Periodicamente, os fabricantes de refrigeradores, para anunciar e tentar atrair compradores, apresentam várias promoções, por exemplo, um aumento na garantia padrão (estabelecida por lei) para um prazo maior. Em alguns países, os fabricantes de refrigeradores fornecem uma garantia para componentes individuais e conjuntos de 6 a 10 anos.
But is this really a worthwhile guarantee or just an advertisement?
Warranty Terms on refrigerator
Manufacturers minimize warranty cases, the main conditions of the guarantee.
- The refrigerator should be used only in everyday life (this is household appliances). If you buy a household refrigerator and install in a store, you lose the warranty.
- The warranty is provided only to the first buyer, if you buy a refrigerator not in the store, but for example by ad or auction, you are not entitled to a guarantee. It is monitored very simply, buyers are encouraged to register purchased home appliances on the manufacturer’s website. When registering, you enter your data (name, email address), when contacting the service center, a search is performed in the product registration database and it turns out that it is registered to another person. Warranty service will be denied to you.
Full warranty on refrigerator
According to the law, the manufacturer establishes a full warranty on the refrigerator as a rule, it is 1 year (in some countries 2 years, for example in the UK 2 years), during this period of operation the manufacturer guarantees repair of the failed components and assemblies at his own expense. Repair for the consumer is completely free. If it is not possible to repair the refrigerator, the manufacturer will replace the refrigerator with a new one.
Warranty on individual components and assemblies
Manufacturers install a guarantee on individual components and assemblies, it can be.
- Compressor 5-10 years warranty on the inverter compressor. One of the worst guarantees that does not guarantee anything.
- The guarantee for the hermetic system includes (compressor evaporator, condenser dryer). A good guarantee for the main components of the refrigerator, but it is offered in countries with strong competition between manufacturers (USA, Canada)
Now let’s take a closer look at the increased warranty for components and assemblies.
Example: the manufacturer of your refrigerator gave a guarantee for an inverter compressor for 10 years, but in 3 years of operation the refrigerator broke down. Your actions are as follows, contact the service center and a service specialist visits you, who will perform the diagnostics, and possibly replace the control board. It will be determined that the compressor in the refrigerator is faulty and the refrigerator needs to be repaired in the service center.
You paid for the call of the master and the diagnosis of the refrigerator.
If you decide to repair the refrigerator, you will have the following costs.
- Refrigerator delivery to the service center
- Payment for work (the warranty can only apply to spare parts but not to work; you must carefully examine the conditions of the guarantee), as well as for refilling the refrigerator with refrigerant after repair, testing, etc.
- Delivery of the refrigerator from the service center home.
So having a warranty on the compressor, you will incur quite significant costs. And also it is necessary to take into account the specifics of working with hermetic systems in refrigerators; at factories, assembly of nodes is carried out using gas welding of copper tubes using silver-based solder. To reduce the number of scrap, such work is performed in an inert gas environment (there is no scale from the combustion of copper and silver, since there is oxygen in the air). In service centers, as a rule, work on replacing the compressor is performed simply indoors. At the same time, dross can enter the system, which can significantly shorten the life of the refrigerator.
In countries where consumers assert their rights, for example in the United States, such a guarantee exists, but it is more extended. For example, Samsung refrigerators have a 10-year warranty for inverter compressors. Of these 10 years, 5 years of work and parts of the hermetic system. The next 5 years warranty on the compressor, only the compressor changes for free, works are paid.
Também deve ser notado que, como regra, os defeitos nos refrigeradores são detectados no primeiro ano de operação, e a garantia subsequente praticamente não é usada. O fabricante que oferece uma garantia em um nó separado, mesmo no caso de reparo, incorre em custos mínimos, transferindo a maior parte dos custos para o consumidor.
As a result, if your refrigerator has worked for more than 5 years, then its repair (taking into account the cost of labor for repairs in the service center) is not economically feasible, it is cheaper to buy a new refrigerator than to repair an old one. And given the constant improvements in refrigerators, the consumer will seek to buy a new model of the refrigerator.
