Have you purchased Care Refresh? Was it a good investment, or more trouble than it’s worth? Leave a comment below!

Purchase DJI Care Refresh here.