Liberty Home Guard is our top option for comprehensive coverage in case one or more of your appliances fail unexpectedly. It offers comprehensive coverage, reasonable prices and friendly customer service.
Purchasing home appliance insurance — more accurately referred to as a home appliance warranty — helps you pay for repairing or replacing kitchen and laundry appliances if they break down from normal use. This coverage can bring peace of mind and financial protection that your standard home insurance policy overlooks.
Using our proprietary methodology, we selected LHG as the best home warranty and ranked it based on cost, customer satisfaction, coverage levels and service. Below, we also list alternative providers that have solid appliance coverage.
In the know
Over 150 homeowners have bought a home warranty plan from one of the above companies in the last 30 days.
The best 5 home appliance insurance providers
We focused on home appliance coverage for our list on this page of the best home warranties for major appliances.
- Liberty Home Guard: Our top pick
- America’s First Choice Home Warranty
- American Home Shield
- Elite Home Warranty
- 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty
Compare top home appliance insurance companies
Which company you choose should depend on your specific needs. Both Liberty Home Guard and Elite Home Warranty offer comprehensive coverage for kitchen and laundry appliances with their lowest-priced plans. 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty has a high $25,000 coverage cap for all items.
We gathered pricing information for the comparison table below by requesting quotes for three ZIP codes in each state the providers service and calculating a national average for all featured companies. We used a 2,000-square-foot, single-family home to obtain our quotes. Your pricing will vary based on your home’s size, location and coverage needs.
Our top home appliance insurance recommendations
All of the home warranty providers profiled below offer more than appliance coverage, but our evaluation for this article focused specifically on how well they can protect your kitchen and laundry appliances.
Many providers offer appliance-specific plans, and most offer midrange or high-end plans that combine appliance coverage with systems such as HVAC, electrical and plumbing. Some offer optional add-ons that enhance appliance coverage, and those are noted in each provider’s section.
To request quotes for this article on home appliance insurance companies, we used a 2,193-square-foot, single-family home in Tampa, Florida. We specifically focused on finding the best combination of appliance coverage, cost and reliability.
Other good home appliance insurance companies
These two home warranty companies rank well overall based on our methodology, but the top three distinguished themselves with a combination of excellent appliance coverage, a favorable reputation and consistently helpful customer service.
What’s the difference between a home warranty and homeowners insurance?
On the surface, a home warranty and a homeowners insurance plan can seem synonymous. But that’s not the case.
The big difference between a homeowners insurance policy and a home warranty is that insurance covers damage related to disasters or theft. Your home warranty typically covers failures related to wear and tear. The provider, with certain exclusions, also agrees to cover some or all of the cost for repairs or replacement during the contract’s term.
According to our November 2023 survey of 1,000 homeowners, nearly 64% of respondents had both a home warranty and a home insurance plan.
Of course, whether or not to purchase homeowners insurance and a warranty plan is a personal preference. However, having both can add to your peace of mind.
What’s the difference between a home warranty and a manufacturer’s warranty?
Refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and many other new home appliances come with a manufacturer’s warranty. These warranties cover the cost to repair or sometimes even replace a specific appliance after a breakdown. A manufacturer’s warranty is typically good for one year unless you buy an extended warranty for the appliance.
Since the warranty is attached to one specific appliance, you can think of a manufacturer’s warranty as an a la carte option. For example, you need one manufacturer’s warranty to cover your GE refrigerator and another one to cover your GE dryer, even though the appliances are made by the same company.
Depending on the plan and your provider, a home warranty may cover the cost of repairing any broken appliance in your kitchen or laundry room.
What are home appliances life expectancies?
The decision to purchase a home warranty for your appliances may be based partially on an appliance’s life expectancy, the expected replacement cost and the manufacturer warranty’s expiration date.
Here are the average life expectancies of most commonly covered appliances, according to data from the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors. Data for the replacement costs reflects the ranges of listed retail prices for five major manufacturers: GE, LG, Maytag, Samsung and Whirlpool.
Appliance | Life Expectancy | Replacement Cost |
---|---|---|
Dishwasher | 9 years | $250–$1,900 |
Dryer | 13 years | $499–$2,099 |
Garbage disposal | 12 years | $65–$350 |
Microwave | 9 years | $109–$1,029 |
Range (electric) | 13–15 years | $649–$4,449 |
Range (gas) | 15–17 years | $479–$3,599 |
Refrigerator | 9–13 years | $584–$10,929 |
Washer | 5–15 years | $499–$2,299 |
How do you file a home appliance insurance claim?
You should file a claim after an appliance malfunction as soon as possible. These are the steps you need to take to do so:
- Contact your provider: The first step is calling your provider to start the claims process. All of the companies we reviewed in this article have their customer service phone numbers posted clearly online, but the phone number will also be listed in your policy. Additionally, Liberty Home Guard even lets you submit a claim online through the website’s customer portal.
- Go through the claims process: After you submit your claim, you’ll speak with a customer service representative to explain the situation. You’ll likely be asked questions about the appliance’s brand, age and condition. At this point, your provider will determine whether your claim will be approved. In our November 2023 survey, nearly 89% of homeowners had their claim approved by their provider.
- Repair or replace your appliance: If your claim is approved, your provider will send a technician over to assess whether the appliance can be fixed or if it needs to be replaced. In our survey, 54% of respondents who submitted a claim for a laundry or kitchen appliance had their appliance replaced. Thirty-eight percent of homeowners had it repaired, and 8% of homeowners received a check directly from their provider.
- Pay the service fee: The final step is paying your service fee. This cost will depend on your chosen home warranty company.
What are home appliance insurance coverage caps?
Home warranty companies stipulate coverage limits for every covered item, including appliances. Coverage limits, known as coverage caps or dollar limits, denote the total amount the provider will pay toward repairing or replacing a covered item during the policy’s life.
In some cases, lower-tier plans come with lower coverage caps, and mid-tier or higher-end plans give you more generous dollar limits. Be sure to read a sample contract for the home warranty company you’re considering for details about how coverage caps are structured.
Provider Name | Home Appliance Coverage Cap |
---|---|
Liberty Home Guard | $2,000 |
AFC Home Warranty | $3,000 |
American Home Shield | $2,000–$4,000 |
Elite Home Warranty | $7,000 |
2-10 Home Buyers Warranty | $2,000–$5,000 |
What does home appliance insurance typically cost?
Our research shows that the nationwide average cost for a home warranty is $59 per month and $703 per year. These costs are an average of quotes we requested from leading home warranty providers.
Your price will vary depending on your coverage level and covered items, the warranty company’s billing practices and your geographic location. In general, home warranty providers’ appliance-specific plans cost less than plans that also cover home systems such as electric, HVAC and plumbing.
Based on coverage for a 2,193-square-foot home in Tampa, Florida, lower-tier plans from the five home warranty providers that are profiled in this article range from $27 to $54 per month.
How do you choose a home warranty provider?
You should consider several factors when choosing among home warranty companies, and what’s important to you might not matter as much to your neighbor. However, here are a few things you may want to consider:
- Plan premium: Some homeowners are more price-conscious than others, but the monthly cost for coverage — along with service fees — should play a role in your decision.
- Coverage options: According to our survey data, nearly 33% of respondents listed plan coverage as the primary reason they chose their home warranty provider — this was the top reason for our respondents. If a provider doesn’t offer coverage for a particular appliance, that’s not a company you’d want to work with.
- Coverage cap: Along with your coverage options, be sure to consider the provider’s coverage cap.
- Availability: You’ll want to make sure that any provider you consider serves your state. 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty, for example, doesn’t offer coverage in 14 states.
- Customer service: We’ve all dealt with rude or unhelpful customer service representatives. Check out what others are saying online about every company’s customer service team.
- Reputation: Be sure to look up providers on websites such as Trustpilot and BBB. It’s important to take any negative reviews with a grain of salt — people are more likely to post negative reviews than positive ones. But if you notice any trends among reviews, such as unhelpful customer service reps, you should steer clear of that company.
- Claims process: Ideally, you’ll never need to file a claim with your warranty provider. But if you do, the process should be as simple as possible. Ask the provider what the claims filing process is like before signing a contract.
What common red flags should you watch for?
As with any home service, you should be knowledgeable about home warranties before making a purchase.
Naturally, if appliances are your priority, you’ll want to make sure the company offers reasonably priced, reliable coverage for those items. You’ll also want to read consumer reviews on sites such as BBB and Trustpilot, noting that they don’t feature too many complaints about how a company handles its appliance coverage.
General red flags to watch include slow response times to emails and any legal action against a provider that you discover in your research. It may seem counterintuitive, but if a company’s appliance plan is priced well below the national average of $59 per month, the coverage might fall short of expectations.
Final take: Liberty Home Guard is our top pick for home appliance insurance
Liberty Home Guard’s Appliance Guard plan was the most expensive lowest-tiered plan among the five companies profiled here. But LHG’s generally good reputation and the fact that the plan covers all major appliances in the kitchen, as well as the clothes washer and dryer, gave LHG the edge.
If you are considering purchasing a home warranty plan to cover your appliances or home systems, we recommend that you consider coverage needs, make sure premiums fit your budget and request at least three quotes from reputable providers.
Our rating methodology for home warranty companies
We research and rate home warranty providers to help you choose the right one for your budget and home. Our research includes gathering customer insights via consumer surveys, interviewing industry experts, secret shopping all of the companies we review and analyzing customer reviews from third-party review sites such as Trustpilot and BBB.
We compare home warranty providers across the following five categories:
- Coverage plans and extra features
- Coverage limits
- Price
- Reputation
- Customer service
Read our full home warranty company methodology for more information.
BBB and Trustpilot ratings are accurate as of March 2024.
Editorial note: The name “Homefront” refers to the alliance between USA TODAY and Home Solutions that publishes review, comparison, and informational articles designed to help USA TODAY readers make smarter purchasing and investment decisions about their home. Under the alliance, Homefront provides and publishes research and articles about home service and home improvement topics.
Homefront has an affiliate disclosure policy. The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Homefront editorial staff alone (see About Homefront). Homefront adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is believed to be accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.
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