How to determine the year of manufacture of a washing machine?

When buying a washing machine in a store, it's easy to find out its year of manufacture. The machine comes with documentation detailing the assembly date. You can also ask the sales representative this question—there's no point in them lying to you. It's a different story when buying a used machine. Often, the documentation for used washing machines is lost, and the seller can only estimate the year of manufacture. Fortunately, you can determine the date yourself by carefully inspecting the machine.

A sticker on the case will help

Every washing machine has a nameplate. This is a sticker containing basic information about the machine. It is always attached to the machine at the factory.

The nameplate indicates the serial number, model of the washing machine and other characteristics, including the production date.

Depending on the washing machine model, the markings may be located in different places. Some machines have the nameplate at the back, while others have it at the front, behind the hatch door. To find and examine the information sticker, you should:

• de-energize the washing machine;
• close the valve responsible for the water supply;
• Move the appliance away from the wall and inspect its back. Most often, the nameplate is located on the back, bottom, and right side.

If the marking is located on the front of the machine, you don't need to touch the shut-off valve; simply open the machine door. The identification plate is located above the door, so you don't have to move the machine to read it.

Carefully examine the information on the nameplate. Find the "Manufacture Date" column and look at the information on the right. Most washing machine models list the month and year of manufacture, simply "11.2014." This information is not encrypted. Therefore, finding the production date should be straightforward. If most of the information on the nameplate is erased and the date is illegible, you'll have to find the information you need another way. Another option is to look at the model's serial number. Among other information, it also contains the year of manufacture.

The code on the nameplate will help.

Another way to find out when your washing machine's "birthday" is to decipher its barcode. This is a unique combination of numbers and letters that encodes key information about the specific machine. The serial number of the SM is written in the machine’s technical passport, warranty card or on the nameplate. It's not difficult to find it.

The main difficulty is that you can't determine the year of manufacture of a washing machine simply by looking at the barcode. The code must be deciphered. Let's look at how to correctly "read" the information from the serial number using a Samsung washing machine as an example. Let's assume the combination is: S/N Y44P5ADD600226W, where:

• the last W is a control letter, it is not written in all cases;
• five digits before it – “00226” – the individual code of the machine;
• The seventh character from the edge (if there is a control letter) is "6" – this is the month of assembly. The numbers from 1 to 9 indicate the months from January to September, respectively. October is encoded with the letter "A", November – "B", December – "C";
• The eighth character from the end (if there is a control character) indicates the year the car was manufactured. The letters Y, L, P, Q, S, Z, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, M, and N represent years from 2005 to 2020.
• The first characters (there can be from three to seven) are the factory code, which encodes the device group, location and line of its assembly.

This example makes it easy to determine that the Samsung washing machine was assembled in June 2013. Serial numbers for other brands are read in a similar way. With this information, it's easy to determine the washing machine's production date.

   

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