Different manufactures have different methods to code manufacture dates. Here's how to decode a few major brands.
A Manufacture Date (MFG) specifies the date a major appliance was produced. The Manufacture Date may be indicated on the appliance’s Label/Tag and is commonly noted within the Serial Number. The Manufacture Date can be useful when determining your appliance’s warranty status or deciding on when the appliance should be replaced.
Each Manufacturer may have their own Manufacture Date Code format within the item’s Serial Number.
Common code formats are as follows:
GE Appliances have serial numbers that begin with two letters, followed by six numbers, with a letter at the end. The two letters at the beginning of the serial number tell you the month and year it was made. The first letter identifies the month; the second letter is the year. GE Appliances code chart notes which Letters are associated to the Month and Year.
LG product serial number starts with 3 numbers (first one indicating year of manufacturing followed by 2-digits identifying the month).
Lennox system serial numbers contain 4 numbers followed by a letter. The first 2 numbers represent the factory where they were manufactured, the second 2 numbers are the year and the letter is the month where A is January, B is February, etc.
Goodman serial numbers are 10 digit numerical where the month and year are encoded in the first 4 digits. The year is the first 2 and the month the second 2. For example, 1404123456 is manufactured is April 2014. Modern Rheem systems use two styles of date encoded in the serial number.
