Manufacturer Extended Warranties

**Kwantau** · 08-28-2011, 07:52 AM

I wonder if it is worth it to extend the warranties offered by Dometic on the AC and Microwave oven on a 2011/2720 TM. They send me Contract Service Saving Certificates for the above mentioned units at a savings of 20 to 30% for either a 1 year or 3 year extension. Does any one have experience with this or have had failures with new units? The cost would be around $165.00 for 3 years for the two units. Feed back would be apreciated.

08-28-2011, 12:55 PM

Extended warranties are a very high profit margin product, meaning that the cost is generally much higher than the risk they insure against.

It's a bet - on your end you are betting that your item will fail before the end of the term (when you will get another renewal notice at "significant savings.") The insurer is betting it won't. Guess who has done the most homework on the likelihood of failure?

Unless you purchased something that has a high failure rate or if you can't handle the risk (meaning that you could not afford to repair the item and would have to give up using your trailer) you're better off putting the money in the bank.

Don't think of it as a way to save money. It isn't.

My opinion only, of course.

Keith

ThePair · 08-28-2011, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluegrass

Don't think of it as a way to save money. It isn't.

My opinion only, of course.

Keith

Echoed and dittoed. I think owners of older models can chime in here, but my impression is that these appliances usually either fail right away, or last longer than a 3 year extra warantee would cover.

I have purchased very few extra warantees (car is one, when I bought out the lease, but there were reasons for that).

**Bill** · 08-28-2011, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePair

Echoed and dittoed. I think owners of older models can chime in here, but my impression is that these appliances usually either fail right away, or last longer than a 3 year extra warantee would cover.

Echoed and dittoed again. You can plot the failure rate of many/most consumer items (as well as many other items). In the trade, this graph is known as the "bathtub curve", because it has a shape that looks like a bathtub - high in the beginning, while the manufacturing defects are shaking out, and high at the end as the item begins to wear out at the end of its life. In the middle, for most of the life of the product, the failure rate is quite low. Extended warranties sell you protection in this low-failure-rate middle area. And they reap enormous profits from it, since someone else takes the risk in the beginning, and the extended warranty runs out before the end-of-life failures begin.

Wikipedia will have something to say about the bathtub curve, but in the meantime, unless you have a strong suspicion that the item will fail during its mid-life, the odds say that you will lose money with an extended warranty.

Bill

**Kwantau** · 08-28-2011, 04:38 PM

Thanks alot people for the quick replies. I was leaning towards the nogo myself but it is always good to get second opinions. I've had both the AC and the Micro in use for over a month will we were camping in Naimo BC and they both worked great. Was quiet supprised at how quiet the new style Dometic AC unit is especially in the low fan setting. Thanks again for the feedback.

Hans & Riet