How old are my appliances?
Is this a question you’ve ever asked yourself? If so, you’re in luck! We’re here to help you determine the age of the major appliances in your home…and it’s easier than you may think.
During our home inspections, we report on the age of the major appliances in the home (water heater, HVAC condenser and air handler). It’s important to know this information to determine what stage the appliance is in, in terms of its typical life expectancy. For reference, the typical life expectancy for most water heaters is 8 to 12 years, depending on brand and environment. The typical life expectancy (in Florida) for most HVAC condensing units is 10-15 years and 15-20 years for the air handler. We should also note that it is common for properly maintained appliances to exceed their estimated service life. You can also head to this previous article for a list of typical life expectancies for all of the major components of the home.
So how do we determine the age of these appliances? First we locate the manufacturer’s tag on the appliance. Second, we head to: building-center.org, the go-to site for home inspectors (or anyone) trying to determine an appliance’s age. See below for a how-to for each appliance:
How do I determine the age of my water heater?
The manufacturer’s tag should be somewhere on the front of your water heater. Sometimes, the manufacturer prints the date directly on the tag, as in the example below:
Other times, the date of manufacture is encoded into the serial number. This is when building-center.org comes in very handy. On their site they list all of the major appliance manufacturers and include details and graphics on how to decipher the age of the appliance.
You can see in the example above that this water heater was manufactured in December of 2003 based on the building center graphic.
How do I determine the age of my air conditioner?
The manufacturer’s tag for your HVAC equipment should be somewhere on the appliance. It can sometimes be a challenge to find them on the outdoor condensing unit, but keep looking, it should be there. Hint: sometimes the manufacturer will place them on the lower backside of the unit where the refrigerant lines are. The tag on the indoor air handler is typically easier to locate on the front of the unit. As with water heaters, sometimes the manufacturer makes it easy on us and prints the date directly on the tag, like the example below:
Other times, the date of manufacture is encoded into the serial number (see a pattern here?). Head to building-center.org and search for your appliance manufacturer and their graphics will give you the answer.
You can see in the example above that this unit was manufactured in June of 2003 based on the building center graphic.
That’s it! Thanks to the generous folks at building-center.org finding out the age of your appliances is quick and painless.
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