How old is your appliance?
Enter the manufacturer, model and serial number to estimate when it was made. We show how we got there, how confident we are, and what the serial number cannot tell you.
Not sure where to look? Find the model and serial label on your appliance.
Supported manufacturers
We only ship a decoder rule when we can cite a source for it. Every rule below has documentation, test cases and a review date behind it.
- WhirlpoolWhirlpool CorporationWhirlpool serials carry a division letter, a year character and a two-digit production week, so they date to the week rather than just the year.
- MaytagWhirlpool Corporation since 2006Maytag has two completely different serial systems: its own 24-letter code before 2006, and the Whirlpool code afterwards.
- KitchenAidWhirlpool Corporation since 1986KitchenAid major appliances are Whirlpool-built and use the Whirlpool week-level serial format.
- AmanaWhirlpool Corporation since 2006Amana appliances built since the 2006 Whirlpool acquisition use the Whirlpool serial format. Earlier Amana appliances are not covered.
- GE AppliancesHaier since 2016GE uses two letters at the start of the serial: the first is the month, the second is the year. The year letter repeats every twelve years.
- HotpointGE Appliances in North AmericaNorth American Hotpoint appliances are GE-built and use the GE date code. European Hotpoint is a different company and is not covered.
- FrigidaireElectrolux Major Appliances since 1986Frigidaire serials are ten characters and encode the week precisely — but not the decade, which is never written down anywhere on the appliance.
- ElectroluxElectrolux Major AppliancesNorth American Electrolux appliances share the Frigidaire ten-character serial format, decade omitted and all.
- KenmoreSears retail brand, built by othersKenmore does not build anything. The first three digits of the model number identify who did, and that determines which serial format applies.
- BoschBSH Home AppliancesBosch puts the build date in a separate FD number rather than the serial. It resolves to one year, with no decade ambiguity.
Not yet supported: Samsung, LG, Speed Queen, Miele. We would rather list a gap than publish a rule we cannot source.
What a result looks like
This is what a lookup returns. Every claim is tied to the part of the serial that supports it.
Estimated manufacture date
Week 6 of 2020 (around February 2020)
This serial format encodes the production week, so the date is accurate to within a few days of that week. That makes this dryer about 6 years old.
- M
- Division code
- X
- Year code — 2020
- 06
- Production week
- 404786
- Build sequence
Example uses the serial MX06404786 from published Whirlpool documentation. We never use real customer serial numbers as examples.
How the decoder works
Four steps, all of them shown to you.
- 1
Normalise
Trim, uppercase and strip separators. Characters that are easily misread are flagged, never silently swapped.
- 2
Match every rule
All rules for that manufacturer are tried, filtered by appliance type, region and production era — not just the first one that matches.
- 3
Validate
Impossible values are rejected: week 99, month 13, dates in the future, or a year outside the era the rule covers.
- 4
Score and explain
Each surviving reading is scored on evidence for and against, then shown in confidence order with the reasoning attached.
Accuracy and limitations
What a serial number can tell you
- When the appliance was built, to the week, month or year depending on the format.
- Whether the number is consistent with a documented manufacturer format.
- Sometimes the product category, when the format encodes one.
What it cannot tell you
- Whether the appliance is genuine, safe, or in working order.
- Warranty status, or whether it was ever refurbished.
- The exact model variant, or which spare parts will fit.
- When it was sold or installed, which can be a year or more after it was built.
Common appliance lifespans
Typical service life by appliance type. These are ranges of how long appliances usually stay in service, not predictions of failure.
| Appliance | Typical service life | Usual label location |
|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | 10–15 years | Inside the fresh-food compartment, usually on the left-hand wall, on the ceiling near the front, or behind the crisper drawers. Some models put it behind the kick plate at the bottom of the door. |
| Freezer | 12–20 years | Inside the door opening on an upright freezer, or on the back wall of a chest freezer near the compressor housing. |
| Washing machine | 10–13 years | Around the door opening on a front loader, under the lid on a top loader, or on the rear panel near the top. |
| Clothes dryer | 10–13 years | Inside the door opening, on the rear panel, or behind the lint filter housing. |
| Dishwasher | 9–12 years | On the edge of the door, visible only when the door is open — usually the left side or along the top edge. Some models put it on the inner tub wall. |
| Range | 13–15 years | Behind the storage drawer or kick plate at the bottom, on the frame behind the oven door, or on the rear panel. |
| Oven | 13–16 years | On the frame revealed when the oven door is open, usually along the left or bottom edge. On a wall oven it may be on the side of the cabinet cut-out. |
| Cooktop | 13–15 years | On the underside of the unit, which normally means looking up at it from inside the cabinet below. |
| Microwave | 7–10 years | On the back of the cabinet, inside the door frame, or on the underside of an over-the-range unit. |
| Water heater | 8–12 years | On the outer jacket, normally a large printed label on the front or side near the top, above the thermostat access cover. |
| Air conditioner | 10–15 years | On the outdoor condenser cabinet for a split system, or on the side or rear of the chassis on a window unit. |
| Furnace | 15–20 years | Inside the front access panel, on the inner wall of the cabinet. |
| Heat pump | 12–15 years | On the outdoor unit's cabinet, usually a metal plate on the side. |
| Dehumidifier | 5–10 years | On the back or underside of the unit, or behind the water collection bucket. |
| Ice maker | 8–12 years | Inside the storage bin, or on the rear panel of a standalone unit. |
Popular lookups
Sourcing and recent rule updates
We ship 13 decoder rules across 10 brand families. Every one carries at least one source reference, a documented set of caveats, and unit tests covering valid serials, invalid serials, impossible dates and ambiguous decades. Rules without a citable source are not shipped.
Rules last reviewed
- whirlpool-standard-1990— Whirlpool two-letter prefix with production week(29 July 2026)
- maytag-whirlpool-system-2006— Whirlpool two-letter prefix with production week(29 July 2026)
- maytag-legacy-24-year— Maytag 24-letter year and month code(29 July 2026)
- kitchenaid-whirlpool-system— Whirlpool two-letter prefix with production week(29 July 2026)
- amana-whirlpool-system-2006— Whirlpool two-letter prefix with production week(29 July 2026)
- ge-two-letter-month-year— GE two-letter month and year code(29 July 2026)
- hotpoint-us-ge-system— GE two-letter month and year code(29 July 2026)
- frigidaire-electrolux-system— Electrolux ten-character serial with year digit and week(29 July 2026)
- electrolux-na-system— Electrolux ten-character serial with year digit and week(29 July 2026)
- kenmore-whirlpool-built— Whirlpool two-letter prefix with production week(29 July 2026)
- kenmore-ge-built— GE two-letter month and year code(29 July 2026)
- kenmore-frigidaire-built— Electrolux ten-character serial with year digit and week(29 July 2026)
- bosch-fd-number— Bosch FD number(29 July 2026)
See every source we rely on · Last review 29 July 2026