Our series pricing extended warranties for appliances continues. This week, we went online shopping for a variety of household refrigerators, and service contracts to protect them.

We gathered data from 25 different online retailers, which represent 15 different extended warranty administrators and obligors, and eight different insurance underwriters.

Our sample of refrigerators represented 20 different appliance manufacturers. The fridges ranged from $380 to $11,699 in price, and from 7.5 to 32 cubic feet in capacity. These are all household fridges; we did not gather data on mini fridges, wine fridges, commercial fridges, or specialty fridges.

In total, we gathered data on 352 different refrigerator extended warranties. The protection plans ranged in price from $24 to $2,250 — meaning that we found protection plans for high-end fridges that exceeded the appliance price for the smaller "apartment-sized" fridges.

Some of the service contracts included food spoilage protection, ranging from $0 to $500 of coverage for food and medication loss due to mechanical failure.

We also found a wide range of ratios between the protection plan price and the appliance price, which we calculated as a percentage. At the low end of the range, we found a $56 three-year Wayfair Protection Plan, provided by Allstate, which cost just 1.06% of the $5,279 LG refrigerator it protected. At the high end, we found a $330 eight-year Extended Service Protection Plan from P.C. Richard & Son, which cost 56% of the $588 Midea refrigerator it protected.

Methodology

We collected 352 lines of data, each a different refrigerator extended service contract. We collected data on a variety of model configurations, including top-freezer, bottom freezer, French door, side-by-side, and four-door.

We only gathered data for standard-size household refrigerators, not compact or mini-fridges, nor for specialty items such as wine fridges. We also did not collect data on extended service contracts for any fridges intended for commercial use.

We collected data on the extended warranty options for four to six refrigerators sold by each retailer, unless limited by the online selection. Each refrigerator was at a different price point (see Figure 2). We let each website's algorithm guide us, including the appliances recommended and highlighted on each website.

We did not collect any sale prices. For each website, we gathered data on the original price of each appliance, and each extended warranty.

We gathered data on refrigerator extended warranties sold by 25 different online retailers, half nationwide U.S. retailers, and half regional retailers selling service contracts in just one or a few U.S. states.

The national retailers were: Amazon, Best Buy, Electrolux, Frigidaire, GE Appliances, Home Depot, KitchenAid, LG, Lowe's, Maytag, Menards, Samsung, Walmart, Wayfair, and Whirlpool.

The regional retailers were: ABC Warehouse, Abt Electronics, Big Sandy Superstore, BrandsMart USA, Electronic Express, Jetson TV & Appliance, Orville's Home Appliances, P.C. Richard & Son, RC Willey, and Warners' Stellian.

For further details on the regions in which these regional appliance retailers are selling extended warranties, take a look at the first newsletter in this year's series, "Service Contract Pricing: Washing Machines."

We made a few changes to our list of online retailers, compared to our first two articles in this series, pricing extended warranties for washing machines and dryers. We removed several regional retailers selling Allstate plans, since the offerings were quite repetitive from one to the next. We also added in a few more OEM websites, including those of KitchenAid and Frigidaire.

Service Contract Administrators

Some of the regional retailers administrate their own in-house extended warranties and repair networks. Others, along with the nationwide online retailers, use more prominent administrators, obligors, and underwriters, the names of which will be familiar to our readers.

Since we changed our sample of online retailers, Assurant was the most common extended warranty provider in this data set. Best Buy, Lowe's, GE Appliances, and Samsung sell protection plans from Assurant, which use obligor and administrator Federal Warranty Service Corp., and underwriter American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida.

Best Buy only began selling Assurant plans in August 2025. Before then, Best Buy's Geek Squad protection plans were provided by AIG. The previously-issued AIG plans switched over to Assurant in December 2025.

Allstate provides protection plans for Home Depot, Menards, Walmart, and Wayfair, using administrator SquareTrade, Inc., obligor CE Care Plan Corp, and underwriter Allstate Insurance Company.

Whirlpool, Maytag, and KitchenAid sell plans from Domestic & General USA, with administrator and obligor Domestic & General USA Services LLC, and underwriter Technology Insurance Company, Inc.

LG and Amazon both sell extended warranties from Asurion, with administrator Asurion Services, LLC, obligor Asurion Service Plans, Inc., and underwriter Continental Casualty Company.

Electrolux and Frigidaire both sell Total Appliance Protection plans, which the parent company administrates itself under the names Electrolux Home Products, Inc. and/or Electrolux Warranty Corporation, with obligor OnPoint Warranty Solutions LLC, and underwriter Universal Underwriters Insurance Company.

BrandsMart USA sells plans from administrator ProtectALL USA, LLC, with obligor First Shield Consumer Service Corporation, and underwriter Arch Insurance Company. This is a change from our study last year, when we found BrandsMart selling Allstate plans.

Orville's Home Appliances sells plans from administrator New Leaf Service Contracts, LLC, with obligor 4warranty Corporation, and underwriter Lyndon Southern Insurance Company.

The rest of the regional retailers have their own in-house extended warranty programs.

ABC Warehouse, Abt Electronics, Big Sandy Superstore, Electronic Express, Jetson TV & Appliance, P.C. Richard & Son, RC Willey Home Furnishings, and Warners' Stellian all have homegrown extended warranty programs, with their own repair network of service technicians. Each retailer serves as its own administrator and obligor.

In addition, Electronic Express uses local company Alliance Warranty Solutions as its obligor, and Warners' Stellian uses local company Ironclad Home Services, LLC as its administrator and obligor.

Survey Results

Now that we've taken an overview of the administrator/ obligor/ underwriter teams behind these extended warranties, let's analyze the 352 different refrigerator service contracts for which we gathered data.

Figure 1 shows the brands of the refrigerators for which we collected extended warranty data.

Frigidaire was the most common brand, followed by LG, GE Appliances, Whirlpool, Samsung, KitchenAid, and Bosch.

The brands included in the "Other" category are: Maytag, Midea, Electrolux, Amana, Insignia, Frigidaire, Kenmore, Criterion, Haier, Vissani, Black + Decker, Sharp, and Smeg.

Figure 2 shows the price ranges of the refrigerators surveyed.

The most common price range was $1,000 and below. Generally, we found that the extended warranties offered for the less expensive refrigerators tended to cost a higher percentage of the overall appliance price, as we will explore in Figures 6-9.

The most expensive refrigerator for which we gathered data cost $11,699, and the least expensive cost $380.

Figures 3, 4, and 5 show statistics about the extended warranties attached to these refrigerators. Figure 3 shows the length of the service contracts we surveyed.

The most common extended warranty duration was three years, just barely exceeding five years, which was also a common plan length. Two-year, one-year, and four-year plans were less common.

We found seven-year protection plans offered by Samsung, and eight-year plans offered by P.C. Richard & Son. There were no six-year plans, nor were there any longer than eight years in duration.

Figure 4 shows the start date of each extended warranty, either the date of purchase, or after the manufacturer's warranty expires.

It was more common for the service contract to begin on the date of purchase or date of delivery of the appliance.

The plans sold by Frigidaire, GE Appliances, KitchenAid, LG, Lowe's, Maytag, and Whirlpool all begin after the manufacturer's warranty expires. With the exception of Lowe's, these were all online retail shops of the appliance OEMs, who are also providing the manufacturer's warranty, along with the extended warranty that begins after the expiry of the limited warranty.

The Lowe's plans are also unique in that they cover "normal wear and tear," which we will explore in Figure 5.

24 of the protection plans, all sold by Lowe's, covered "normal wear and tear." This is the verbiage used by the online retailer.

We scour the extended warranty terms and conditions for each online retailer. If there are any other aspects of these contracts that you're curious about, please reach out to our editor so we can include these data in coming editions of this series.

One-and Two-Year Service Contracts

Now, let's compare the plans to each other, by comparing the protection plan price to the appliance price, as a percentage. In the following charts, the x-axis is the price of the extended warranty, and the y-axis is the percentage ratio of the plan price to the appliance price.

Figure 6 shows these data for the one- and two-year extended warranties for which we collected data.

At the low end of the range of price pairings, we found a $95 one-year Bodewell Care Protection Plan from GE Appliances, provided by Assurant, which cost 2% of the price of a $4,799 refrigerator.

At the high end, there was a $170 two-year Ironclad Product Protection plan from Warners' Stellian, which cost 23% of the $730 Frigidaire refrigerator.

The most expensive two-year plan was a $900 Extended Warranty with AWS plan from Electronic Express, which cost 9% of the price of a $10,000 LG refrigerator.

The average one- or two-year extended warranty cost 6% of the refrigerator price. 44 plans were below average, and 30 plans were above average.

Three-Year Service Contracts

Figure 7 shows the prices of three-year refrigerator extended warranties, as a percentage of the appliance price, compared to the plan price.

At the low end, there was a $56 Wayfair Protection Plan, which cost just 1% of the $5,279 LG refrigerator. The six plans clustered in the lower left corner of Figure 7 are all plans from Wayfair.

At the high side of the price pairings, we found a $260 Ironclad Product Protection plan from Warners' Stellian, which cost 36% of a small $730 Frigidaire refrigerator.

The average three-year refrigerator extended warranty cost 10% of the appliance price. There were 68 plans below average, and 52 plans above average.

The most expensive plan was a $1,350 Extended Warranty with AWS plan from Electronic Express, which cost 13% of a $10,000 LG refrigerator. This is the same refrigerator for which we found the most expensive two-year extended warranty.

Four-Year Service Contracts

Figure 8 shows the price pairings for the four-year refrigerator extended warranties.

At the low end, we found a $220 ProtectAll Premium Protection Plan from BrandsMart USA, which cost 6% of the $3,888 Samsung refrigerator.

At the high end, we found a $179 Abt Local Extended Protection Plan from Abt Electronics, which cost 24% of the $749 Frigidaire refrigerator.

The average four-year extended warranty cost 12% of the appliance price. There were 18 plans below average, and 10 plans above average.

The most expensive four-year plan again protected the same $10,000 LG refrigerator. The four-year protection plan from Electronic Express cost $1,800, or 18% of the appliance price.

Five-, Seven-, and Eight-Year Service Contracts

Figure 9 shows the price pairings for the five-, seven-, and eight-year refrigerator extended warranties.

At the low end of the spectrum, we again found a cluster of seven Wayfair Protection Plans. The one at the lowest percentage was a $212 five-year Wayfair plan, provided by Allstate, which cost 2% of the $10,699 Bosch refrigerator.

At the high end was a eight-year $330 Extended Service Protection Plan from P.C. Richard & Son, which cost 56% of the $588 Midea refrigerator.

The most expensive service contract again covered the $10,000 LG refrigerator, with a $2,250 five-year Extended Warranty with AWS plan from Electronic Express, which cost 22% of the appliance price.