Warranties

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Guarantees [Abstract]

Warranties

Warranties

The Company has warranties with various terms from 18 months for parts to 25 years for certain heat exchangers. The Company has an obligation to replace parts if conditions under the warranty are met. A provision is made for estimated warranty costs at the time the related products are sold based upon the warranty period, historical trends, new products and any known identifiable warranty issues.  

Changes in the warranty accrual are as follows:

	Years Ended December 31,
	2019		2018		2017
Warranty accrual:	(in thousands)
Balance, beginning of period	$	11,421	$	10,483	$	7,936
Payments made	(6,816)		(7,869)		(8,686)
Provisions	8,047		9,669		11,233
Change in estimate	—		(862)		—
Balance, end of period	$	12,652	$	11,421	$	10,483
Warranty expense:	$	8,047	$	8,807	$	11,233

The change in estimate relates to the Company’s failure rate calculation. During 2018, in reviewing claims data, the Company noted specific claims that were the result of an isolated incident and not representative of the Company’s historical performance or representative of expected future claims. As such, these claims were accounted for as a specific accrual for warranty liability and excluded from our failure rate that the Company utilizes in estimating future claims.