The ten-year warranty is usually five, and only on the parts
BoldFrame works on heating, cooling and ventilation across San Ramon and the Tri-Valley. Almost every system sold in this county comes with a warranty nobody reads, and the two things that most often turn a covered failure into a bill are both decided in the first sixty days.
Warranties, and what voids them
Five things that can happen crossed with four kinds of installer. What a manufacturer warranty actually covers, what registration does, and why the labour is the part that costs you.
Two things decided in the first sixty days
Registration. Most manufacturers offer a longer parts term if the equipment is registered within a window after installation — commonly sixty or ninety days. Miss it and the term usually drops to a shorter default. It takes a few minutes and it is free, and a great many systems in this county are sitting on the shorter term because nobody did it.
And the paperwork. Model and serial numbers, the installation date, and who did it. Without those there is no claim to make, whatever the term says.
Parts and labour are different things
A manufacturer warranty covers the part, not the visit. A compressor replaced under warranty still means a day of labour, refrigerant, and sometimes a crane or a lift. That is the bill people do not expect, and it is the reason a “ten-year warranty” and a free repair are not the same sentence.
Six things
Repair
No cooling and no heat, checked in order of cost, with the reading that proves the answer shown to you rather than described.
Warranty checks
We look up what your equipment is actually covered for before quoting a repair, and we tell you when the part is somebody else’s to supply.
Annual service
Recorded, dated and kept — which is also what a manufacturer asks for if a claim is ever questioned.
Duct testing
Leakage and static pressure measured. High static pressure is hard on equipment and it is one of the things that gets raised when a failure is examined.
Replacement
Sized from the house, permitted, tested — and registered with the manufacturer inside the window, as part of the job rather than as your homework.
Premises
Rooftop packaged units, split systems, extract and make-up air, and planned maintenance twice a year for offices, clinics, retail and light industrial.
Houses
Large, newer and mostly two-storey, frequently with two systems, and often with equipment installed by a builder’s subcontractor who is no longer involved. That combination is exactly where warranty questions get complicated.
Premises
Offices, clinics, retail and light industrial across the Tri-Valley. A written record per unit, maintenance twice a year, and equipment details kept where the next facilities manager can find them.
Six things this website does not print
| What your warranty says | We have not read your document and we will not summarise it for you. Terms differ by manufacturer, by model and by year. What we will do is look up your equipment, tell you what we find, and point you at the wording that governs it. |
| A promise that a claim will be paid | That is the manufacturer’s decision, not ours. We will submit it properly and give you everything we have. We will not tell you it is certain. |
| Prices | A warranty repair still has labour, refrigerant and sometimes access costs in it, and those differ by job. |
| A response time | We do not publish one. We will tell you where you are in the queue when you ring. |
| Reviews and ratings | There are none on this site. When there are real ones they will be somewhere you can check them. |
Asked most often
My system has a ten-year warranty. Does that mean a repair is free?
No, and this is the commonest misunderstanding in the trade. A manufacturer warranty covers the part, not the visit. A compressor replaced under warranty still means a day of labour, refrigerant and sometimes access equipment, and that bill is real. Labour cover, where it exists at all, usually comes from the installing contractor rather than the manufacturer and runs for a much shorter period.
What does registration actually do?
Most manufacturers offer a longer parts term if the equipment is registered within a window after installation — commonly sixty or ninety days. Miss it and the term generally drops to a shorter default. It is free, it takes a few minutes, and it is completely silent: nobody writes to tell you it lapsed. A great many systems in this county are sitting on the shorter term because nobody did it.
We bought the house. Does the warranty come with it?
Sometimes, and it is worth one phone call. Many manufacturers allow a remaining parts warranty to pass to a subsequent owner — some automatically, some only if a transfer is registered, some on a shorter term, and some not at all. Where a transfer has to be registered there is frequently a deadline after the sale, commonly thirty or ninety days. That is the deadline people miss, because nobody at a closing mentions air conditioning.
The installer went out of business. Have we lost the warranty?
Only half of it. The manufacturer’s parts warranty attaches to the equipment rather than to the company that fitted it, so if the unit is registered and in term the part is still owed and any qualified contractor can claim it. What is gone is any labour warranty the installer offered, because that was a promise from a company that no longer exists. We will make a manufacturer claim on equipment we did not install and we do not charge extra for the administration.
What actually voids a warranty?
The three reasons claims get declined are being out of term, damage that is excluded rather than a defect, and a failure attributed to installation or maintenance. The first is rarely arguable. The second may be an insurance claim instead. The third is the one where you should ask for the specific finding in writing, because a general assertion is not the same as a finding — and if the reason is installation, that points at the installing contractor rather than at you.
Which areas do you cover?
San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton, Alamo, Blackhawk, Livermore and Walnut Creek.
Market Place, San Ramon
179 Market Pl, San Ramon, CA 94583. We cover San Ramon, Danville, Dublin, Pleasanton, Alamo, Blackhawk, Livermore and Walnut Creek.
Monday to Friday, 8am to 4.30pm. (925) 502-1342