You might have seen in Lowe’s Service Advantage extended protection plan 20% premium is not Worth It where it took 35 days from initial service visit (with a completely out of commission washing machine) for the part to be delivered to the authorized warranty repair place. In that case it was a shift actuator, and, had we been able to diagnose ourselves, could have gotten the replacement part from eBay within a week. Instead, we spent 6+ weeks taking the laundry for 4 people to the laundromat.

The timeline this time:

• September 2, 2022: Called about issue
• September 9, 2022: Diagnosis of issue and part order
• September 19, 2022: Called for update, and was told that technician was still waiting on a spin basket and retainer for the repair.
• October 14, 2022: Received call that parts were in (35 days?) and repair scheduled for October 19th.

Some time around week 2 or 3, we bought a used washing machine for about $200 (and also put a Speed Queen on order, which was itself on a long delay for delivery…)

Well, the Speed Queen came in about a week or so *before* the new part for the Maytag washing machine. They sell it with a 5 year parts and in-home labor warranty, which, considering the 20% extra you have to pay for the Lowe’s Extended Warranty, makes the pricing fairly competitive.

The Speed Queen is also considerably heavier than the Maytag: 195 lbs vs. 141 lbs. With the price of the extended warranty, they’re within 10-15% of each other’s pricing and the Speed Queen cycles are considerably shorter.