Appliance Service Plan? Yes Please!

After discovering last Thursday morning that our water heater had shut down in the middle of the night, I have learned a lot about appliance care and taking the proper steps to cover myself from another similar situation.  As a new homeowner, I'm still learning a lot about taking care of the house and everything in it!  I'm coming to learn that most of the care and maintenance that come with owning a house is hands on and learn as you go.
I had made the mistake of assuming that since my husband and I purchased a brand new house in 2009 and all of the appliances in the house were brand new, I wouldn't be seeing any issues with our house for a few years.  Wrong!  As most people know, we are living in a world where things are made NOT to last, so why would I think any differently about appliances?!

Where we live, the water is very hard!  We didn't get a water softener for the first year because we thought we didn't need it, but after feeling the water and seeing its effect on our other appliances in the house, we opted to get one.  But because our water is so hard, all of the calcium and mineral buildup had affected our house greatly, so it took a few months to see the progress of our softener taking effect.

However I couldn't see the damage the hard water had done to the water heater.  Apparently water heaters must work harder with hard water because there is more sediment buildup inside the water heater, which increases the amount of time it takes to heat the water inside the tank.  This makes the water heater less efficient and can cause it to malfunction, which is what happened to us.  The relief valve went off and leaked hot water around our water heater and the control panel was non responsive.  Luckily a water heater technician came out the same day to fix the issue, but that came at a hefty price of $260.00.  So after talking to our families and friends, we decided the smart route would be to invest in some appliance insurance.  We compared Homesmart from Xcel Energy and Home Care Plus from Centerpoint Energy.  Both are good programs but we chose Home Care Plus because it seemed to cover more.  We got the Total Repair Plan for $39.95 because that covers EVERY appliance we have - we don't want to take chances.   For 12 months that would total $479.40, which is not bad considering we just spent $260.00 to get our water heater fixed.  So if we run into another situation or two, our minds will be more at ease because we won't have to pay for labor, parts and service call - it's all included in the monthly plan!


If you are considering purchasing a house soon or you have a house but do not have appliance service plans, I would highly recommend getting one!  There are different plans and are very affordable. It would save you a lot in the long run if something ever did happen.

 Home Care Plus Service Plan Information