It is only natural to get curious about the exact age of any appliance you use or would like to get. You can easily keep track of the time you’ve used one since purchase.
However, it’s another thing to know exactly how much time has passed since the appliance left the production house.
Sometimes, products may last months on the road in transit from the production house to stores.
Then, the products sit at the stores for a while, pending when customers need them.
Some appliances last only a few weeks. Others last months, even years. It all depends on the demand from customers.
You can tell the Whirlpool appliance’s age via the date stamp on the device. But most don’t have date stamps. In this instance, the appliance serial number comes in handy. Once you find the refrigerator serial number, you can use a serial number decoder to get your Whirlpool appliance age.
How To Tell The Age of Whirlpool Refrigerators?
It is easy to tell your Whirlpool appliance’s age when you have a date stamp on the instrument.
But if your refrigerator doesn’t have a date stamp, you can use the device serial number to tell the age.
Once you find the refrigerator serial number, you need a serial number decoder to make sense of the model, serial number.
For Whirlpool appliances, the appliance serial number is often two letters followed by seven digits or a letter followed by eight digits.
The first character is the location of manufacture; the second character gives the year of manufacture. The third and fourth characters stand for the week of manufacture.
Then, the characters left (third to seventh digits) are the manufacture order during the week of manufacture.
Each company has a unique serial number decoder. Sometimes one serial number decoder may work for products from different manufacturers.
That is because two companies may choose to produce an appliance together. Besides that, you need to use the serial number decoder specific to your appliance manufacturer.
You only need the second letter and first and second digits of the appliance serial number to get the Whirlpool appliance age.
The model and serial number are often nine characters for all Whirlpool appliances. Say you have an example serial number like D01234567. The only characters you need are 0, 1, and 2.
For example, serial number DX1234567, we can use a serial number decoder to tell the Whirlpool appliance age.
Then, 0 means 2010, 12 (1 and 2 put together) gives the 12th week of the year.
So from the example serial number, the appliance was manufactured in the 12th week of 2010. That falls around March 2010.
Since you know the manufacturer’s date, you can easily calculate the exact Whirlpool appliance age.
Where Is the Manufacture Date On a Whirlpool Refrigerator?
Unless your Whirlpool refrigerator has a date stamp, you can’t find the manufacture date written out on it. But you can get it with the refrigerator serial number.
You can find the refrigerator serial number inscribed on the appliance label. Find it on your refrigerator, and the manufacture date is only a step away.
You may find the model and serial number on your refrigerator guide but get the wrong refrigerator serial number.
You will discover that the model and serial number on the refrigerator guide may be incomplete or different from the one on the label.
Instead, find the model, and serial number on the refrigerator label. The refrigerator label is not hard to find.
It is often in fixed positions but varies slightly with the refrigerator models.
You can find the label on the inside of your refrigerator. It is often on the left wall of your refrigerator near the top of the refrigerator compartment.
Brands carry models, serial numbers, and unique model numbers. The model, serial numbers, and model numbers are never the same.
In some models, you will find the label on the left-hand side of the refrigerator door.
Once you find your model serial number, use a proper serial number decoder to get the age. The serial number decoder is a table of digits and alphabets that show manufacturing years.
Older serial number decoders date as far back as 1989. If you’re in the market for a new refrigerator, get a serial number decoder that runs from 1990 to the current year.
The serial number decoder serves two basic needs; to tell the age of a refrigerator before you buy it and to know the age of one you already have.
You don’t need special Math skills to figure out the serial number decoder. The table is easy to use.
You only need to sort out your refrigerator model serial number, and you’re good to go!
How to Use a Serial Number Decoder?
The serial number decoder is there to help people make sense of their model serial numbers. The model’s serial number is merely a code without the serial number decoder.
To use the serial number decoder, first, find the model number serial. Model serial numbers are always nine characters.
Once you have the model’s serial number at hand, note the second, third, and fourth characters from the left. They are all you need to tell the Whirlpool appliance age.
The second character is the year of manufacture. The third and fourth characters together give the week of manufacture.
The table below shows a typical serial number decoder from 1990 to 2029. You can use it to tell the age of your Whirlpool refrigerator with the model and serial number.
| Code | Year | Code | Year | Code | Year | Code | Year |
| X | 1990 | K | 2000 | 0 | 2010 | X | 2020 |
| A | 1991 | L | 2001 | 1 | 2011 | A | 2021 |
| B | 1992 | M | 2002 | 2 | 2012 | B | 2022 |
| C | 1993 | P | 2003 | 3 | 2013 | C | 2023 |
| D | 1994 | R | 2004 | 4 | 2014 | D | 2024 |
| E | 1995 | S | 2005 | 5 | 2015 | E | 2025 |
| F | 1996 | T | 2006 | 6 | 2016 | F | 2026 |
| G | 1997 | U | 2007 | 7 | 2017 | G | 2027 |
| H | 1998 | W | 2008 | 8 | 2018 | H | 2028 |
| J | 1999 | Y | 2009 | 9 | 2019 | J | 2029 |
If you look carefully at the table, you will notice that some years carry the same code. The codes X, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and J, are repeated on the table.
They represent the years 1990 to 1999, and also 2020 to 2029. The repetition is no cause for alarm. It shouldn’t confuse you either.
The trick is to disregard the years from 1990 to 1999 when you’re in the market for a new refrigerator.
If we conjure an example serial number like E50519950, we can use the serial number decoder to tell the appliance’s age.
Remember, we only need three characters from the entire serial number to get the appliance age.
So from the left, only 5 and 05 are relevant to us now. The first part of your code gives the year of manufacture and the second part is the week of manufacture.
So if we look at the table for the number 5, 5 represents the year 2015. Next, the number 05 is simply the 5th week of manufacture.
Therefore, the producers manufactured the appliance with serial number E50519950 in the 5th week of 2015. That is February 2015.
We can look at another example serial number, V03320015. The date of manufacture for this appliance is the 33rd week of 2010, August 2010.
Here’s a quick tip, always be sure not to mix up digits and letters in the serial numbers. A frequent error is confusing “zero” and the letter “O.”
Conclusion
You can tell the age of your Whirlpool refrigerator hassle-free if it has a date stamp. But most appliances don’t come with a date stamp, so you need the refrigerator serial number instead.
That method isn’t complicated either. You have to find your model serial number and use a serial number decoder to tell the age of your refrigerator.
