Extended warranty?

12 years ago

We bought new appliances when we built the house in 2007. Delivered Sept 11 2007. Bought extended warranty when originals ran out - paid about $1000 for warranty on roughly $3000 worth of kitchen appliances (Kenmore Elite smoothtop range, K. Elite/LG French door fridge, Bosch DW) and added our old (1996) Kenmore W/D.

Sears called yesterday and said warranty was expiring today (!), I guess when we combined them (we already had warranty on W/D), they changed the date. They want $1000 for 2 yrs on all 5 and $700-something (lost call while looking for pen) for just the 3 newer appliances. I have had a couple of service calls for the icemaker, and 1 for indicator light for burner on stove, plus 1 on washer.

Does it make sense to keep the warranty on the kitchen appliances? What about paying extra $200-something for the W/D since it is replacement coverage (if they can't fix it, which may happen if parts become obsolete on these old machines) to extend 2 yrs until they are 20 years old and DS goes away to college, when I may replace them with something else? The kitchen appliances will be 9 years old then too.

Thanks - posting here rather than Appliance forum since I "know" people here.

This post was edited by ajsmama on Sun, Aug 24, 14 at 15:46

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Comments (3)

User
12 years ago
It's never ever worth the price that Sears charges for their warranties. Most appliances that do break do so under the manufacturers warranty. If it doesn't break then, then it's likely to live a full life. Other than the ice maker on any fridge, that is. Save the money and it into an account to replace them when they do die and add a bit to it every month. You'd have 2K in it right now, plus whatever you might add per month. More than enough to repair the ice maker or replace the fridge entirely.
zzackey
12 years ago
Our refrigerator had a fan die about 2 years after we bought it. Thank God we had an extended warranty. It would have cost 100 bucks just to have the repairman look at it, plus parts and a return visit. We didn't have the money to spend on it at the time.
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2ajsmama
Original Author
12 years ago
I'm thinking more of getting a "free" replacement for washer (and maybe dryer) when they're 20 years old, for the $270 or so it will cost extra to replace them. And since the range and refrigerator (as well as the washer) have needed repairs in the past few years, I thought it might be worth the warranty since I really don't plan on replacing them. The service calls are so expensive - though I suppose I still haven't gotten my money's worth out of the last 4 years worth (I think they had 3 year manufacturer's warranties) but the service calls would have been $500-700 I believe - esp. since they always seem to break down the day before or day of a holiday. The DW was under $1000 but the range and refrigerator were over $1000 each and still are.

What's the expected life of a range, DW, or French door fridge? I know the W/D have lived past the expected 15 yrs (IIRC).