On 05 Jan 2004, Minnie Bannister wrote:

I see that somebody else has suggested otherwise wrt water
heaters, but I do recall car batteries being sold with
varying-length warranties, and as far as I could see it was
the same battery, but they punched a different warranty
expiration date depending on the price paid.

Exactly. It's ALL number crunching, and anybody that believes
differently is burying their head in the sand.

It's all sitting in an Excel file in a computer at the
battery/water heater/? company:

They have historical data on how long the product lasts before
failure.

With that data, they can calculate failure rates for the
entire lifespan of an average battery.

With that data, they can calculate how muct to charge for the
"extended warranty" (longer guarantee) so they still make
money on the deal.

Economics 101. Capitalism 101. God Bless America.

Wise old man once explained it to me: There is no
difference betwen those two water heaters, in a physical
sense. Nothing except the model number and warranty
length. Just like most things on earth, it's possible
to generate mortality tables and *know* how long a water
heater should last. The $100 is simply an extended
warranty. It's all in the tables.




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