Guides
How product warranties actually work
Most warranty advice is written by people selling protection plans. These guides are not. They cover the mechanics — how the dates are counted, what cover you already have, what a service centre will actually ask you for, and what to do when the paper evidence has faded away.
Start here
How to work out a warranty expiry date correctly
The rule almost everyone gets wrong by one day, what happens when a warranty starts on the 31st of a month, and whether the clock starts at purchase, delivery or installation.
Read the guide → Reference · 10 minTypical warranty lengths by product type
What cover usually comes as standard across appliances, electronics, furniture, tools and vehicles — and where split warranties hide a shorter period than the headline number.
Read the guide →When something breaks
What to have ready before you claim
The documents a service centre asks for, in the order they ask for them, what to do when the receipt has faded, and how to handle being bounced between seller and manufacturer.
Read the guide → Risks · 9 minWhat actually voids a warranty — and what does not
The genuine exclusions, the ones that get claimed but do not hold up, and the small habits that quietly cost people a free repair.
Read the guide →Keeping records that hold up
Storing receipts so they survive the warranty
Thermal till receipts fade to blank inside two years, comfortably within a two-year warranty. How to photograph, name and keep bills so they are still usable years later.
Read the guide → Method · 12 minBuilding a warranty tracker in a spreadsheet
The full formula method — expiry dates, months remaining, automatic status and colour coding — so you can build one yourself, and understand exactly what it is doing.
Read the guide →Before you buy
Is an extended warranty worth buying?
How to read a protection plan before you pay for it: the clauses that decide the outcome, the questions to ask at the counter, and the cases where the answer is genuinely yes.
Read the guide → Practical · 6 minFinding and recording serial numbers
Where the number hides on each kind of product, why some things have two or three, and why recording it the day you unpack is worth the two minutes.
Read the guide →Reading about it is the easy part.
The tracker does the dates for you — purchase date in, expiry date and status out, updated every day. Free, no account, works on your phone.
Start tracking