How to determine the age of a WH

[SteveSarasota]

We all know the primary purpose of the serial number is to indicate the date of manufacture of the WH, so here it goes:

STATE:

1st position of the S/N is the month of manufacture, A=Jan, B=Feb, the second and 3rd positions are the year of manufacture, 91=1991, 03=2003 etc.

A.O. SMITH:

First letter of the S/N is the plant of manufacture. Second letter is the month of manufacture (same as STATE) and 3rd and 4th numbers are year of manufacture (same as STATE)

RHEEM:

The first four number of the S/N indicate the month and year of manufacture MMYY.

BRADFORD-WHITE:

1st letter of the S/N is the year of manufacture, A=1984, B=1985 all the way to Z=2003. Second letter is the month of manufacture, A=Jan, B=Feb. (I guess they have started again with "A" after 2003(?) I don't know )

AMERICAN WH COMPANY:

The first two numbers are the year of manufacture, the second two are the week within that year.

That's all for now,

[Bradd Judd]

Great Information!!!! I go ga ga somtimes attempting to keep up with the coding systems of the different manufacturers of all permantly affixed appliances. I really appreciate you taking the time out to help relieve the code game......especially since it's one of the last systems of the house I look at!!!

Thanks Again!!!![:-angel]

Brad

[Brian G]

I just don't understand the need to hide the manufacturing dates in serial or model numbers. Why the hell don't they just stamp the frickin' date on there? Too easy? They ought to do that with all major appliances.

Brian G.

Yeah, What I Said! [:-shades]

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by Brian G.

I just don't understand the need to hide the manufacturing dates in serial or model numbers. Why the hell don't they just stamp the frickin' date on there? Too easy? They ought to do that with all major appliances.

Brian G.

Yeah, What I Said! [:-shades]

If they didn't offer warranties, I'm sure they would.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Les]

Homart, Sears, Kenmore and Republic do/did. It should be a law - permanent magic marker with signature and date, on all water heaters and furnaces. Then we could just record the info and blame someone else. My personal favorite water heater trick is the recycled draft hood; wrong color, size and rusty.

[Jim Katen]

Steve, the Bradford White date codes are slighly more complex than that. Here's a chart with the details.

Mike. If you don't have this already, it's a good one to add to the web site. It seems like the question about how to decode BW water heaters comes up frequently.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Download Attachment: BradfordWhiteDateCodes.doc

20.44 KB

[Brian G]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

If they didn't offer warranties, I'm sure they would.

Seems like it would work in favor of the manufacturers in the long run though. The older they get the stronger the urge to replace them gets. Oh well.

Brian G.

Dreamer [:-indiffe

[hausdok]

Hi Jim,

Thanks a lot. I've added it to the downloads library.

While I'm on that subject - if any of you have docs that you think will be useful to your fellow inspectors and you want to share 'em, shoot them to me by email and I'll load them up into the Resources-Dowload section above.

OT - OF!!!

M.