ESAs extend the manufacturer's warranty on expensive HVAC / R / plumbing equipment, and protect against unexpected and untimely costly repairs. We can cover all brands and types of equipment.
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What is covered by a Manufacturer’s warranty and what is covered by an extended labor warranty on your Air Conditioner can sometimes be difficult to understand. , so we will try to simplify this for you. For starters, it is important to clarify that what is typically referred to as an extended labor warranty is really an extended service agreement or ESA which covers the labor expense associated with repairs, but for simplicity’s sake we’ll call ESAs extended labor warranties.
Your typical manufacturer’s warranty provides 5 years of parts coverage that is extended to 10 when you register your equipment. 10 years has become somewhat of a standard in the HVAC industry with most of the top manufacturers.
10 years has become somewhat of a standard
Manufacturers “Limited” or “Parts” Warranty covers the parts found in an AC system. A HVAC system is made up of two main sections, the evaporator and the condenser, which houses the compressor. These are made up of several parts. Below are illustrations of just a few of the parts found in an AC system. The manufacturer’s warranty covers the parts in an air conditioner system. If any of the mechanical components shown below were to fail, the manufacturer would provide a replacement part. These replacement parts most - times make their way to the contractor through a local distributor. If the unit is under warranty, there would be no cost to for these parts. That is generally the extent of the manufacturer’s warranty.
What is not covered by a manufacturer’s parts warranty are all the costs, except for the part, associated with repairing your air conditioner. These costs include the cost of driving to customer’s home, the cost of driving to the distributor to pick up the part, the cost of diagnosing your system to find out what repair is needed, and the cost of making the repair. Generally, these costs are not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.
An air conditioner extended labor warranty is designed to complement the manufacturer’s warranty by picking up the costs associated with repairs the manufacturer’s warranty will not cover. Labor warranties cover the trip costs associated with a contractor traveling to and from the customer’s house as well as the cost of picking up parts from the distributor. Most importantly, they cover the cost of diagnosing and repairing the air conditioner. When a system is covered by an extended labor warranty, the covered costs associated with making a repair require no deductible to be paid for by the homeowner.
There are items that are not covered by a manufacturer’s warranty or an extended labor warranty. Generally whatever exclusions around maintenance are present on a manufacturer’s warranty will be found on extended labor warranties.
First, breakdowns that are directly related to a lack of maintenance are not covered. For example, if a contractor arrives at a home and finds a half an inch of cottonwood around the condenser and determines that a failure was a direct result of lack of maintenance, parts and labor would not be covered.
Second, any failures resulting from acts of God will not be covered by extended labor or parts warranty. For example, if lightning strikes your condenser and fries your system, that would not be covered. In most cases these types of incidents would be covered by your homeowner’s insurance.
Third, is predictive failures - if a contractor during his annual maintenance were to notice a capacitor is not working the way it should, but the system is still working fine, replacing the capacitor because it might fail in the future would not be covered.
Fourth, adjustments or resets to a system are not covered. Let’s say you were going to add an addition to your house and the condenser is in the way of your addition. The costs associated with moving the condenser and reconnecting your systems is not covered under warranty.
For contractors that are looking to add up to 10 years labor coverage, please reach out to us for pricing or details.
