New appliance day one — delivery checks, the installation slip and a 10-minute paper file

An appliance’s warranty story isn’t written the day it breaks. It’s written the day it arrives. The papers you don’t gather that day get hard to gather later: the invoice sinks into email, the installer’s slip melts into a drawer, the box goes out — and the serial number with it. Yet the whole job takes ten minutes. This guide is that ten minutes: what to check at the door, what to ask the installer for, and which five documents go into the file.

The same day has a used-market version too — the used appliance buying checklist covers it. This flow is for brand-new machines.

At the door: three checks before the crew leaves

Transit damage is the most common first problem a new appliance has. And the rule is simple: damage found while the delivery crew is still there gets fixed easily; damage found the next day starts an argument. Three steps:

1. Open the box together. Don’t say “I’ll unpack later.” A crushed corner, a scratched door, cracked glass — all of it should go on record while the crew is present. If the body is damaged, have it written on the delivery note and take photos. Keep a photo of every paper you sign.

2. Find the serial number label and photograph it. The label sits on the inner edge of the door, on the back panel or under a drawer. That one photo opens three doors later: warranty lookup, service booking, insurance claims. Once the machine is pushed into place, the label is often out of reach — so do it now.

3. Count the accessories. Shelves, baskets, hoses, remote, screw kit. A missing part reported at delivery is a one-minute fix; a week later, “it wasn’t in the box” is hard to prove.

Installation: the slip is the other half of the warranty

In some appliance groups, the warranty doesn’t start on the invoice alone — it also wants proof the unit was installed by an authorised person. Three groups stand out:

• Gas appliances (boiler, gas hob, water heater): never make the connection yourself. This is not a place to save money; it’s a safety rule and a warranty condition.
• Air conditioners: an install done without pulling a vacuum shortens the unit’s life, and the maker can tell from the traces. On an AC with no installation slip, warranty disputes knot up at the install more than anywhere else.
• Built-in sets: the fitted install and the electrical connection should be on paper.

When the install is done, ask for two things: the service slip — date, work done, who did it — and, where it applies, the gas-tightness or test record. For machines you may set up yourself, like a washing machine, one step is critical: remove the transit bolts. Damage from running a machine with the bolts still in counts as user error in the warranty’s eyes. The same bolts go back in on moving day — that side is in the guide to moving appliances safely.

Warranty registration: five minutes of insurance

The invoice starts the warranty. But two more steps are cheap and worth it:

Archive the invoice. Paper receipts fade; emails get buried. The moment you find the invoice, copy it into the device file — don’t trust search.

Register with the maker. Most brands offer product registration or a warranty lookup by serial number. Registration does two jobs: the start date is fixed on the maker’s side too, and recall notices actually reach you. It takes five minutes — you already photographed the label.

If you bought the store’s extended warranty plan, its contract goes into the same file. The cover and the exclusions live in that document; lose the paper and you effectively lose the cover. Whether the plan is worth buying is its own article: is an extended warranty worth it?

The 10-minute file: five documents

By the end of the day, the device’s file should hold these five:

1. The invoice — proof of when the warranty started.
2. The warranty certificate — what’s covered and for how long. It is not the same thing as the invoice; keep both.
3. The installation or service slip — proof the setup was done by an authorised person.
4. A photo of the serial number label — the unit’s ID for service, warranty lookups and insurance.
5. The manual — the paper copy can stay in the box; download the PDF from the maker’s site into the file. Hunting for a manual on the night of a breakdown takes longer than reading one.

Where the file lives is your call: a physical folder, a cloud folder, or both. One rule holds: one place per device, every paper goes there, the same day. An invoice thrown among four thousand phone photos doesn’t exist if it can’t be found. The full filing system is in how to organize warranty documents — this article is that system’s day-one entrance.

If you’d rather not run this by hand, Duevo is built for exactly this. You record the device once on delivery day: warranty date, document photos and the installer’s slip sit on one record. Warranty expiry and scheduled maintenance get reminders in advance; completed services go into the history. Your first devices are free — the logic is the same for a one-appliance home and a business with an inventory.

The first week: the early-failure window

Electronics and appliances fail on a curious curve: trouble shows up either in the first days or years later. That makes the first week a deliberate test period:

• Run a demanding cycle. Washing machine on a long programme, dishwasher on intensive, oven at high heat, AC at full power. A short cycle shows no symptoms.
• Listen and smell. A faint burning smell on an oven’s first run — protective oil — is normal and passes. A smell that stays, metal-on-metal noise or an uneven rattle is not normal.
• Report a problem the same week. Early reporting has two powers: the seller’s exchange options are still open, and “when did it start” has a recorded answer. Put it in writing — a fault described by phone has no date. What the seller and the maker must offer you varies by country and sales channel; your footing is the same everywhere: the papers in your day-one file.

If the fault is heading to a repair shop, the preparation order is in what to do before you call a repair service.

Set the maintenance clock the same day

There’s a lesser-known part of the day-one file: the maintenance calendar starts on delivery day. The boiler’s annual service, the AC’s start-of-season filter clean, the washing machine’s filter rinse every few months — all of them want a start date. The moment you write down the delivery date, the first service date is already known. Put it in the calendar now.

This touches the warranty too. On some units, scheduled maintenance is a warranty condition — a boiler that skips its annual service can find its cover in dispute. So the maintenance record protects the warranty itself, not just the machine. Intervals, device by device, are ready in the appliance maintenance schedule.

If the old appliance leaves the same day

The day the new machine arrives is usually the day the old one goes. Three routes, each with a paperwork step:

• The store takes the old one: ask for a record of the handover — in trade-in deals, the discount often depends on it.
• You’re selling it used: the old unit’s invoice and warranty papers feed straight into its price. If the warranty hasn’t expired, it may transfer — how that works is in transferring the warranty on a used appliance. Whatever your file holds for that device becomes the buyer’s day-one file.
• It’s going to scrap: before binning its papers, check one thing — if the unit is listed on an insurance declaration or a business inventory, it should come off that list first.

Buying for a business

The same ten minutes is worth even more in a business, because the papers must go into a system, not a person. Three extra rules:

Have the invoice made out to the business. An invoice in a private name knots up both the expense records and the warranty tracking later. The tax side belongs to your accountant; the record side is yours.

Assign an owner to the device. The most expensive item in any business is the machine nobody is in charge of: its maintenance is forgotten, its faults are reported late, its papers get lost. One line on delivery day is enough: this device, this person.

Add it to the inventory the same day. You already photographed the serial label; adding the unit to the device inventory and warranty tracking routine takes two minutes. Rebuilding a full inventory later takes half a day of archaeology.

FAQ

Is the warranty void without an installation slip? It depends on the appliance group and the maker. For gas appliances, air conditioners and built-in sets, an authorised install record is a common warranty condition; for self-installed machines it usually isn’t required. The definitive answer is in the conditions section of the warranty certificate — which is why that paper belongs in the file.

How long should I keep the box? Keeping it through the warranty period makes sense: if a return or exchange involves shipping, the box earns its space. After that it’s wasted room. If you photographed the serial label, you no longer depend on the box for anything.

I lost the invoice — is the warranty gone? Not necessarily. Proof of purchase comes in more than one shape: a card statement, an e-invoice record, the order confirmation email and a product registration with the maker can all fix the date. The cleanest proof is still the invoice itself — which is why it’s the day-one file’s first document.

If I skip the maker’s registration, does the warranty still work? In most cases, yes: what starts the warranty is proof of purchase, not registration. Registration is extra insurance — the start date is fixed on the maker’s side too, recall notices reach you, and the serial number debate at the service desk gets shorter. Worth five minutes, but not mandatory.