Defects In Materials and Workmanship[edit]
The most common kind of warranty on goods is a warranty that the product is free from defects in materials and workmanship. This simply promises that the manufacturer properly constructed the product, out of proper materials. This implies that the product will perform as well as such products customarily do.
It is common for these to be limited warranties, limiting the time the buyer has to make a claim. For example, a typical 90 day warranty on a television gives the buyer 90 days from the date of purchase to claim that the television was improperly constructed. Should the television fail after 91 days of normal usage, which because televisions customarily last longer than 91 days means there was a defect in the materials or workmanship of the television, the buyer nonetheless may not collect on the warranty because it is too late to file a claim.
Time limited warranties are often confused with performance warranties. A 90 day performance warranty would promise that the television would work for 90 days, which is fundamentally different from promising that it was delivered free of defects and limiting the time the buyer has to prove otherwise. But because the usual evidence that a product was delivered defective is that it later breaks, the effect is very similar.
One situation in which the effect of a time limited warranty is different from the effect of a performance warranty is where the time limit exceeds to normal lifetime of the product. If a coat is designed to last two years, but has a 10 year limited warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, a buyer who wears the coat for 3 years and then finds it worn out would not be able to collect on the warranty. But it is different from a 2 year warranty because if the buyer starts wearing the coat 5 years after buying it, and finds it wears out a year later, the buyer would have a warranty claim in Year 6. On the other hand, a 10 year performance warranty would promise that the coat would last 10 years.