What is home appliance insurance?

Home appliance insurance (sometimes call electrical goods insurance) can include cover for white goods in your home, including washing machines, dishwashers, tumble driers, fridge freezers, microwaves and even vacuum cleaners.

You can buy appliance insurance cover from a variety of home appliance insurance companies. Appliances insurance cover in the UK can cover one or more of your regular appliances in the home.

Appliance breakdown cover protects you in the event of one or more of your appliances breaking down, malfunctioning or suffering damage due to an accident. Some home appliance insurance policies cover all the costs of fixing your broken appliance, including call out fees by an expert repair, labour, and the cost of spare parts.

You can also buy home appliance cover for your boiler or heating system, and for your audio equipment, DVD player or home cinema. Cheap appliance insurance is available as online insurance, and you can do an appliance insurance comparison using our online tool.

Find out more about Home Appliance Insurance with our Uswitch guide

Do I need appliance insurance?

You may be asking: Do I need home appliance insurance? The answer depends on the number and age of domestic appliances in your home.

If you have a lot of relatively new home appliances, then many of them may be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, or by domestic appliance insurance that you bought when you purchased the item. Check first what existing cover you have before you buy a new home appliance insurance policy. You won’t need extra cover until the warranty expires.

If you have a lot of domestic appliances in your home it could end up being costly to insure each one of them. For example, insuring a dishwasher could cost around £3.50 per month, while a washing machine might cost £4.50 per month to buy insurance cover. A fridge freezer costing around £700 to buy might cost you £4 a month.

Another option is to buy an insurance policy that covers up to 13 appliances in your home. You should compare quotes to see which one offers the better value.

Find out more about Home Appliance Insurance

Is it worth buying home appliance insurance?

If you were to cover each appliance in your home it could work out to be very expensive each month.

Also, if your appliance is old, or is a particularly expensive model, then you may not be able to arrange home appliance insurance cover anyway.

You can shop around and compare quotes using our comparison tool to see whether it is worth covering your appliance.

If there is a domestic appliance that you use regularly, for example a dishwasher or washing machine, and you want the peace of mind of ensuring that it will be fixed quickly, then you could consider purchasing a single domestic appliance policy for that produce.

You need to weigh up the cost of a call out and repair fee versus the cost of your insurance. You could put away a small amount, say £15 per month, into a savings account which might cover the cost of repairs rather than buying a domestic appliance insurance policy. This might be a better option if you have an older appliance. Also, check whether the home appliance insurance policy has any excess charges – most cover all costs but you need to know whether you will face any callout fees.

What is the best home appliance insurance?

Look at the terms and conditions in the home appliance insurance policies that you compare. Appliance breakdown insurance covers for mechanical or electrical failures as well as accidental damage.

There might be exclusions – for example, a limit on number of call outs. If there has been damage or negligence by the appliance owner – for example using it in the wrong way – then the policy might not cover you either.

Read our guide to Home Contents Insurance

What are the alternatives to home appliance insurance?

If you have a number of relatively old appliances then you could put money away monthly into a savings account to pay for repairs or a replacement item instead. This could then pay for repairs or a new domestic appliance if it was going to be too costly to fix it. You are unlikely to be able to get a quote for cover if your appliance is over seven years old so this might be the only option in some cases.

If you have a very expensive home appliance which would not be covered by a standard domestic appliance insurance policy then you may be able to cover it at the time of purchase with a policy from the manufacture which would extend the warranty period.

Find out How to calculate Home insurance costs

Are appliances covered by homeowners’ insurance?

You may be wondering whether appliances are considered personal property in homeowners’ insurance and does home insurance cover appliances?

The answer is that your home contents insurance policy is likely to cover damage to your household appliances from fire, flooding and water leaks. 

Check your home insurance contents policy to see what you are already covered for. Most general home contents insurance policies do not cover problems with domestic appliances caused by electrical or mechanical failure, whereas a home appliance insurance policy will include this as standard.

So while you are protected for some events, home appliance insurance will cover you for breakdowns and mechanical problems which will not be covered under your home contents cover.

Understand how Home Contents Insurance works

Read more:

• Home Insurance

• Domestic Appliance Insurance Guide

• Content Insurance

Home insurance guides