My wife and I bought a 23-year-old home in Carrollton last July. Long story short, I'm leaning towards renewing the AHS Home Warranty policy because I have 3 (three!) original air conditioning units. All work very well, but I bet few have ever made it to 30 in Texas.

The ballpark estimate to fully replace one unit is $10k. The annual home warranty premium is $514, with a $75/Trade Service Call fee to file a claim.

I've always heard second hand stories about how home warranty companies suck, but only heard one positive review (albeit about a refrigerator) from somebody with first hand experience. Have any of you filed an HVAC claim with American Home Shield? If so, can you tell me about your experience?

I don't want to pay a premium for an additional headache when a unit goes out, but it sure would also be nice to have a warranty company cover a significant portion of the cost of a new unit.

The items covered in the contract are listed below, please let me know if they're excluding something big:

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1. HEATING COVERED ITEMS: All components and parts of the following heating systems: Forced air (gas, electric, oil) Geothermal Wall mounted heaters Floor furnaces Package units Heat pumps Mini-splits Hot water or steam circulating heat Electric baseboard. When repairing or replacing a Covered Item, if such repair or replacement requires component or part upgrades to maintain compatibility and/or compliance with SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio), HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor), or refrigerant standards, AHS will cover such upgrades and will also cover necessary associated upgrades to duct connections, plenums and indoor electrical lines up to and including the disconnect. NOT COVERED: Outside or underground piping, well pump, and well pump components for geothermal and/or water source heat pump Fuel storage tanks Portable units Humidifiers Dehumidifiers Radiant cable heat Fireplace, grain, pellet, coal, or wood heating units (even if only source of heating).

2. AIR CONDITIONING COVERED ITEMS: All components and parts of the following air conditioning systems: Ducted central electric split and package units Geothermal Evaporative coolers Wall air conditioners Mini-splits. When repairing or replacing a Covered Item, if such repair or replacement requires component or part upgrades to maintain compatibility and/or compliance with SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio), HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor), or refrigerant standards, AHS will cover such upgrades and will also cover necessary associated upgrades to duct connections, plenums and indoor electrical lines up to and including the disconnect. NOT COVERED: Outside or underground piping, well pump, and well pump components for geothermal and/or water source heat pump Window units Water towers Humidifiers Dehumidifiers Chillers, chiller components, and water lines Portable units.

3. DUCTWORK COVERED ITEMS: Leaks or breaks in ductwork (sheet metal, duct board, and flex duct including vapor barrier) from heating and/or air conditioning unit(s) including registers or grills. Where covered repairs require access to ductwork, AHS will only provide access to, and sealing of ductwork through unobstructed walls, ceiling or floors, and will return access openings to a rough finish. If a leak is detected as a result of legally mandated diagnostic testing (not covered by AHS per Section D), AHS will repair and replace accessible and unobstructed ductwork.

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This was years ago, but they blew off my AC replacement on my condo for reasons I don't remember.

Not much help, I know. For the cost of the year it seems like it's a least worth a shot.

We have them and will not be renewing when ours expires in July.

From my experience (a claim on our pool pump as well as a poorly plumbed upstairs bathtub that was dripping water onto the master bedroom ceiling) they'll send the cheapest, sketchiest folks they can find who will do just enough to "fix" the issue. With our pool pump, it meant changing an o-ring to a still improper o-ring, but it stopped the leaking for that day (this was within a few weeks of us owning the home with our first pool and having no idea about them...now I would just handle it myself).

I did a bit of research on my own when trying to decide if we'd want to keep it and basically everyone seems to hold on in hopes that if their A/C unit dies, they'll get a nice, shiny new one. What I seemed to find was story after story of folks who basically had to keep making service calls while the folks would do whatever tricks they could to get the unit going again. Who knows the validity of it, but I did hear multiple claims where people finally did have units completely die and AHS essentially refunded their premiums and refused to handle the price of the repair.

I came across very few situations where people had expensive repairs that were handled well, but I'm sure they're out there (and let's be honest - the unpleased person is much more likely to write about their experience versus the pleased customer).

That said, to me, it just isn't worth the headache, especially because I would assume if they do cover it, they'll likely to go with the absolute cheapest unit they can find.


Additional Note: I will say that they were very responsive and their claim process was super easy. Basically, go online and put in your phone number/address to lookup your account, then a few clicks to make a claim and specify the type of issue. Usually within 3-5 hours, I'd get a call from a local place that had been assigned the job and then it was just about when they could get out there. For the leak it was same day, if I recall correctly, while the pool was next day, I believe. The guys on the leak actually did an okay job, but it basically covered them repairing the leak only (i.e. no fixing the holes they had to cut in the drywall) and they ended up having to replace my drain on the upstairs toilet and used the cheapest one available as opposed to one that actually matched what we had.

AHS is the worst company you could use. Look at different companies.

My renewal is coming up as well, I'd like to hear recommendations for another company.

FWIW, according to my dad, any claims that he has filed have been taken care of. The other side of that is yes, it will be the cheapest item they can use but they will give you the option to pay the difference to get what you want. The example below happened to my dad at my parent's house.

I.E. Stainless steel dishwasher with "x" features goes out & cannot be repaired. AHS replaces it for the $75 service fee with another dishwasher with the same "X" features, but it's not stainless steel. You would have to pay the upcharge for the stainless steel model.

After saying that, I think they have replaced his pool pump 5 times and at $250 each, he's done pretty well. Of course each one is a $75 fee.

We have a home warranty and had issues with the dishwasher. It worked "ok" but was old, worn out and on its last legs.

They sent out a crew the first time, we paid $60 for the service call. They ended up sending out 3 more crews before finally agreeing to just get us a new one. (this took about 2-3 weeks, and was VERY annoying but it was still working the whole time) The one they offered was $700, not stainless steel but free install. I said no, I just wanted the money and I'd buy my own, they said ok.

We got a check in 3 days after that conversation, and had Home Depot deliver and install the model we wanted. I got HD to give us the price of the dishwasher two weeks prior to our purchase (sale price) and free install as well.

So... We might be keeping ours for another year or so.

i don't have specific experience with AHS, we had old republic, but we did have our AC fail under the warranty.

the contractor they sent us was garbage and they only approved to fix a half-ass job. so, i chose to take their check and hire my own contractor to fix it right.

so, you may be able to go that route with AHS if it's something you're worried about happening.

This was 6 years ago, but seems to be par for the course from what I have read. We had AHS and an original 27 year old system when we bought our house 6 years ago. Within 6 months, we had them out 3 times. The last time was in August, and they didn't have someone come out for 5 days. The guy I talked to was the first decent company we had come out. He said we could apply the cost of the repair to a new unit, and if we didn't plan to renew the policy, we could tell AHS to exclude the HVAC from their policy since it would be covered by manufacturer's warranty. AHS would actually give us money for not having to cover it. Repairs were I think $800, and then we got somewhere around $400 for excluding the HVAC on the AHS policy. All attributed to the new unit. The repair guy even said that AHS will repair repair repair at all costs to avoid replacing.

We have AHS, and it has paid for itself with the AC failures I have had to deal with in a 20 year old house. I have found a Plumbing/HVAC company that I like and trust that accepts AHS, so whenever I have an issue I schedule a call with the company and they call AHS once they are onsite and verify the issue I have reported. It is the only way I have figured out how to consistently get a reliable company on a service call.

Thanks for all the responses folks! It seems like the warranty is halfway decent, but not good enough to recommend.



I should have said this earlier, but I'm also considering "subscribing" to one of the maintenance plans from an HVAC company to either supplement the AHS warranty or in place of it. I hope my units last 23 more years but plan for them to go out in the next few years.

Oh the joys of equity!

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We have AHS, and it has paid for itself with the AC failures I have had to deal with in a 20 year old house. I have found a Plumbing/HVAC company that I like and trust that accepts AHS, so whenever I have an issue I schedule a call with the company and they call AHS once they are onsite and verify the issue I have reported. It is the only way I have figured out how to consistently get a reliable company on a service call.

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I see you're located in Dallas - which company?

Sirius Plumbing and AC

http://siriuspac.com/

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Thanks for all the responses folks! It seems like the warranty is halfway decent, but not good enough to recommend.



I should have said this earlier, but I'm also considering "subscribing" to one of the maintenance plans from an HVAC company to either supplement the AHS warranty or in place of it. I hope my units last 23 more years but plan for them to go out in the next few years.

Oh the joys of equity!

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When it comes to A/C units, expecially if they're the originals on a 23 year old home, it called living on borrowed time! As ineffecient as they are you surely don't want to hope for them to last another 23 years!

Gary believe it or not they're rather efficient. They warm and cool the house quickly. Our bill last month was just under $72, and I don't think it got higher than $250 last summer (a very mild summer if I remember correctly).

At $10k times 3, that would take a while to "save" $30,000 through electric bills