Reference
Typical warranty lengths by product type
A reference for when you have lost the paperwork and need a sensible starting figure — and a warning about the headline numbers that do not mean what they appear to mean.
Read this first. These are the periods most commonly offered, not promises. Warranty terms vary by brand, by model, by country and by where you bought it, and they change over time. The document that came with your product always wins. Use these figures to fill a gap or to sanity-check a number you half-remember, then correct it the moment you find the actual card.
The headline number is usually the longest one
Before the tables, the single most useful thing to understand: when a box says "10 year warranty", that almost never means the whole product is covered for ten years. It means one component is, and the rest of the machine carries something far shorter.
This is not a trick so much as a convention, but it catches people constantly. The part with the long warranty — a compressor, a motor, a panel — is typically the part least likely to fail and most expensive to replace. The parts that actually break are the electronics, the controls, the seals, the fans, the hinges, the battery. Those sit under the short period.
Track the short one as your main date. Record the comprehensive, whole-product period as the warranty, and note the longer component periods in the notes field. That way your reminders fire against the date that governs most faults.
Large appliances
| Product | Usual comprehensive cover | Common extended component cover |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | 1–2 years | Compressor often 5–10 years |
| Washing machine | 2 years | Motor or drum often 5–10 years |
| Dishwasher | 1–2 years | Occasionally longer on the tub |
| Air conditioner | 1 year | Condenser ~5 years, compressor 5–10 years |
| Water heater / geyser | 2 years | Inner tank 5–7 years |
| Microwave oven | 1–2 years | Magnetron sometimes 3–5 years |
| Chimney / extractor | 1 year | Motor often 5–12 years |
| Water purifier | 1 year | Membrane usually excluded as a consumable |
Large appliances are the category where the installation date most often governs the warranty rather than the invoice date. Keep the installation job sheet — it is the only thing that proves the later start date you may want to rely on.
Consumer electronics
| Product | Usual cover | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Smartphone | 1 year | Accessories and charger often 6 months; battery frequently treated as a wear item after a usage threshold |
| Tablet | 1 year | Stylus and keyboard covers usually separate and shorter |
| Laptop | 1 year | Battery and adapter commonly 6 months to 1 year; business lines may offer 3 years |
| Desktop computer | 1–3 years | Self-built machines carry per-component warranties, not one |
| Television | 1–3 years | Panel sometimes separated from electronics |
| Soundbar / speakers | 1 year | |
| Headphones / earbuds | 1 year | Batteries in true-wireless buds are usually a wear item |
| Smartwatch | 1 year | Straps almost always excluded |
| Router / networking | 1–3 years | Some networking brands offer notably longer |
| Camera body | 1–2 years | Lenses often carry their own, sometimes longer, period |
| Printer | 1 year | Print heads and cartridges excluded as consumables |
| Power bank | 6 months – 1 year |
The battery exception
Batteries are the most common source of warranty disappointment in electronics. Even inside a valid warranty period, a battery that has simply lost capacity through normal charging is usually treated as expected wear rather than a defect. Many manufacturers define a threshold — a percentage of original capacity, or a number of charge cycles — below which they will replace it and above which they will not.
If battery life matters to you, find that threshold in the terms before you need it, and note it against the product. "Battery covered to 80% capacity within 1 year" is a far more useful note than "1 year warranty".
Small appliances and kitchen
| Product | Usual cover | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mixer grinder | 2 years | Motor sometimes 5 years; jars often shorter |
| Induction cooktop | 1–2 years | |
| Electric kettle | 1–2 years | |
| Air fryer / OTG | 1–2 years | Heating element sometimes separate |
| Vacuum cleaner | 1–2 years | Filters and belts excluded as consumables |
| Iron | 1–2 years | |
| Cookware | 1 year – lifetime | Non-stick coating almost always excluded from a "lifetime" claim |
| Pressure cooker | 2–5 years | Gaskets and safety valves are consumables |
"Lifetime" rarely means your lifetime. On cookware and tools it usually means the expected service life of the product as determined by the manufacturer, and it typically covers manufacturing defects only — not the coating wearing off, not warping from heat, not normal abrasion. It is worth reading what a lifetime warranty actually excludes, because that list is where the substance is.
Furniture and furnishings
| Product | Usual cover | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mattress | 5–10 years | Often prorated — the payout falls each year. Sagging is usually only covered beyond a stated depth |
| Sofa | 1–5 years | Frame long, upholstery and foam short |
| Office chair | 1–5 years | Gas lift and castors often separate and shorter |
| Wardrobe / modular units | 1–10 years | Hardware and hinges usually shorter than the carcass |
| Dining table | 1–3 years | Surface finish often excluded |
Mattress warranties deserve particular attention because of two clauses that appear almost universally. The first is proration: after an initial full-cover period, the amount you can recover drops each year, so a ten-year warranty may be worth very little in year eight. The second is a minimum sag depth — the mattress has to be visibly indented by a stated amount, measured unoccupied, before a claim is valid. Many also require the mattress to have been used on a supporting base of a specified type, and void the cover if it was not.
Tools, hardware and fixtures
| Product | Usual cover | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Power tools (consumer) | 1–2 years | Batteries commonly shorter than the tool |
| Power tools (professional) | 2–3 years | Often requires registration within a short window |
| Hand tools | 1 year – lifetime | |
| LED bulbs and fittings | 1–3 years | Usually rated in hours as well as years |
| Ceiling fan | 2 years | Motor sometimes longer |
| Taps and sanitaryware | 5–10 years | Cartridges and seals are consumables |
| Door locks | 1–5 years | Electronic locks much shorter than mechanical |
Vehicles and vehicle accessories
| Product | Usual cover | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New car | 2–5 years | Nearly always capped by mileage as well as time — whichever comes first |
| Motorcycle / scooter | 2–5 years | Same dual cap |
| Car battery | 2–4 years | Commonly prorated after an initial full-replacement period |
| Tyres | 3–5 years | Against manufacturing defects only, never wear or punctures |
| Car audio / electronics | 1 year | Often void if not professionally installed |
Vehicle warranties have two clocks. Time and distance, and the warranty ends when either runs out. A "5 year / 100,000 km" warranty on a car driven 30,000 km a year ends in year three. A date-only reminder will tell you that you are covered when you are not — note the mileage cap alongside the date.
Most vehicle warranties also require servicing at the specified intervals, at an authorised centre, with records. A missed service is one of the few exclusions that is routinely and successfully enforced.
What is almost never covered, in any category
- Consumables and wear items — filters, belts, bulbs, gaskets, blades, brushes, cartridges, batteries past a usage threshold.
- Cosmetic damage — scratches, dents and discolouration that do not affect function.
- Accidental damage — drops, impacts, liquid ingress. This is exactly what separate protection plans are sold to cover.
- Damage from power fluctuation on many electronics, unless a stabiliser was used where specified.
- Pest or rodent damage, which is explicitly excluded far more often than people expect.
- Unauthorised repair or opening, including by a local technician.
- Commercial use of a product sold for domestic use — a common and genuinely enforced exclusion.
- Installation faults where installation was required to be done by an authorised technician and was not.
How to use this page properly
- Find the real warranty document first. The box, the card, the manual's last pages, the order confirmation email, or the brand's support site under the model number.
- Record the comprehensive period as the warranty length.
- Put the component periods, the mileage cap, the registration deadline and the battery threshold in the notes.
- Only fall back on the figures here when you genuinely cannot find the document — and when you do, pick the shorter end of the range. Being pleasantly surprised is better than the alternative.
Picking a category in the tracker fills in a typical length automatically, so a product you are adding from memory starts with a sensible figure you can then correct. The expiry date updates as you change it.