Panasonic PT-AE7000 Projector – Warranty

The Panasonic PT-AE7000, comes standard with a one year warranty on parts and labor. They do not offer any form of loaner or replacement program (few do, but at least one competitor does).

In addition, over the past few years, Panasonic has, more often than not, offered a 2nd year warranty, upon registration, to encourage you to register. It seems that once again, Panasonic is offering all who will register in the US, that second year, at no charge.

Traditionally, even with the 2nd year warranty, Panasonic does limit the warranty to 2000 hours maximum on the projector.

That’s just fine for occasional viewers (that’s about 20 hours a week), but most folks who, like me, use their projectors typically as a primary television, that warranty isn’t going to make it anywhere near two years. I know plenty of projector owners whose projectors run 20+, 30+, 40+ or more hours a week. (Over here, even if I wasn’t watching different projectors, no way we’d average less than 40 hours a week, which would expire the warranty at about 1 year, not the two year maximum).

Bottom line, for a projector in the roughly $3000 price range, consider Panasonic’s warranty to be below average.

If you are a heavy user, that’s particularly a definite negative. Of course if you are a light user, then it’s closer to average. There are plenty of competitors with 2 years standard, some offer 3 years, and few offer only one year. In addition, a few projectors, like the forthcoming, competing, Epson 5010, offer a replacement program. We consider replacement and loaner programs to be very desirable, as just about everyone who has had a problem with a projector that offers such programs, ends up praising it, even if the manufacturer has other related issues. The big advantage, is that the projector owner is normally back up and running in 24-72 hours, with one of those programs, as opposed to often waiting without a projector, for a couple of weeks for repair.

Side comment: Seems every projector has to sport some sort of weakness we can complain about. In the case of the Panasonic, this is one of the few real negatives, but the PT-AE7000’s warranty is sufficiently less favorable than several direct competitors, so factor that into your overall decision.