How Long Warranties Last: Typical Coverage by Product Category
One year on the phone, ten on the mattress, five on the drill, a lifetime on the wrench. Here is what manufacturers actually publish for a dozen product categories, why the numbers cluster where they do, and how the length decides whether your credit card adds anything.
Ask most people how long a warranty lasts and they will say "a year." For electronics that is usually right. For a mattress it is off by nine years, and for a cordless drill by four. The length of the manufacturer's warranty is the base every other protection layer is measured against, so it is worth knowing where the numbers actually land. This guide collects the published terms for a dozen categories, each one taken from the manufacturer's own warranty page or document, and explains the three patterns behind them.
Heads up
Warranty terms are set per product and per model, and manufacturers revise them. The examples below are the terms each brand published as of the date above and are meant to show what is typical for a category. Read the warranty that shipped with your own product before relying on any figure here.
How to Read the Numbers
Three words change what a warranty length means. Parts and labor is the full deal: the company fixes the defect at its cost. Parts only means you pay someone to install them, which is how many appliance warranties run after the first year. Prorated means the value of the coverage declines over the term, common on tires and some batteries. And a warranty that is "up to" a number of years usually has a condition attached, most often product registration within a deadline. The manufacturer warranty basics guide covers what the document has to disclose; this one is about the durations themselves.
| Category | Typical term | Published examples |
|---|---|---|
| Smartphones | 1 year | Apple: one year from original retail purchase, defects in materials and workmanship |
| Laptops | 1 year | Apple: one year; Dell, Lenovo, and HP consumer lines are similar, see the laptop guide below |
| Televisions | 1 year, parts and labor | LG: labor one year, parts one year from purchase; TCL: one year parts and labor (six months for commercial use) |
| Major appliances | 1 year, longer on key components | LG refrigerators: one year parts and labor; sealed system five years; linear compressor ten years on parts, labor charged after year five |
| Power tools | 3 to 5 years | DeWalt: three-year limited warranty plus one year free service and a 90-day money-back guarantee; Milwaukee: five years on power tools |
| Hand tools | Limited lifetime | Milwaukee: limited lifetime warranty to the original purchaser |
| Mattresses | 10 years | Casper, Purple, and Tempur-Pedic: ten-year limited warranties |
| Gas grills | 5 to 12 years by part | Weber 2022 Genesis: twelve years on the cookbox and lid; Weber griddle: five years on major parts |
| E-bikes | 2 years frame and electrical, 1 year components | Aventon: two years on frame, electrical parts, and battery (or 300 charge cycles); one year on other components; Rad Power: two-year limited, one year on drivetrain parts |
| Tires | 12 months free replacement, up to 72 months limited | Continental: workmanship and materials replaced free in the first 12 months, limited warranty up to 72 months, mileage warranties up to 80,000 miles on select lines |
| Central air and heat pumps | 5 years, 10 with registration | Carrier: five-year parts warranty if not registered; ten-year parts with registration within 90 days of installation |
| Watches | 1 to 5 years | Citizen: five-year limited warranty in the US (one year on CZ Smart) |
| Small kitchen appliances | Varies by model | Breville and Hamilton Beach both direct buyers to the product page or the use-and-care booklet for the model's own term |
The sources, for anyone who wants the full text: Apple, LG televisions, TCL, LG refrigerators, DeWalt, Milwaukee, Casper, Purple, Tempur-Pedic, Weber, Aventon, Rad Power Bikes, Continental, Carrier, Citizen, Breville, and Hamilton Beach.
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Join the waitlistThe Three Patterns
Electronics get a year. Phones, laptops, and TVs cluster at twelve months almost without exception, and the term is usually parts and labor. The category with the most expensive failures gets the shortest promise, which is exactly why retailers and card issuers sell or give away extensions on it. Our laptop warranties comparison shows how little the major brands differ.
Durable goods get three to ten. Tools, mattresses, grills, and tires carry warranties that reflect a longer expected life, but the coverage narrows as it lengthens. Milwaukee's five years on a power tool sits next to a battery warranty that shifts to prorated coverage after two years or a thousand charges. LG's ten years on a refrigerator compressor is parts only after year five, so the second half of that decade comes with a labor bill. Purple's ten-year mattress warranty ends the moment the mattress changes hands.
Registration can double it. Carrier's residential equipment is the clearest case: five years of parts coverage becomes ten if the owner registers within 90 days of installation, and the page notes that some states forbid conditioning benefits on registration, in which case the ten years apply automatically. A later guide in this series covers when registration is worth the effort; for HVAC, the answer is always.
What the Length Decides
The base term determines whether the layers on top of it do anything. A credit card's extended-warranty benefit adds a year, but only to warranties under a ceiling: American Express covers manufacturer warranties of five years or less, and Chase Sapphire covers three years or less, as our comparison of credit cards with the longest extended warranty benefits explains. Milwaukee's five-year tool warranty gets a sixth year from an Amex card and nothing from a Sapphire. A ten-year mattress warranty gets nothing from either.
Retailer extensions follow the same logic. Costco's second year on TVs, computers, and major appliances, covered in our guide to how Costco's warranty extension works, doubles a one-year term and is irrelevant to a grill. And a protection plan sold at the register runs from the purchase date, so on a product that already carries three years from the factory, a three-year plan buys little beyond accident coverage. The Apple returns and warranty guide works through that arithmetic for AppleCare+.
A Buyer's Checklist for Warranty Length
- Find the term before you buy, not after. It is on the product page or in the box, and you are entitled to see it first.
- Ask whether labor is included, and for how long. A ten-year parts warranty with one year of labor is a one-year warranty for most repairs.
- Register anything with a registration bonus. HVAC, some tools, and mattresses bought through a retailer often depend on it.
- Check the transfer rule if you might sell the item. Mattress and tool warranties often end at resale.
- Match the term to your card's ceiling. Under three years, most cards add a year; over five, none do.
- Skip paid plans that mostly duplicate the factory term. Pay for accident coverage or for years the factory does not give you, and nothing else.
The number on the box is the foundation. Once you know it, the rest of the stack is arithmetic.