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How to determine the age or production date of your water heater.

American® Water Heaters

How to determine the date of production/manufacture or age of American® Water Heaters from the serial number.

Brief History:

American® Water Heaters was founded in 1996.

From 2002-2006, GSW® (Canada) was the parent company of American®.

A.O. Smith® acquired American® Water Heaters (GSW) in April of 2006.

American® now operates as a subsidiary of A.O. Smith.

A. O. Smith Water

How to determine the date of production/manufacture or age of A. O. Smith Water Heaters from the serial number.

Brief History:

In 1933, the company used the process of fusing glass to steel to make a large single-piece glass-lined brewery tank. Over the next 32 years, they made more than 11,000 glass-lined tanks. In 1936, the company patented the glass-lined water heater. Three years later, they began mass-producing residential water heaters.

Note:

A.O. Smith operates under the following brand names around the world: A.O. Smith (United States, Canada, China, Europe, Turkey, India and Vietnam), GSW (Canada), John Wood (Canada), State Water Heaters, American Water Heaters, Reliance Water Heaters, Lochinvar, Takagi and U.S. Craftmaster Water Heaters.

BradFord White

Determining the age of a BradFord White Water Heater.

Brief History:

Bradford White Corporation, headquartered in Ambler, Pennsylvania, is an American-owned and employee owned, full-line manufacturer of residential and commercial and industrial products for water heating, space heating, combination heating and storage applications.

Age Of A Bradford White Water Heater

The first two characters of the serial number represent the year and month of manufacture. The remainder of the serial is a sequential production number, seven digits in length before December 2007 (DM), and eight digits in length after.

For example:

Production Year

A = 1984 or 2004

B = 1985 or 2005

C = 1986 or 2006

D = 1987 or 2007

E = 1988 or 2008

F = 1989 or 2009

G = 1990 or 2010

H = 1991 or 2011

J = 1992 or 2012

K = 1993 or 2013

L = 1994 or 2014

M = 1995 or 2015

N = 1996 or 2016

P = 1997 or 2017

S = 1998 or 2018

T = 1999 or 2019

W = 2000 or 2020

X = 2001 or 2021

Y = 2002 or 2022

Z = 2003 or 2023

Production Month

A = January

B = February

C = March

D = April

E = May

F = June

G = July

H = August

J = September

K = October

L = November

M = December

For the year column, we do not use the letters : I, O, Q, R U, V

For the month column we do not use the letters: I & N – Z

heaters manufactured. They were built in 1997.

Note:

A.O. Smith operates under the following brand names around the world: A.O. Smith (United States, Canada, China, Europe, Turkey, India and Vietnam), GSW (Canada), John Wood (Canada), State Water Heaters, American Water Heaters, Reliance Water Heaters, Lochinvar, Takagi and U.S. Craftmaster Water Heaters.

Rheem

Determining the age of a Rheem water heater.

Brief History:

Rheem Manufacturing Company is an American privately held manufacturer that produces residential and commercial water heaters and boilers, as well as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The company also produces and sells products under the Ruud brand name.

Age Of A Rheem Water Heater

The date of production/manufacture or age of Rheem® Water Heater(s) can be determined from the serial number.

For example:

Serial number styles/formats found are:

RUUD

Determining the age of a RUUD water heater.

Brief History:

Ruud was founded by Edwin Ruud (1854–1932), a Norwegian immigrant who lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He developed the first automatic storage tank gas-fired water heater, which went into production in 1889. In 1913, Ruud merged and absorbed the Humphrey Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan which also manufactured water heaters. The Humphrey Company had a large manufacturing operation in Kalamazoo, which Ruud continued to operate and expand. In 1954, Ruud moved all operations from Pittsburgh to Kalamazoo where they were headquartered until the purchase by Rheem in 1960.

Age Of A RUUD Water Heater

The date of production/manufacture or age of Rheem® Water Heater(s) can be determined from the serial number.