How old is my appliance? Three reliable ways to find out
The age of a boiler, washing machine or dishwasher decides whether a repair is worth it, whether a warranty still applies, and what an insurer will pay. Three ways to date any appliance — from most to least reliable.
Checked on 23 Aug 2026
General information, not legal or tax advice.
At a glance
- The rating plate (a sticker or metal plate on the appliance itself) carries the model and serial number — and often a printed production date
- Every major manufacturer can date an appliance from its serial number — via their support site or a quick enquiry
- Your own paper trail works too: the retailer invoice, warranty registration email, or installation certificate
- Why it matters: repair-or-replace maths, warranty claims, insurance claims and selling a property all turn on the age
- An appliance’s age plus its typical lifespan tells you what’s next — our lifespan tool covers 19 appliances
Nobody remembers buying their dishwasher. But the day it floods the kitchen, three different people will ask how old it is: the repair engineer (is it worth fixing?), the manufacturer (is it under warranty?) and possibly your insurer (what's it worth?). The answer is usually written on the machine itself — you just need to know where to look.
1. The rating plate — the machine's own ID card
Every appliance carries a rating plate: a sticker or small metal plate with the model number, serial number and electrical ratings. Many manufacturers print the production date, or a date code, directly on it.
The plate hides in predictable places:
| Appliance | Where the plate usually is |
|---|---|
| Washing machine / dishwasher | Inside the door frame, or around the door rim |
| Fridge freezer | Inside, on a side wall — often behind the salad drawer |
| Oven / cooker | On the door frame, visible with the door open |
| Boiler | Under the flap or on the side/underside of the casing |
| Microwave | On the back or base |
Look for a printed date (some plates say it outright: "10/2019"), a "production date" field, or a date-bearing code — Bosch, Siemens and Neff appliances, for example, carry an FD number which encodes the production date and which the manufacturer can decode for you in seconds.
2. The serial number — the manufacturer knows
If the plate shows only a serial number, that's still enough: every major manufacturer can date the appliance from it. Type the model and serial into the brand's support site (most have a registration or spares lookup that reveals the production data), or ask their support chat "when was this serial number manufactured?". Miele publishes a plate-finder showing exactly where the serial lives on each of its machines; Whirlpool does the same for its brands (which include Hotpoint and Indesit in Europe).
One caution: third-party "serial decoder" sites offer formulas for guessing the year from the digits. Some are right, some are out of date — if the answer matters (a warranty claim, an insurance form), get the date from the manufacturer, not a formula.
3. Your own paper trail
No plate, no patience? The age is usually in paperwork you already have: the retailer invoice or order-confirmation email (search your inbox for the brand name), the warranty registration confirmation, the installation certificate for gas appliances, or the document folder the previous owner left behind — appliance manuals with receipts stapled inside remain the most common handover in Britain.
What the date is actually worth
The age turns vague decisions into arithmetic. A washing machine typically lasts about 10 years — a bearing failure at year 3 is a repair, at year 9 a replacement. Our appliance life expectancy tool covers 19 appliances and does exactly this sum: age in, honest repair-or-replace steer out.
And once you've found the plate, don't lose it again: photograph it. KeepUp reads the make, model and serial from the photo, logs the age, and tells you where each appliance is in its life — so the next time someone asks, the answer is already filed.
Common questions
- Where is the serial number on my appliance?
- On the rating plate — a sticker or metal plate on the appliance. For washing machines and dishwashers, check inside or around the door frame; for fridges, inside on a side wall; for ovens, on the door frame; for boilers, under the front flap or on the casing.
- Can I tell the age of an appliance from the serial number myself?
- Sometimes — some brands print the date plainly, and some codes (like the Bosch/Siemens FD number) encode it. But third-party decoding formulas vary in accuracy, so when the age matters for a warranty or insurance claim, confirm the date with the manufacturer using the model and serial number.
- Why does the age of an appliance matter?
- It decides whether a repair is economic (a rule of thumb: a repair over ~40% of replacement cost rarely pays off near the end of typical life), whether a manufacturer warranty or guarantee still applies, and what an insurer will pay out. It also feeds the repair-or-replace decision for every appliance in a home.