A most entertaining thread. Some parts of it sort of reminded me of 2 old tomcats (literally, felines) that resided in 2 different houses across the street from the house I had at that time. Both yards were fenced. I would sometimes observe these toms glaring and spitting/hissing/growling at each other through the fence for what seemed like hours at a time. I'm sure either cat could have scaled the fence and "lit into" the other cat if it truly wanted to. My next door neighbor used to laugh at the cats and say, "Yep, one of them is scared to death and the other one is glad of it." BTW, kandykane, early in this thread you cited the fact that Cub and Simplicity weren't averse to declaring the thickness of their respective frames "Cub has 9 gauge and Simplicity has 10 gauge." I hope you understand that 9 gauge is thicker than 10 gauge, but, thickness isn't all that counts. The alloy and extent of heat treatment, and bracing all play a part in the ultimate durability of anything.

I had a horrible experience here in Canada with Cemrco Home Depots extended warrenty plan. will keep this as short as possible but may write way more than I should cause I am still angry over the way that I have been treated and am still being treated by Home Depot and their outsourcing to other companies to deliver merchandise and cover the extended warranty. It started wth the washer on a washer dryer combo breaking down. It took three weeks to get the first repair person in the door after taking several days off work to have it serviced. After that it took another 4 weeks supposedly to have parts ordered to fix the appliance. The parts arrive but because of holidays the repair person is on vacation. When scheduled to come in the repair person's technician's truck breaks down. The main repair person promises to come the following day. He apparently has a heart attack. His wife arranges for another technican to come in on the sturday He comes in and does not have all the parts. He shows up on the moday and cannot get the machine started but tell us to wait a half hour and it should reset. He leaves. We wait the time and try it it does not staert. I call for the 25 time to cemerco. I state the machine is not working They say they need to contact the technician who tells them it is working. I complain to home depot the following week and get a call from comerco that they will replace the unit. It takes time for me and my wife to schedule time off to go to home depot to reclaim the credit. Comerco needs to be open and their hours are 8am-5:30pm. This is my four day off work. Comerco is closed for a provincial holiday. the service counter help says that he will give it to the supervisor to look after. My wife shows up the next day to pay for delivery and the old unit to be taken away and the supervisor knows nothing of this and says she and I need to show up in the prescribed hours. She gets pissed but gets things resolved. To rub salt into the wounds the day the new appliance is to be delivered it does not show up. Moral of my story if you live in Canada do not buy from Home Depot.

Junkmailhold, It is correct what the dealer told you. Bryant and Carrier changed their extended labor warranties to be only 90 days after purchase. This was changed I believe in March. They did this because the 10 year part warranty has to be submitted with in 90 days also. I guess they decided to require extended labor to have the same time of 90 days to make it easier on the processing. I have no idea why they cut the time for submitting extended labor warranties down to 90 days but it is no way the contractor dealer/installers fault. Now for how it works for a dealer in my state, a dealer has 3 or 4 levels. But first a dealer must register with the state to even sell extended labor warranties on behalf of Bryant. This may be why a dealer does not mention an extended labor warranty because they are not registered to sell them. Every state is different so I don't know. For me, It starts with $75 labor rate and goes up to I believe $140 what ever labor rate the dealer has with bryant can effect the cost of the labor warranty. Most of us go with the minimum $75 labor rate to reduce the cost of the labor warranty. In my state we can not over charge for the policy and the policy is governed by the state of Florida and Bryant. 10yr labor warranty on a system in Fl is $525. Accessories are extra, like purifiers, UV lighting ect... Your installer should not take months or even days to return your call. That to me is very upsetting! On the positive side, Bryant is quality, and I haven't had too many issues with the equipment. Next if you happened to get a good bryant dealer who cares about their customers, Like with my company I always give my customer a price break with an extremely reduced labor for the life of the systems I install so maybe your installer will do the same.

Some people look for the absolute lowest cost. A warranty whether extended labor or just base part warranty may never be used. An Extended Labor warranty costs money and some manufacturer's and or third party Warranty Providers require annual maintenance contracts to remain valid which further increase your cost of ownership. So if you spend up to $1200 (complete system extended warranty coverage) + more annual maintenance money. Maintenance is always a wild card, some AC's will require more maintenance than some. It varies widely. So people say 'look at all that money you threw away.' If who you are using for HVAC service & install know what not to do, often times the warranty is not needed. The risk, from my own experience is in the realm of 2% to 3% annually. (I can't prevent all failures, but I can cut your risk.) I can't tell you how many AC units that I've installed over the years that I haven't been to since the install. Not even for a maintenance check. I've repaired far more, including those not installed by me. But the ploy most companies find themselves in is to hire the unskilled or low skilled to do the service work and or installation work. Then dangle an extended warranty carrot in front of someone. It's nothing new. In my experience the money you spend on a extended warranty is often times best used on your terms, rather than a third party insurer. Read the fine print. These kinds of policies vary in what they require and what they will pay for.