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I just got this mango wood dining table. There is a small crack on the side.

I was thinking about replacing the table, or possibly accepting a 20% discount.

Could this crack get worse?

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  • Hi, welcome to StackExchange. I've edited the body text to remove the first query, because it's subjective. Subjective queries are not a good fit for the SE model as they invite opinions and not fact-based Answers, and with something like this — replacement or discount? — that's entirely up to the individual.
    – Graphus
    Commented Jan 22 at 8:28

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Are we talking about the crack on the bottom right of the end grain? If so, that’s called checking.

It’s possible that it’ll get a bit worse as the wood acclimates fully to where you are, but should stay to the underside. It’s also possible that it won’t change at all.

Whether you return it or take a discount is entirely guesswork… (Though it’s worth saying that a replacement might have the same problem.)

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  • Thanks so much for your response! You were spot on, I was actually able to take a look at another table of the same model and it had a similar thing going on (small crack on the underside).
    – Cb23
    Commented Jan 21 at 23:51
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    @user15211, these sorts of minor cracks are unfortunately fairly common in Asian-made furniture. In addition to the wood possibly not being dried that well to begin with, the conditions in the workshops are very likely to be quite different to those in the showroom, and then subsequently in a buyer's home. This is particularly the case for the majority of the US, where humidity is far lower than in much of Asia, leading to a number of potential issues as the wood dries out as it comes into equilibrium with the new environment.
    – Graphus
    Commented Jan 22 at 8:35
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It's going to be hard to say how much worse it will get because we don't know what environmental conditions under which the table was made or the state of the wood during assembly. Wood is a fickle, organic material.

What I would be confident is assuming is that the quality of the product will be the same when it is coming from the supplier. If they're banging out dozens of tables for export in a 100% humidity near the equator from untried wood, you're not going to see much of any difference from one single unit to the next.

So the question to you is probably less "do I want this table or a discount on a different one?" than it is "do I want a 'rustic' looking table or do I want to pay a bit more for something better made?"

I don't know if that is even an option here, maybe your store gets product from multiple suppliers. But from this supplier I would not personally bet on switching a like product for like to avert this issue with checking.

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