Determining how much life is left in your hot water heater can be tricky. In many cases, there won’t be any outwardly visible indications that it's near breaking down. This is why finding out how old your water heater is can be such a valuable endeavor.
The majority of hot water heaters have a lifespan between 8-15 years. But if you don’t know the age of your current unit, you might be in for an unfortunate surprise someday.
Unfortunately, figuring out the age of your unit isn’t quite as simple as taking a look at your owner’s manual. In this guide we show you how to decode your water heater’s serial number.
TIP: If you have a financial record of the date you purchased the hot water heater or from your payment to a plumber, you can use that to get a close estimate of the age. If not, follow the steps below.
- Find the serial number on the unit
- This number may look something like: 1107D1234
- The first two numbers represent the month. The next two represent the year. In this example, the unit would have a date of Nov 2007.