Worth keeping Apple care on now vintage 2018 Mini + what happens at point of obsolete

[gumbaloom]

Hi all,

So I pulled the trigger on a new Mac Mini M4 at the weekend and now (mostly) sorted bar my virtualization rig.

Memory pressure in tne end was a non issue - physical used 24GB, used 19.48GB, cached 4.88GB about 40% up in the green zone on the memory bar. This is with virtualbox, php storm, vs code, soap ui and firefox all running.

Defo think I'd have struggled with 16GB so 24GB was the right choice.

Anyways my question is this - what to do about my 2018 Mini .

1) It's Apple care is due up for renewal beginning of July - 5/6th I think - based on the fact it's now vintage is it worth it ? It got upgraded to 32GB so I kinda think Apple might poo poo me if I did try to send in for service on such an old machine. - my new machine was purchased with 3 years from the start so it's already covered.

2) It got "vintaged" now about 2 months ago so the countdown is now on to it being obsolete and not serviceable anymore. Pretty sure I could get one more year but what happens if apple obsoletes a product when you're half way through the one year run - do they cancel the contract and refund you ?

gumbaloom

 

[Bigwaff]

do they cancel the contract and refund you ?

Sound like question for Apple.

 

[m1maverick]

1) It's Apple care is due up for renewal beginning of July - 5/6th I think - based on the fact it's now vintage is it worth it ? It got upgraded to 32GB so I kinda think Apple might poo poo me if I did try to send in for service on such an old machine. - my new machine was purchased with 3 years from the start so it's already covered.

Barring a unique situation I see no reason to extend warranty coverage on a system which is seven years old and classified as vintage by the manufacturer.

2) It got "vintaged" now about 2 months ago so the countdown is now on to it being obsolete and not serviceable anymore. Pretty sure I could get one more year but what happens if apple obsoletes a product when you're half way through the one year run - do they cancel the contract and refund you ?

If they can't repair it I suspect they'd just exchange it for a brand new one.

 

[theluggage]

1) It's Apple care is due up for renewal beginning of July - 5/6th I think - based on the fact it's now vintage is it worth it ?

Will they even renew Applecare on a vintage product? How much will they charge?
My guess is that it either won't be available or will be at an end-of-argument price.

I'd look at the small print on Applecare and see what it actually covers, and what happens if it's "beyond economic repair" - or ask Apple directly (with your model & serial number) rather than rely on the wisdom of the interwebs. There are stories of Applecare replacing "vintage" products with new ones... but those probably had Applecare renewed before they turned Vintage.

Bear in mind that these things are pretty reliable, most failures either occur in the first few months or when it is old and clapped out (which usually takes a lot more than 5 years). Extended warranties are always of questionable value unless you need the accidental damage cover (less important on a desktop).

If the extension costs $x, ask yourself whether you'd actually pay $x to repair it if it failed, and then bear in mind that the odds are that it won't fail.

You also have to consider how much you spend in total on extended warranties for all of your gadgets vs. how much you'd spend in total on repairs without them. Clue: companies don't run extended warranty schemes at a loss!

2) It got "vintaged" now about 2 months ago so the countdown is now on to it being obsolete and not serviceable anymore.

"Vintage" is supposed to be 5 years after "last distributed for sale" and "obsolete" 7 years - but I'm not sure that Apple actually publishes the official "last distributed" date. Still, there should be a 2 year gap.

 

[Boyd01]

My 2018 Mini just turned 5 years old a few days ago. It is used very heavily processing geodata with a Windows 10 VM. Right now it's completing a 20 hour export of a 33gb file, one of a series of 9 files that will take another full week of 24/7 renders to finish.

I also have an m4 Mini that's really just a media server. But the 2018 is still my main computer and frankly, I can't afford to replace it yet. I never got AppleCare for this Mini and certainly wouldn't renew it at this point if I had.

Discussion of how long Apple might support the 2018 Mini in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/when-will-support-for-the-2018-mini-end.2458796/

 

[bingeciren]

Hi all,

So I pulled the trigger on a new Mac Mini M4 at the weekend and now (mostly) sorted bar my virtualization rig.

Memory pressure in tne end was a non issue - physical used 24GB, used 19.48GB, cached 4.88GB about 40% up in the green zone on the memory bar. This is with virtualbox, php storm, vs code, soap ui and firefox all running.

Defo think I'd have struggled with 16GB so 24GB was the right choice.

Anyways my question is this - what to do about my 2018 Mini .

1) It's Apple care is due up for renewal beginning of July - 5/6th I think - based on the fact it's now vintage is it worth it ? It got upgraded to 32GB so I kinda think Apple might poo poo me if I did try to send in for service on such an old machine. - my new machine was purchased with 3 years from the start so it's already covered.

2) It got "vintaged" now about 2 months ago so the countdown is now on to it being obsolete and not serviceable anymore. Pretty sure I could get one more year but what happens if apple obsoletes a product when you're half way through the one year run - do they cancel the contract and refund you ?

gumbaloom

I thought Apple Care was available for 2 or sometimes 3 years max, and when it comes to the end of coverage there was no option to renew it. So, I'm puzzled about the fact that not only you are talking about a 5 year old product running out of warranty now but also about renewing Apple Care.

 

[Fishrrman]

Not worth it any longer.
The Minis are amongst the most reliable Macs, anyway.

 

[goodcow]

I thought Apple Care was available for 2 or sometimes 3 years max, and when it comes to the end of coverage there was no option to renew it. So, I'm puzzled about the fact that not only you are talking about a 5 year old product running out of warranty now but also about renewing Apple Care.

AppleCare has been turned into a monthly or annual subscription now, and you can keep a product covered beyond the old three-year (four or five with special education plans) periods.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

You can keep it on the plan; if it ever DOES need service then the good news is it'll be replaced by a M4 mini with the same or more RAM and storage.

The bad news is, it's unlikely to ever need service.