Appliance Age Finder: Water Heater, Furnace and AC Age by Serial Number

Pick the brand, type the serial number from the label, and get the build date and age. Brands we cannot check are never guessed.

Last updated: 9 November 2026 · Sources

Supports Bradford White, A.O. Smith and Carrier. Example: Bradford White serial AA1234567 is dated January 2004. Limitations

Note for this brand.

How to read your label

Find the label. Water heaters carry a rating plate on the side of the tank. Outdoor AC units and furnaces carry a data plate on the cabinet. See the guide to the water heater rating plate.
Copy the serial number. Take every character, letters included. If the label also prints a plain manufacturing date, use that instead.
Read the result. The tool shows the year, the month or week, and the age in whole years. If it cannot date the serial reliably, it says so and shows nothing.

Brand and model: BRAND XXXX-XXX; Read the brand first; the serial's layout depends on it.
Serial number: SERIAL; Usually labelled S/N or SERIAL NO. Copy every character, letters included.
Date or other codes: MFG DATE; If a plain date is printed, use that.

Schematic of a rating plate or data plate. Drawn by us for illustration, not a photo of a real plate; the layout of a real label varies.

Bradford White water heater ageYear letter and month letter
A.O. Smith water heater ageYear and week from the serial
Carrier serial number lookupFiscal week and year from the serial
Equipment remaining life calculatorAge and years left in a typical lifespan range

It reads the date a unit was built, not when it was installed or switched on.
Each brand uses its own serial format, and some formats repeat over the years. When a serial could mean two dates, we show that it is ambiguous. When no rule fits, we show nothing.
We decode only brands with a published rule we could check: Bradford White, A.O. Smith and Carrier. Other brands show "Brand not decoded yet".
Serial numbers are decoded in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us.

Each decoder lists its own sources on its page. In brief:

Bradford White: My Water Heater and FAQs, Bradford White.
A.O. Smith: Manufacturing date device, A.O. Smith, and the 2005 recall notice, US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Carrier: the 48TC*D08 manual and the R-22 application and service manual, Carrier, with the rule explained on the Carrier page.

We are independent of every manufacturer named here. Brand names are used only to identify products.