UPDATED REPORT – Nov 1, 2023 – Digital Piano warranty, repair, and service info for Casio, Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Kawai, and all brands of digital pianos | WARNING REPORT! | What you should know when buying a new (or used) digital piano when it comes to reliability, service, and factory warranty?! A new digital piano comes with a factory warranty. Are those warranties on new digital pianos good, are they long enough, and how do they work? Read my report below to find out.
Purchasing a new digital piano for you and/or your family can be a tremendous investment in your musical future and you hope that the digital piano you choose will last a long time without any service issues. When purchasing a new digital piano in the US you generally get a manufacturer warranty on it. The length of a warranty is different from one brand to another and also different depending on the model of digital piano within the same brand. Warranty time and coverage can also be different for the parts vs the labor. When buying a digital piano it is always good to know what the warranty time and coverage is and and who is providing the warranty coverage.
Having a good warranty is fine as long as you can actually get the service your piano needs. It would not matter if you had a huge 100 year warranty if you could not actually get it repaired. Repairing physically or electronically malfunctioning digital pianos requires a good, knowledgeable technician who knows what he/she is doing and who can also get the proper parts from the manufacturer to repair the piano. It is not necessarily easy to repair a digital piano if it becomes defective, and diagnosing the problem does require an experienced technician who has done that kind of work before.
Digital piano circuit boards & parts, control panels, buttons, keyboard actions, power amps, speakers, LCD displays, wiring, cabinet parts, and installation are complex and require high quality intricate manufacturing. This is no easy thing to do and is what separates the good brands from the bad ones. Buying an attractive nice looking piano will not be of value to you if the piano breaks all the time or does not work properly because of inherent design flaws or manufacturing. I have seen this many times over the years where a piano will look good on the outside but they will use inferior parts and construction and the piano will give you continual problems. Even if that instrument has a longer warranty it will be of little consolation to you if you cannot get it fixed because parts are not available or technicians will not work on it because the piano brand has a bad reputation.
Some people think that paying an extra premium price to get these “extended warranties” on new digital pianos sold by music & piano stores can be a good thing. I have seen a few piano/music stores sometimes say to people that the piano manufacturer warranty covers less than it really does or is not as long as it really is. In other words, the store salespeople knowingly or unknowingly lie to you about the quality and length of time of the actual manufacturer warranty just to get you to buy their expensive extra so-called extended warranty for virtually the same coverage.
Another piece of advice: DO NOT PURCHASE A NEW DIGITAL PIANO FROM OUTSIDE OF THE US. The reason for this is those piano can come with a umber of negative issues. Those issues include the distinct possibility that different parts being used inside and/or outside on the cabinet or control panel of that model. No matter what an ad says, if the item is coming from a supplier outside the US, it may not actually be what is advertised.
With popular consumer products from top companies like Apple, Samsung, Toyota, and so many others who make cars, computers, digital tablets, phones, appliances, etc, there can be a service issue from time to time. So no company is immune from repair problems. But unless you purchased that new item in the US with a US warranty, you likely will not get service under a warranty and then you will have to pay for it, assuming you can get the needed parts at all! US parts suppliers for digital pianos do not normally give or sell parts for digital pianos purchased outside the US.
If you should ever need to use the manufacturer warranty then there is a process on how that works. Digital piano warranty work is serviced by factory authorized technicians that are normally self employed and don’t work for piano/music dealers. The technicians do the repair work in the their shop or in your home, church, school, or or venue depending on the location of the piano, the warranty coverage, and the technician. Some new digital piano warranties (usually for portable digital pianos) only allow for carry-in service where you take it (or ship it) to a technician to get the piano serviced. Other digital piano warranties (usually on furniture cabinet style pianos) allow the technician to come to you and service the piano there at no extra charge if the warranty includes “in-home service.”.
In most medium to larger cities in the US there is usually at least one digital piano technician who can service these new digital pianos. However these technicians are almost always independent techs as I mentioned earlier who do not work for piano or music stores. They are self employed and therefore usually work on most or all of the better brands of digital pianos. Piano or music stores across the US use these independent techs to do their digital piano service and if you buy from a local store, that store simply contacts the local tech to call you and set a service appointment, but you can do that yourself just as well.
It’s also good to know that if you live in an outlying area far away from a major city, you will likely not get quick service coming to you, if you get it at all. Independent techs must travel many miles to get to where if you are in an outlying area. It could be weeks or more until that tech can make time to travel to where you are, if they go there at all. At that point it will also cost you a lot of money to get that service tech to travel that distance as I mentioned before. In reality, you don’t get something for nothing and if you choose to buy a digital piano knowing you live in a remote area, you better be sure you choose a top name brand with a good product reliability track record or you may be in for nightmare getting your piano repaired if you live far away from the service technician.
So am I scaring you now about digital piano repairs and buying digital pianos!? I hope not because in reality the top name brands produce well made reliable digital pianos that should last for years without breakdown. If something does go wrong on a new top name digital piano, then it usually occurs within the first 1-3 months and a couple of these top brands will likely replace the piano for you during that time if getting service or parts becomes problematic instead of you needing to find a repair tech for it.
Based on my experience with them, the best digital piano brands to buy with a good track for handling any service issues in the US would be Kawai, Roland, Casio, Korg, and Yamaha. They have good experienced service departments at their US service facility, handle service issues pretty quickly, and are generally responsive to the piano owner. However, when it comes to buying used digital pianos with no factory warranty, I recommend you think twice before buying one hoping that you’ll save money doing it that way. Saving money is a relative thing. So even though you may save a few bucks on a used digital piano (or something from another country) in the long term it could easily cost you a lot more money if that digital piano needs repair and requires service. Go to my review on used digital pianos at the following link to find out more about buying used digital pianos. Used Digital Pianos.
*Before you buy any digital piano anywhere, please contact me first because I can give you more important info on the piano and also on any potential service issues that may be connected with that piano, especially the off-brands of digital pianos. You may want to stay away from those off-brands such as Williams, Suzuki, Donner, Adams, Medeli, and a few other brands, based on my experience with them. People want their digital piano to sound good, play good, but they especially want them to work good. So be sure you buy a digital piano that will perform and hold up in the way you want it to. Don’t just buy the piano for its looks or so-called “specs,” or because it has a cheap price. Get a good new name brand piano and you will likely not be disappointed.
If you want more info on new digital pianos and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.
Really helpful advice and information, thank you so much for writing this review! I’m considering getting a new digital piano myself and luckily saw this when researching about warranty.