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How about when Miele (in Canada) has their 10% off or free 10 year extended warranty deal on. What would you choose?

The only extended warranty I've bought was for our Bosch fridge from Sears where they said if we don't use the warranty after the 5 years then we will get a Sears gift card equivalent to the cost of the extended warranty. We are just approaching the 5 year mark now with no repairs yet.

my thought is that you either go all-in and do extended for all of your appliances, or do none of them. because if you pick and choose you are guaranteed that the one you don't cover will need repairs.

I "never" buy the extended warranties or travel insurance. That has been my motto, so in effect I self insure. I ended up losing the cost of a trip a few years ago (fortunately it wasn't a lot of money), so I'm still ahead of the game. On the appliance front, I live in Canada and bought my Miele appliances when they had a 10% off or 10 year warranty. I went with the 10 year warranty primarily because I spend too much time on this website, but partly because the Miele fridge/freezer that cost $$$$ have a 1 year warranty here, even on the compressor.

I just view the extended warranty as part of the cost of a high end appliance. If I'm paying $999 for a range I'll be slightly miffed if it breaks after three years; if I'm paying $12K for a range I'd be really, really upset if it needed a $2K repair after 3 years. I do wish Miele offered their 10 year warranty special in the US.

Miele's warranty for its fridge/freezer in the US is 1 year on everything, 5 years (parts and labour) on sealed refrigeration and 10 years (parts) on sealed refrigeration. In Canada we have 1 year on everything, full stop. If they offered the same standard warranty as is the US, I likely would not bother with the extended warranty.

It honestly depends on you as a user and where you live. As a NYC dealer, I can tell you that there are more than enough times where these warranties are quite worthwhile. If you are a heavy user, in a high priced neighborhood, these are often a good value. The cost to get a servicer into your home in NYC is $100-$200 just to look at your broken machine and a full service call can exceed (and often does) $1k on a high end product.

It's not always worth it. Case in point hoods. If a hood is properly maintained then there really isn't anything on them that breaks. But a Wall Oven has multiple control boards, elements, hinges, lighting, cooling fans, heating fans and more. It all depends on the product in question, how often you use the product, where you live and the cost to repair/replace that product.

I don't buy then for anything else, but I do for appliances. My dishwashers and fridge have needed so many repairs it's definitely paid off. :/

The crazy thing is that my appliance repair guy himself even buys extended warranties. His wife thought he was nuts, but he said it's cheaper than even buying the parts himself despite obviously being able to do his own labor.

I'm with Joe Henderson on this - I find that the price for the extended warranties for higher end appliances is pretty good relative to their cost of repair and replacement vs. lower end appliances. Especially as how they don't seem any less likely to need repair than less expensive appliances do.

I didn't buy them for our major kitchen appliances and the only issue we had was with our oven while under the original warranty. We did buy them for our laundry units because the cost was reasonable and we just bought it for a floor model freezer we bought -- because it was a floor model and the extended warranty was a fraction of what we were saving on the unit.

There are two major considerations -- who the contract is with/who will do the service and cost/convenience. I will never have another service contract with Whirlpool/Kitchenaid or where I have to use A&E (they may do Sears repairs now?) no matter what the cost or risk. If I get quality service, then the cost/convenience factor comes into play. At that point it is a matter of planning for cash flow and assigning the risk in case of a bigger problem. No one has a crystal ball, but you know your finances and how well you can absorb a major repair or unexpected purchase.

"I will never have another service contract with Whirlpool/Kitchenaid or where I have to use A&E ..."

I was told recently by a valid source that Whirlpool parted ways with A&E, I believe last year.

That's several years too late for me. The damage has been done, but at least folks making the choice now can have hope.

I had dealing with that A&E repair company too! They were call for a Home Warranty. My fridge went out and they couldn't fix it but said "it was fixed" although it wasn't. I was out the deductible and still ended up having to buy a brand new fridge by the time it was all said and done.

I think as others mention, it comes down to who the contract is with. I bought a 3 year once for an appliance and the service company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the appliance chain, both went bankrupt 1 yr later, and I was at the end of a long line of unsecured creditors. I never ended up needing the contract, but it goes to show you nothing can be considered a sure-thing, even just a year later.

My experience is that it was not worth the money.

Laundryvet

I don't know of any service contracts that have reliable repairmen. They hire fleets of "technicians". So I have found a good local repairman on my own. They come over promptly, diagnose efficiently and have parts on hand or will get them ASAP. The average service contract "repair" can take 3 or more visit with long waits in between to fix a simple problem that a real repairman can get done in an hour or two.

I guess this is a surprising advantage to living in a small town: every time I've called, for different appliances through different warranty companies, I get the same guy. I think my husband's starting to get jealous of all my time with Jay.

This thread is very timely for me. In April 2015, we purchased our Bosch speed oven, wall oven, induction cooktop and vent hood; due to reno delays, we didn't install the appliances until November - March 2016. We've already had the Bosch technician out a couple of times for the speed oven and for the wall oven (warrantied work, so everything was covered). No issues since then, but all these newfangled appliances with their computer boards just makes me nervous. I just received information about Bosch's 4-year Appliance Service Plan: $1,404. Anyone have thoughts about how this stacks up against other extended warranties? TY.

freeoscar: Thanks so much! We've never purchased any extended warranties on the various appliances replaced over the years, but this is our first reno and appliance overhaul (if I had it my way, I would've just reinstalled my 25 y/o, tried-and-true, still-going-strong Whirlpool oven -- no electronics!). $1,404 seems like quite a chunk of change. Thankfully, at least for now, Bosch has their own crew of service reps in the area (Houston), and the technician (factory trained) assigned to us earlier this year seemed to know what he was doing.

A Bosch CSR confirmed that the original warranty begins on delivery date, not installation date. (This is why I was confused, too, about why Bosch was contacting me now/August....am curious to know when the clock starts ticking on the 4 years.) I mentioned that, due to reno delays that were beyond our control, the cooktop + vent may not be installed until January -- which meant we had only three months to run them through their paces. She said technically that was true, but if we did happen to encounter issues early on (but beyond the original warranty), Bosch would/might take into account the installation date. She did make note of our conversation (we'd called on other occasions to confirm installation specs, and they'd documented those calls/conversations). I'm hoping that if they have a track record of issues with an appliance, they'll take care of their customers...fingers crossed, anyway.

Good to hear they were flexible with you. We've just ordered a bunch of Bosch appliances - dishwashers, wall oven, warming drawer, vent hood and I too am torn about what to do with warranties. They are expensive (though they do have an installment plan I believe which eases the blow), but appliances seem to break more often that you'd think and the repairs/replacements are costly.

We shall see how flexible and accommodating they are, when/if something fritzes (again). We've all been there, being told two different things by two different CSRs at _________ << (insert name of any company). Warranties are meant to be a $ maker for the company, right? I wouldn't doubt it if the underwriters haven't already crunched their numbers and worked out that Bosch appliances will generally not be problematic until 4 years + 364 days (non-Leap Year). :) Good luck to you!