Since posting my question on this post I've noticed that almost EVERYTHING has an optional extended warranty. It seems the theory is that the gizmo you buy has a life span that's as long as the extended warranty- so you should plan on purchasing the extended warranty with the gizmo & just plan on repeating this process when the warranty is finished.

Fabulous money maker for the manufacturer, not so fabulous for end users. Pretty soon we'll have to replace all electronic gizmos every few years ( including, but not limited to- dishwashers, refrigerators, heaters, air conditioners,etc, not to mention all the standard electronic fair- computers, ipods, etc.). Cars, forklifts, etc will become a comodity to lease ( less expensive to lease than purchase, especially if you're not going to use it for to long), and just replace when the warranty is finished. We'll all be chasing our tails just to keep up on the payments of "stuff" that has to be replaced.

I guess I'm too old school to buy into this replacement cycle type of mentality. My children- who have been paying for their own technology wants for a few years now are beginning to get tired of having to constantly purchase new technology. They are seeing how much $ they spend on phones, ipads, etc. now that they have more pressing bills to pay (college tuition).

PS- by the way- to anyone who has had a new home heater installed within the last few years- the new heater controls are computerized, and as such, are touchy with voltage spikes, etc. During the noreaster we had back in Sept that took out NJ- I never lost power, but had a few brown outs- long story short- the brown outs took out my heater brain at a cost of $500.00. Short of installing a spike protection & battery back up system just for my heater- I was told this is the new norm- I just LOVE technology!