Is the built-in still under warranty?
All four makers give two years of parts and labor on the whole machine, and Sub-Zero and Wolf give three if a Factory Certified Installation company put it in. On refrigeration the coverage then narrows to the sealed system, and narrows again: from year six or seven it is parts only, and the labor is yours. Wolf builds cooking equipment, so its later coverage is a five-year list of named parts instead. Sub-Zero also publishes what is not a sealed system part, and the refrigerant is on that list.
On This Page
The Four Makers, Side by Side
Each row is one maker’s published residential warranty. Where a maker publishes no figure for a column, the cell carries a dash rather than a guess. Your own paperwork governs your own machine, and terms have changed over the years these kitchens were built.
| Maker | Whole product, parts and labor | Sealed system, parts and labor | Parts only | Counted from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sub-Zero refrigeration | 2 years, or 3 with Factory Certified Installation | 5 years | 6th to 12th year, parts only | Date of original installation |
| Wolf cooking | 2 years, or 3 with Factory Certified Installation | —, no sealed system | 5 years on a named list of parts | Date of original installation |
| Viking refrigeration | 2 years | Years 3 to 6 | Years 7 to 12 on built-in, integrated and freestanding models, owner pays labor and shipping; undercounter, wine and ice units stop at year 6 | Date of original purchase, or closing date for new construction if longer |
| Monogram refrigeration | 2 years | 5 years | 6th to 12th year, owner pays labor and in-home service | Date of purchase |
Wolf has no sealed system because it builds cooking equipment, so its five-year coverage is a named list instead: gas burners excluding appearance, electric heating elements, blower motors in ventilation hoods, electronic control boards, magnetron tubes and induction generators. Replacement filters for hood recirculating kits are excluded outright.
Sealed system is narrower than it sounds.
The phrase suggests the cold half of the machine. Sub-Zero publishes the actual boundary, and it runs tighter than that. Two lists, from the same maker, on the same question.
| Part | Sealed system? |
|---|---|
| Compressor | Yes |
| Evaporator | Yes |
| Drier | Yes |
| Heat exchanger: the suction line and capillary tube | Yes |
| Condensate loop | Yes |
| Condenser | Yes |
| Other connective tubing | Yes |
| A refrigerant valve, on some wine storage models | Yes |
| Condenser, compressor and evaporator fan motors | No |
| Other electrical parts | No |
| Refrigerant gas, named as Freon and R-134a | No |
| Solder, and compressor electricals | No |
Read the No rows twice. In year nine a compressor is a covered part, and the refrigerant that has to go back in after it is fitted is not. Neither is the fan motor sitting beside it, nor the solder, nor any of the labor. That is not a loophole anyone is hiding: it is printed in Sub-Zero’s own answer to the question and in the warranty page of its service manual. What is actually inside that circuit.
Where the years are counted from.
Three starting lines. Sub-Zero and Wolf count from the date of original installation. Viking counts from the date of original purchase, and runs its two-year full warranty from the closing date for new construction when that period is longer. GE states that a Monogram warranty begins with the date of purchase, and accepts a letter from the builder or other proof of occupancy as proof of it.
On a kitchen that waited for cabinetry, or an appliance that sat in a distributor’s warehouse through a slow year, those are not the same date at all, and which one your maker counts from decides how much of the warranty is left. Counting from installation, as Sub-Zero and Wolf do, starts the clock when the machine goes in.
The Sub-Zero and Wolf documents that grant the extra year attach conditions to it. The warranty applies only to products installed by a Factory Certified Installation company, only to units installed in the fifty states, the District of Columbia or the ten provinces of Canada, and only to new purchases and first-time installations. It does not cover a defect caused by negligence, accident or improper use, maintenance, service or repair. If you bought the house rather than the refrigerator, the years still count from the original date: Viking extends its warranty to each transferee owner during the original purchaser’s term, and GE extends Monogram’s to the original purchaser and any succeeding owner. Ten checks on a built-in before you close.
The window where an independent call makes sense.
While the full period is open, the work is theirs and you should not be paying anyone. Sub-Zero’s and Wolf’s warranties say service under them must be performed by their own factory certified service. Viking’s says warranty service must be performed by a Viking authorized service agency. We are none of those, and on a live claim the right call is to the maker, not to us.
The parts-only tail is a different question, and the makers answer it themselves. Sub-Zero’s warranty sets out the route for owners who use non-certified service: contact Sub-Zero to receive the repaired or replacement part, and understand that it will not reimburse a part bought from anywhere else. Wolf prints the same instruction for its five-year list. The part comes from the maker, to you, at no charge; the labor is a separate bill from whoever does the work.
Which makes the arithmetic in years six through twelve unusually clear. The diagnostic visit is $119, waived in full when the repair goes ahead, and the labor is quoted as one written figure before anything is opened. Against that, the part itself arrives under a warranty the maker is still honoring, so long as it is requested from the maker rather than bought over the counter. How that compares with replacing the machine.
What we cover, and what we do not.
Our own warranty is twelve months on parts and labor, on Sub-Zero, Wolf, Viking and Monogram, with the genuine OEM parts we supply. If you supply the part yourself, we quote the labor alone and that labor carries no warranty, because the part is not ours to stand behind.
And the part we do not play. We are an independent service company. Not authorized, not factory trained, not certified by any of the four makers, and there is no claim we can file on your behalf. If your machine is inside its full factory period, the most useful thing this page can do is send you to the maker’s number instead of ours. What the $119 visit consists of.
Questions
My Sub-Zero is nine years old. Is the compressor covered?
As a part, yes. Sub-Zero’s limited twelve-year sealed system warranty repairs or replaces the compressor, condenser, evaporator, drier and all connecting tubing for twelve years from the date of original installation, with the owner paying every other cost including labor. The route it publishes for owners who use non-certified service is to contact Sub-Zero directly for the repaired or replacement part.
Does using an independent company void the warranty?
Not by itself: on that point the terms exclude only defects caused by negligence, accident or improper use, maintenance, service or repair. In the parts-only years Sub-Zero and Wolf both describe the route in their own warranties: the owner contacts them for the part and pays for the rest. Inside the full period it is different, since service under those warranties has to be performed by their own certified service, so a claim there is a call to them rather than to us.
When do the years start counting?
It depends on the maker. Sub-Zero and Wolf count from the date of original installation. Viking counts from the date of original purchase, and runs its two-year full warranty from the closing date for new construction when that period is longer. GE states that a Monogram warranty begins with the date of purchase. On a kitchen finished long after the appliances were delivered, those are not the same date.
Do I have to register the appliance to be covered?
Viking states that the return of the owner registration card is not a condition of warranty coverage. What every maker does want is the model and serial number, because that is how the file is kept: Sub-Zero stores warranty and service history under the serial number and the customer’s last name.
Is the refrigerant covered by the sealed system warranty?
No. Sub-Zero states that refrigerant gas is not covered by the sealed system parts warranty, and that condenser, compressor and evaporator fan motors and other electrical parts are not sealed system parts either. So a covered compressor in year nine still leaves the gas, the fan motor beside it and all of the labor.
What does your own warranty cover?
Twelve months on parts and labor, on Sub-Zero, Wolf, Viking and Monogram, with the genuine OEM parts we supply. If you supply the part yourself we quote the labor alone and it carries no warranty, because the part is not ours to stand behind. We are an independent service company, so there is no factory claim we can file for you.
Sources
- Sub-Zero Residential Limited Warranty with Factory Certified Installation, document dated 09/18: full three-year warranty on all parts and labor, full five-year sealed system warranty naming compressor, condenser, evaporator, drier and all connecting tubing, limited twelve-year sealed system warranty with the owner paying all other costs including labor, the non-certified service route, 60-day stainless steel cosmetic coverage, and the terms applicable to each warranty.
- Sub-Zero Built-In (BI) Series technical service manual, 7019014 Revision D, March 2012, warranty information page: the two-, five- and twelve-year summary, the list of what total product coverage includes, and the note that condenser fan motors, Freon, solder and compressor electricals are not considered sealed system parts. Also that all warranties begin at the unit’s initial installation date.
- Sub-Zero quick answer, sealed system parts: the list of sealed system components including the heat exchanger, condensate loop and the refrigerant valve on some wine storage models, and the statement that fan motors, other electrical parts and refrigerant gas are not covered by the sealed system warranty.
- Wolf Appliance Residential Limited Warranty with Factory Certified Installation, document dated 09/18: full three-year warranty, the limited five-year list of gas burners, electric heating elements, blower motors, electronic control boards, magnetron tubes and induction generators, the non-certified service route, 60-day stainless steel cosmetic coverage, and the exclusion of replacement filters for hood recirculating kits.
- Viking Range warranty information: two years full on the complete product from the date of original purchase or the closing date for new construction, whichever period is longer, sealed refrigeration system parts and labor in years three to six, parts only in years seven to twelve with the owner paying labor and shipping, ninety-day cosmetic coverage for manufacturing defects, the warranty extending to each transferee owner during the term of the original purchaser’s warranty, the requirement that warranty service be performed by a Viking authorized service agency, and that the owner registration card is not a condition of coverage.
- GE, Monogram appliance warranty: a warranty that begins with the date of purchase, validated by the sales invoice, a letter from the builder or other proof of occupancy; limited two-year coverage on any part with labor and service costs included; on integrated and column refrigerators, limited five-year sealed refrigerating system coverage naming the compressor, condenser, evaporator and all connecting tubing with labor included, and limited twelve-year coverage on the same parts with the owner responsible for labor and in-home service; the same two-year coverage on cooking products; and an overview GE says typically applies to products manufactured on or after January 1, 2006.
- GE Consumer Home Services training guide 31-9091 for Monogram side-by-side refrigerators, warranty page: two years full, five years full on the sealed system, and sealed system parts in the sixth through twelfth year with the owner paying the service trip and labor, all from the date of original purchase, and extended to the original purchaser and any succeeding owner.
Written from these sources and reviewed on (checked again ) by Aphelion Appliance Repair, Phoenix. Warranty terms change and vary by model, series and year, so the document that came with your machine governs your machine. Nothing here is legal advice or a manufacturer’s instruction, and we are an independent service company with no authority to interpret or file a factory claim.
Read Next
- Repair the refrigerator, or replace it?A repair quoted in writing, set against an $8,000–$19,000 machine.
- What refrigerant is inside the circuitR-134a, the charge on the rating tag, and who may legally handle it.
- Find your model numberWhere the model and serial tag sits on all four makers.
- Home warranty on a Sub-Zero, Wolf or Viking: what the contract paysArizona contracts read line by line: the limits, who picks the technician, and what homeowners insurance covers.
- Is your Sub-Zero, Wolf, Viking or Monogram under a recall?The CPSC recall list for all four makers, and how to check your own model and serial.
- A genuine OEM part, or an aftermarket one?What the warranty law says about a maker’s own parts, and what each maker publishes.
Past the full period?
Have the model and serial from the tag ready, and tell us what the machine is doing. We answer every day, 7am–6pm.