Are extended warranties necessary on plasmas?

My Panasonic failed just a few days before the 1 year warrantee expired. Close call! But, although I had bought the thing on the internet, the local service center fixed it (replacement board) quickly and with no complaints.

Most extended warranties are a big money maker for the issuer, and therefore, a ripoff for the consumer. However, if I were to consider one, it would be for a plasma. That is because a failure of the panel, whether catastrophic, or more than a few pixels gone bad, means the set is a goner. The bulk of the expense is in the panel.

I have actually know a few people whose sets died from a panel failure that occurred well into the life of the set. But, I understand this is not so much of a problem these days as it was earlier on. On balance, I would be in the no extended warranty camp, unless the dealer was offering a very good price.

The comments above are "on the money". Extended warranties are almost always a complete waste of money - and virtually pure profit to the seller of the warranty.

I have a colleague that used to work for Good Guys (before they went bankrupt), and he has told me that the sales staff were under intense pressure to sell extended warranties with TV's -- even to the point that they might tell the customer that they wouldn't sell the TV without the extra warranty.

You'd be far better off to simply put the cost of the extended warranty into a certificate-of-deposit and let it earn interest against the day that you might need the money to pay for repairs.

If you pay the 500 you know you just spent 500 for sure. If you do not pay the 500 it remains in your pocket until (if)there is a problem. I have never bought the warrantee since a repair would not send me to the poor house. I have lots of warrantee money still in my pocket. Never a repair.

Ok, hear it from someone who actually owns a plasma.

My NEC VP4 failed after 2 years and probably less than 200 hours total, vertical driver failed and lots of missing columns. NEC only offered 1 year warranty at that time, but they are nice enough to fix mine for free :)

My friend's Pioneer Elite 50" failed 2 times during 3 years of ownership, power supply failed. First time was under warranty period, but Pioneer blamed it on bad incoming power and would not honor warranty. They paid $1500 to fix each time.

My college friend's JVC failed after 3 years with very little hour (was in his vacation home oversea), similar problem as mine. JVC told him he is better off buying a new one as it was the glass that went bad.

My mom's Samsung failed after a few months, no idea what went wrong. Good thing it was bought from my sister's company and they took care of it right away.

So far, I only know a couple others who own plasma for over a year without problem. But then plasma are very commonly used in airport and other public display. If fail rate is so high, I bet they will replace plasma with something else right away. My theory is plasma does not like power fluctuation and power cycle.