Worth taking out extended warranty on old fridge/freezer?

wazza

Have a 6 year old hotpoint frost free fridge/freezer. It has been reliable apart from one thing. The freezer section gets iced up behind the panel preventing the fan circulating the cold air to the fridge. This happened in it's first year of ownership. The service guy said it is common with this type of model, best thing ito do is remove the panel, remove ice around fan etc and refit panel. It all takes about 20-30mins. This happens after 5 or 6 months and i have been doing the 'fix' after the first year guarantee ran out.

A letter arrived from domestic general offering a one year guarantee for around £60. I am otherwise happy with the fridge and a replacement will cost over £300. Do you reckon it is worth taking out this cover?

If it is worth taking out a cover is domgen a good company or should i try elsewhere? Heard of warrantydirect but unsure how good they are.

moneysavingideas

It's basically an insurance policy for your fridge. I personally wouldn't take it out and just keep the money in your account in case something happens in the future.

I've not had any dealings with domgen, so I really can't comment of their suitability or track record.

[Deleted User]

My personal view on extended warranties is that the money saved can eventually be used to pay for a replacement when something breaks. My experience is that electrical items in general normally keep working for a long time if they manage to make it through the initial warranty period, so I think not buying extended warranties makes sense in the long run.

Of course this only really works if you never buy an extended warranty; if you only sometimes buy extended warranties, then quite likely you might be unlucky and find that something not covered by the extended warranty is the thing that actually eventually breaks!

Basil1234

sorry think is complete waste of money! had you put away £50 a year for the 6 years you had your fridge/freezer you would now have the £300 quid for a replacement.
If your thinking i will take out this warranty and if it goes they will replace it, 9 out of 10 times they wont just say its uneconomical to replace they then would give you a value of what the product would be at the age its at which wont be alot.
my 2pence save your money.

John_Gray

I would look extremely carefully at the terms of the policy. Perhaps check that it would be covered for any breakdown? It could be one of those policies sneakily designed not to pay out...

Richie-from-the-Boro

"" I would look extremely carefully at the terms of the policy ""

NOTE you probably will not get sight of the actual policy until after the event ie, after you have both signed & paid your money.

I agree with all that's said, it's the exclusions in the terms of the policy that are the ' cop out '.

Don't be surprised to find that 99% of everything is excluded !

BillScarab

I never take them out. As others have said save the cash so you have funds for a replacement when you need it.

If you end up taking out policies on your fridge, cooker, washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, TV etc. You could easily be paying out £300 a year anyway and that would cover the replacement cost of a lot of them.

The other point is that in my experience fridges and freezers tend to be fairly reliable.

Richie-from-the-Boro

£150 for a three year warrenty on a Plasma / LCD costing £1000 is worth it because a very high proportion are going to go in that time.

All other brown / white goods will almost certainly give you 5 years with the exception of kettles!

surfer_blue

I agree with the others

I wouldnt personally take out any extended warranties, the company you buy the warranty could go bust .... i bought a telly from empiredirect because it had a free 5 year warranty and 3 months later they went bankrupt ...lol, but it was the cheapest so i wasnt too upset

As everyone else says these policies are notorious for having so many exclusions, theres probably one along the lines of " any problem that has previously been fixed is exempt"

I recently bought a hand mixer (birthday present for the wife! ...:rotfl:, no it wasnt, i just bought it for her cos i m kind like that) but it broke after 2 months, took it back to the shop, they didnt want to know so i contacted russell hobbs, and they said i could return it at my own expense and they would test it and then they MIGHT replace it...........it was only £12, so the postage wasnt worth it, they also said that if it was found to be faulty?? they would not return my postage...I didnt bother, I just tell people that russell hobbs are crap and have a bad guarantee, so you really have to be wary of what sort of guarantee or warranty you get

I read on here once about john lewis price matching items AND giving you a 5 year warranty on a lot of items, I rate them as a company so I will trying that with my next major electrical purchase

sorry for going on...KEEP THE MONEY :rotfl:

MX5huggy

surfer_blue wrote: »

... but it broke after 2 months, took it back to the shop, they didnt want to know......

It was of course the shops problem not russell hobs, you should have pushed harder on the shop. Sales of goods act was on your side, unless you used it for mixing plaster os something!

OP forget the warranty.

BillScarab

surfer_blue wrote: »

I agree with the others

I wouldnt personally take out any extended warranties, the company you buy the warranty could go bust .... i bought a telly from empiredirect because it had a free 5 year warranty and 3 months later they went bankrupt ...lol, but it was the cheapest so i wasnt too upset

As everyone else says these policies are notorious for having so many exclusions, theres probably one along the lines of " any problem that has previously been fixed is exempt"

I recently bought a hand mixer (birthday present for the wife! ...:rotfl:, no it wasnt, i just bought it for her cos i m kind like that) but it broke after 2 months, took it back to the shop, they didnt want to know so i contacted russell hobbs, and they said i could return it at my own expense and they would test it and then they MIGHT replace it...........it was only £12, so the postage wasnt worth it, they also said that if it was found to be faulty?? they would not return my postage...I didnt bother, I just tell people that russell hobbs are crap and have a bad guarantee, so you really have to be wary of what sort of guarantee or warranty you get

I read on here once about john lewis price matching items AND giving you a 5 year warranty on a lot of items, I rate them as a company so I will trying that with my next major electrical purchase

sorry for going on...KEEP THE MONEY :rotfl:

I knwo they do that on tellys. I don't think they do it on anything else though, at least none of the things I've looked at have.