# Determining the age of hot water heaters/boilers



## Apizur (Feb 19, 2013)

Hey there, new home inspector here.

I've learned that on Bradford-White hot water heaters the first two characters of the model number are the date of production, and I found a reference website with those characters and their dates. I was curious if there were tricks to dating other hot water heaters, and especially gas boilers. I've seen some dates stamped on the pumps, but I would rather take the advice of professionals with the years of experience.

Thank you for any advice,
Adam


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Read the boiler plate.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

As Inner says there should be a "plate" could be a sticker though that has the date of production on. I never seen one upto yet that didn't have a clear date printed on it but i aint installed everyone ever made so who knows.


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## KillerToiletSpider (May 27, 2007)

Most residential heaters have the month and year of manufacture in the serial number.


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## Apizur (Feb 19, 2013)

BCConstruction you make a valid point... I can't speak for your time in the profession, but you've INSTALLED them with plates, but as I'm starting to see the 1970s and beyond aren't as readily identifiable. I won't be installing anything, but potentially inspecting things 30+ years old.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Why does it matter how old they are?


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## Apizur (Feb 19, 2013)

Tinstaafl said:


> Why does it matter how old they are?


It occurs to me that you don't understand what I do for a profession.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Home inspectors are supposed to report on the condition of a home. I've never heard that it's part of the job description to report the age of a properly functioning appliance.


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## Apizur (Feb 19, 2013)

That's why you're not a home inspector.
Part of our job is to estimate the useful life of a few items. For example, the roof is one of them. The hot water heater and the boiler are two others.
We are, as appraisers also are, "auditors" of real estate transactions. A real estate agent could list a boiler as 3 years old and having 17 more years of useful life to sell a house, our job is to confirm if that's true.
On your behalf, laws in NY are different than PA, but I know they're not that different.


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## Squench (Dec 23, 2006)

Oldest heater I ever saw was from the '50s sonofagun had chrome trim and a chrome gas control valve. Boss at the time said it was probably lined with nickel and tell her wed replace it free of charge. H/O didn't bite just wanted me to find the gas smell. 
Yeah first three or four characters of serial are usually date of mfg some use letters like H01 would be Aug 2001 and most use numbers but I always double check with the ANSI date
B/W has thier own system but you've got that figured. the ANSI rating change every couple of years (i think 4) so it gives you a ballpark. I need I know for warranty work, but like you I only need to be close, not exact.


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## Eric K (Nov 24, 2005)

Apizur said:


> That's why you're not a home inspector.
> Part of our job is to estimate the useful life of a few items. For example, the roof is one of them. The hot water heater and the boiler are two others.
> We are, as appraisers also are, "auditors" of real estate transactions. A real estate agent could list a boiler as 3 years old and having 17 more years of useful life to sell a house, our job is to confirm if that's true.
> On your behalf, laws in NY are different than PA, but I know they're not that different.


Kinda got an attitude towards the one you seek help from. Didn't they teach you how to determine hot water tank age in home inspector class?


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## Oconomowoc (Oct 13, 2011)

I do service and repair and can easily explain how you figure the year out. Home inspectors are required to supply the year of the heating appliance on condition inspections.

OK. Different manufacturers have different system so let's work through this........

Rheem

10 digit serial number. First 4 numbers are the date.

1.) Month is listed first
2.) Year is listed second.

A.O Smith do it BACKWARDS! Remember that!

1.) Year is first two digits
2.) Month is second set of two digits.

Bradford White

OK, they use the alphabet and indicated by 2 letters. 

1.) The year is first, just like A.O. Smith & American. ONE digit only.
2.) The month is second in the serial number. ONE digit only!

Below are the codes for Bradford White.......

YEAR
J-2012
H-2011
G-2010
F-2009
E-2008
D-2007
C-2006
B-2005
A-2004
Z-2003
Y-2002
X-2001
W-2000
T-1999
S-1998
P-1997

MONTH

This is the second digit........
A- January
B- February
C- March
D- April
E- May
F- June
G- July
H- August
J- September
K- October
L- November
M- December

OK. Prior to 2008 State water heater were a separate company and made Kenmore and other junk brands. In this case the codes were 3 digits. First was a letter (month) and the two following numbers were the year.

B99 = February 1999

OK. A.O. Smith did this as well....prior to 2008.

American Water Heater company is different. They list weeks.

1.) Year first
2.) Week second

Example....

0922 = 2009 & 22nd week of the year.

Mike


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## Oconomowoc (Oct 13, 2011)

By the way, Lochinvar uses the same code system as Bradford White.

Rheem/Ruud/Richmond are all the same.


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## Oconomowoc (Oct 13, 2011)

P.S.

If it's an A.O Smith you ALWAYS want to call the service number and ask them. Much like the company the codes are seriously messed up. They made multiple changes over the years and you can not count on anything except calling to verify. Getting parts for these is absolute murder!!!!!

Also. American Water heater company makes heaters under different names. Call them and the will give you a list.

Hope this helps, it's kind of a mess but make a cheat sheet and carry it in your truck. Eventually this will all sink in.

Mike


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Apizur said:


> That's why you're not a home inspector.


I have to confess to a certain amount of instinctive hostility toward home inspectors, even though I've gotten quite a bit of work because of their reports. :laughing:

But as it happens, I have a loyal and regular client who are one, and I talked to him today about this. His explanation of the rationale made sense, so I'll reluctantly withdraw my spines and retreat with my tail between my legs. :sad:


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## Oconomowoc (Oct 13, 2011)

Tinstaafl said:


> I have to confess to a certain amount of instinctive hostility toward home inspectors, even though I've gotten quite a bit of work because of their reports. :laughing:
> 
> But as it happens, I have a loyal and regular client who are one, and I talked to him today about this. His explanation of the rationale made sense, so I'll reluctantly withdraw my spines and retreat with my tail between my legs. :sad:


Tin

I have my issues with inspectors as well, I'll leave it at that. 

This is my personal opinion but, it always blows my mind how buyers look at a report and try to make the home owner pay for stuff. This wasn't like this 20 years ago. It's big business now. Lol

"Ummmm, the water heater is 1/2 used up, you need to buy me a new one".

I mean, it's crazy. When I sell anything it's take it or leave it. The only reason they get away with this is because of the economy and they know sellers NEED to sell.

OK, rant over.


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## KillerToiletSpider (May 27, 2007)

Apizur said:


> That's why you're not a home inspector.
> Part of our job is to estimate the useful life of a few items. For example, the roof is one of them. The hot water heater and the boiler are two others.
> We are, as appraisers also are, "auditors" of real estate transactions. A real estate agent could list a boiler as 3 years old and having 17 more years of useful life to sell a house, our job is to confirm if that's true.
> On your behalf, laws in NY are different than PA, but I know they're not that different.


There is no such thing as a hot water heater, if the water was hot there would be no need to heat it.


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## Big Shoe (Jun 16, 2008)

Life is like a box of chocolate. 

I do a lot of work for realtors. I've been involved with some extensive over the top reports to off the wall Stevie Wonder reports. All in all most of them are good. They have to justify their jobs.


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## Squench (Dec 23, 2006)

KillerToiletSpider said:


> There is no such thing as a hot water heater, if the water was hot there would be no need to heat it.


Ok, how about a warm water heater ?
Btw I love home insp reports when a couple hundred dollars stands between a home sale thy dont even blink when I hand them the bill


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## Apizur (Feb 19, 2013)

Eric K said:


> Kinda got an attitude towards the one you seek help from. Didn't they teach you how to determine hot water tank age in home inspector class?


Read next quote. And no, New York state has very lax requirements for becoming a home inspector. I can say that now that I'm on this side of the fence. I'm trying to do the right thing and educate myself so I don't cost myself and a home buyer thousands of dollars.



Tinstaafl said:


> I have to confess to a certain amount of instinctive hostility toward home inspectors, even though I've gotten quite a bit of work because of their reports. :laughing:
> 
> But as it happens, I have a loyal and regular client who are one, and I talked to him today about this. His explanation of the rationale made sense, so I'll reluctantly withdraw my spines and retreat with my tail between my legs. :sad:


No harm done. There is a lot of ambiguous hostility and misunderstanding surrounding the field. Most people think we're _code_ inspectors... and by law we're not even allowed to quote code. Also, we MUST piss off one realtor or the other... the one's that get us jobs, it just works that way. That's where this business gets crooked.



Oconomowoc said:


> Tin
> 
> I have my issues with inspectors as well, I'll leave it at that.
> 
> ...


Yeah they may spark up some excessive negotiation. Nothing as stupid as this "6% back at closing" bull**** everyone's doing because of HGTV. As it goes, our job is to protect the buyer from the _potentially_ unscrupulous realtor.... and we have to cover our hind quarters with a lot of simple, DIY items (install GFCI, cap that chimney, raise that sidewalk, put in a handrail)... so I can see how it gets annoying when the uneducated buyer (who is supposed to be educated by both the realtor and themselves) makes a big deal about mannerisms vs. actual big deals.



Squench said:


> Ok, how about a warm water heater ?
> Btw I love home insp reports when a couple hundred dollars stands between a home sale thy dont even blink when I hand them the bill


Especially flippers, that's their income. 600 dollars worth of X to sell a 70,000 dollar house? Absolutely.


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## Apizur (Feb 19, 2013)

Guys there's been some good input, and I appreciate it. I'll still take anyone else who wanders by with some good tricks or techniques.
For boilers I was taught the pump might have a date on it... but doesn't necessarily reflect the date, because the pump could have been replaced!


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