Planning to redo my kitchen shortly and I am wondering if a home warranty would be worth it. I am worried about major appliances failing and not being reparable because companies don’t support their products… although I’m not sure whether a warranty would help with that issue. Anyone have experience with this?
I think they are restrictive, nice if they come with a house sale, but otherwise have a savings fund for such emergencies. We looked at cost, it was $550 plus for our non fancy home at the time (years go) and felt that putting that in our savings was a better plan. We did access warranty work after our move in our old house and it seemed to have limitations. One nasty built it microwave was replaced with another nasty one LOL. We just replace things that aged out though. The cost of living really.
I guess I will buy extended warranties where it’s worth it to do so. Hate how unreliable modern appliances are!
Make sure you assess that even, most advice seems against this, my CCs double warranty time, I have never seen an extended warranty I liked though LOL.
AHS. Worst of the worst. Don’t bother. We got it as a gift from our realtor, and when the boiler went out, they sent an absolutely unqualified guy. We paid the call fee. The guy scratched his head and said another person needed to come out. We paid another call fee. The second dude said he has never seen such a boiler before, so another guy needed to come out. At this point, we were without heat for 2 weeks. I called a local mechanic who came out and fixed the damn boiler. Mr. was livid that the warranty co kept sending unqualified folks. Thank goodness we did not buy the policy. But. Never again.
Buy an extended warranty from the manufacturer of your appliances. Ours for 5 years to cover 5 Milele appliances (2 ovens, 1 cooktop, 1 warming drawer, and one hood) was less than a year of AHS
^^ Wow.
We never did. When appliances die of need servicing, we make a determination at that time whether to repair or replace and choose whom to use and what to replace it with. No regrets.
We did however buy an extended warranty on our car just because there are so many computer and electronic parts. For that, bought the one the dealer recommended and told us they’d service it and we wouldn’t pay a dime.
When I bought my house last year the prior owners transferred their Sears warranty that they had on a lot of their appliances and furnace to me. They loved the appliance warranty but had a little problem with the furnace warranty. I ended up dumping Sears after their furnace people were amazingly incompetent (failed to fix an issue 3x, whereas my oil company fixed it easily on the first try), and horribly rude, and scheduling was a hassle. I’ll never use them again.
Yes, the Sears people who came to fix my fridge were pretty incompetent so I won’t use them again. I rather be able to call whomever I want and get recommendations from neighbors and our property manager.
We do what HImom does.
All the appliances from when we remodeled our kitchen 12 years ago, plus my washer and dryer which are also that old, are still working. The only thing I’ve had to replace is the ice maker last summer. I think it was about $200ish including labor. I thought my dishwasher was broken a few years ago but after calling Bosch they told me to try dishwasher cleaner - which I didn’t even know existed. And it worked.
Yeah, I’m just going to buy extended warranties on appliances and be done with it. Thanks for all the info!
So I recently updated all my major appliances (fridge, stove, microwave - I don’t have a dishwasher) after nearly 20 years (well not the microwave, it had been replaced twice). Reading online I learned the “experts” (as well as Consumer Reports) recommend only to extend a warranty on a fridge and/or a high-end washer/dryer (and in some cases a high-end stove), due to their computer components. Nothing else gets extended. The cost of the warranty doesn’t really pay for itself over time.
From Consumer Reports: Many warranties have loopholes and exclusions built in that can leave you stranded when need repair. CR surveys suggest that you may have to wait longer for warranty repair and may be more dissatisfied with your repair than if you paid out-of-pocket. Warranties are particularly important for today’s technologically-advanced appliances which often have computer boards controlling their operations. Whether the electronics malfunction or parts break down, the affected parts can cost $200-300. The newer energy-efficient machines have sensors and other parts with a high rate of repair. Even top-of-the-line Sub-Zero and Wolf products are sensitive enough to require regular service calls to keep them running right…According to one repair professional the average refrigerator repair costs $200-400. Since a warranty may not cost much more than that, you break even with one service call. Any time you buy a washer and dryer or kitchen appliance and an extended warranty is an option, you take a gamble when you do not buy the optional protection. You might be willing to take a chance on a $250 microwave that you would likely discard if it broke, but do you want to take the chance on a $2,500 refrigerator? For an expensive washer, dryer, range, refrigerator, or other big ticket item, buying the warranty upfront or by folding its cost into the amount financed is a smart investment.
My credit card doubles the manufacturers warranty, but I did spring for the warranty on the fridge - why? Because at work we bought a high-end fridge and in 2 years has had service 5x. 5! At work we always buy the warranties. At home, no.
Definitely buying a warranty for range and fridge, will rely on 2-year credit card warranty for built-in microwave-convection oven. Did not buy a warranty for my dshwasher, but did pay with a credit card that will double the warranty.
Our washer & dryer are 30+ year old Maytags. They have had two service calls in all that time and are working great.
We have replaced the dishwasher twice. We had one service call on the original—our tenants had a rat that gnawed the hose on the dishwasher and washing machine, causing both to leak.
Our fridges are about $1000 apiece and generally die after 7-10 years.
I have AHS; it’s hit or miss. For a $100 call out fee, we get all of our plumbing done. A couple of years ago our A/C was fully replaced for the same $100 call out fee. Also, a few years back, my thermador double oven was replaced at no charge. Overall, I think it’s worth the $40/mo
So far, I’ve gotten a refrigerator, built-in microwave, dishwasher & hot water heater replaced via AHS. Another benefit is not having to call around to find the right service person. We’ve had some excellent folks – even in response to things that proved not to be covered [like the springs on the garage door rather than a problem with the opener]. I’m not sure it totally balances out dollar & cents, but it works for me when I factor in peace of mind.
I’ve kept our home warranty (Fidelity) since we bought the house 19 years ago. In that time we’ve had the electrical panel replaced, water heaters replaced twice, lots of plumbing repairs and more. Currently dealing with a busted 7 year old Kitchenaid dishwasher - Fidelity sent a repair person twice (only one service call fee) and now that it’s been deemed un-fixable we were offered a comparable Kitchenaid unit plus installation at no charge, or $800 cash to buy whatever we wanted. Since our furnace and AC are both 30 years old, I plan to still keep paying the home warranty as I know those will die sooner rather than later. Another advantage - when I’ve needed pest control I can get someone to come out one time; many pest control companies will only come to your home if you sign a contract for repeat service.
We found call wait times for AHS of 40 minutes or more unacceptable. Our local appliance store sells parts (that’s how we got parts for the Frankenfridge that Mr. repaired 3x and earned a gold badge on some forum for posting his solution). They also have a list of trusted repairmen. The mechanics take care of the boiler. YMMV but our experience shown that it would be $600 a year for nothing but trouble… plus, their max for appliance replacement is $3,000 (up from $2,000 a couple of year ago) and no guarantee that the same brand or even color will be used (only the same features, like ice maker).
In the old days I never got the extended warranty. In more recent times I always got the extended warranty because appliances became so unreliable. Wife got tired of extending all the separate extended warranties and we went with AHS. So far they have been pretty good. After 3 tries they replaced a dishwasher with a slightly upgraded model. Other service calls have turned out pretty well, and we have had several.