Mostly extended warranties will cover any functional component of the appliance that malfunctions due to defect. They do not cover customer abuse, and, a lot of times, certain parts are not covered, for example, if a piece of the grill would fall off or something like that. It is only parts which are functional to the unit working. Whirlpool contracts last from one to three years. Sometimes people go to Best Buy or to maybe another retailer that sell longer service contracts. I believe that they will sell you up to a five year contracts. The one thing that sometimes retail outlets don't know or always tell you on the front end is that the manufacturer may have an extended warranty besides the one year. So the consumer needs to investigate that too, and figure out what all does the contract cover and what are the warranties they have on the product. Some of our KitchenAid products will come with a one-year warranty, one year all inclusive warranty and then they may have a five year sealed system warranty for a built-in refrigerators or five or three year coverage as an electronics warranty on control boards. The other thing about an extended warranty is that you don't have to buy it in your 10th or 11th month of ownership. You can buy an extended warranty anytime during the ownership which extends up to 5-8 years and then you can still get the one, two and three year contracts.
