AC Warranty: What Is Actually Covered — and the Registration Trap

There are two warranties, not one

This single fact resolves most warranty arguments.

• The manufacturer’s parts warranty covers the components — compressor, coil, motors, boards. It comes from Goodman, Daikin, Trane, Rheem or whoever built the equipment. Typically 10 years on parts for registered residential systems.
• The contractor’s labour warranty covers the work of diagnosing and fitting the part. It comes from whoever installed the system. Ours is 1 year on labour, which is standard for the market, and extended labour coverage is available on some systems.

So a compressor failing in year six is a genuinely awkward invoice: the part arrives free and you pay for several hours of labour, recovery, refrigerant and evacuation. That is not a company being difficult. That is how every manufacturer warranty in the industry is structured.

The registration trap

This is the one that costs homeowners real money. Most manufacturers require the system to be registered within 60 to 90 days of installation. Register on time and you get the full ten-year parts term. Miss it, and coverage typically drops to the base warranty — often five years.

Nobody finds out at the time. They find out in year seven, when a coil fails and the manufacturer’s lookup shows an unregistered serial number.

What to do: ask your installer to confirm in writing that registration was completed, and keep the confirmation with your invoice. If you have inherited a system with the house, look up the serial number now rather than at the moment you need it.

What is generally covered

• Compressor
• Evaporator and condenser coils
• Blower and condenser fan motors
• Control boards, capacitors, contactors
• Reversing valve on a heat pump
• Metering devices, service valves

What is generally not covered — and this list is where the surprises live

• Labour, after the contractor’s term expires. The big one.
• Refrigerant. Almost never covered, and with R-410A pricing where it now is, that exclusion matters more than it used to.
• Filters, belts, and other consumables.
• Damage from lack of maintenance. A compressor that failed because the condenser coil was never cleaned can be denied. Keep service records.
• Damage from improper installation. Which becomes a dispute between manufacturer and installer, and you are in the middle of it.
• Corrosion, in many cases. Relevant for coastal South Florida homes — check whether coastal or salt-air exposure is excluded, and ask about coated coils at purchase.
• Power surge or lightning damage. That is an insurance question, not a warranty one.
• Storm, flood and physical damage. Also insurance — see hurricane damage claims.
• Systems moved to a different address, or in many cases transferred to a new owner without following the transfer process.
• Mismatched systems. If an outdoor unit was paired with a non-matching indoor coil, warranty coverage on the system can be compromised entirely.

What voids coverage

Worth knowing before someone offers you a shortcut:

• Unlicensed work on the refrigerant circuit.
• A non-specified refrigerant — which is one more reason the answer in can an R-410A system be converted is no.
• Modifications to the equipment or its controls.
• Running the system during construction without proper filtration, in some warranty terms.

Home warranty plans are a different animal

A third-party home warranty or service contract is not a manufacturer warranty. It is an insurance-style product with its own deductibles, caps, approved-vendor lists and exclusions, and it typically decides for itself whether to repair or replace. Read the cap — some plans limit total payout to an amount well below the cost of a South Florida changeout, and many exclude refrigerant, permits, code upgrades and disposal, which are exactly the costs that make a replacement expensive.

Keep these four things

• The installation invoice, with model and serial numbers.
• Written confirmation that the equipment was registered.
• The AHRI certificate or matched-system reference for the installed pair.
• Your maintenance records — the defence against a “lack of maintenance” denial.

Put them in one folder. It takes ten minutes now and it is the difference between a covered claim and an argument you lose on paperwork. Our own coverage terms are set out on the Airo Comfort Guarantee page.