Maintenance Agreement or Warranty? Advice on Which to Choose

Protecting your home’s HVAC equipment is smart, but do you know which is more beneficial, a maintenance agreement or warranty? The best advice is to consider what each type of protection offers. When you consider the following facts, you’ll see why an annual maintenance plan is the logical choice:

• Savings on labor and parts. With an HVAC service agreement, you’ll receive a discount on repair parts and labor, and you won’t pay overtime charges for after-hours emergency repairs. If you’re covered by a warranty, instead of receiving discounts, you’ll pay extra in the form of a deductible each time you need service.
• Routine maintenance. Even a basic maintenance plan includes twice-yearly checkups that keep heating and cooling equipment in top operating condition and help extend its lifespan. You’ll have to pay for preventative maintenance yourself if you opt for a warranty. If you don’t maintain the equipment, the warranty company can refuse to pay if there’s a breakdown or failure.
• Lower energy and repair costs. The maintenance visits that come with an HVAC service plan keep the equipment running at maximum efficiency too. During a checkup, your technician can also identify and address any small issues before they cause expensive problems. A warranty simply covers repairs, not preventative maintenance, so you won’t see these benefits.
• Priority status. HVAC contractors give their service agreement customers priority status, and some even pledge 24-hour emergency service. With a warranty, you may wait days without heat or air conditioning when a problem occurs and you need a diagnosis and repair.
• Familiar, reliable service. When you sign up for an HVAC maintenance plan, the care of your costly equipment is placed in the hands of company you already know and trust, so there’s no question about reliability and expertise. Warranty companies usually work with a number of different contractors, and you won’t have a say in who arrives to repair your home comfort system.

If you need expert advice about choosing a maintenance agreement or warranty, contact us at CCAC, Inc. We’ve proudly served the home comfort needs of Coastal Bend residents since 1979.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Corpus Christi, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about maintenance agreements and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

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