Model number or serial number: which one do you need?
Both are printed on the same label, usually one above the other. They do different jobs.
| Model number | Serial number | |
|---|---|---|
| What it identifies | The product: size, fuel, features, configuration | Your individual unit |
| Shared with other units? | Yes, every unit of that model | No, it is unique |
| Carries the build date? | No | Yes, on most major brands |
| Use it for | Parts, manuals, spec sheets, registration, warranty claims, recall notices | Manufacture date, and confirming your unit falls inside a recall’s affected range |
| Typical look | Letters and digits, often with a trailing revision digit, e.g. WTW5000DW1 | A plant or date code plus a run number, e.g. C60842986 |
Basis: manufacturer support pages (Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, GE, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire, Bosch) and Sears PartsDirect’s model-number guide.
If you’re trying to work out how old something is, you want the serial number — use the appliance age checker or the brand guides. If you’re buying parts, downloading a manual, registering the appliance or checking a recall, you want the model number, and the recall check above takes it directly.
Sub-Zero refrigerator labels may have a separate Date Code field. Keep that printed date with the model and serial. The Sub-Zero section of our fridge age guide explains the manufacturer-supported route; the automatic age checker does not decode this brand. Basis: Sub-Zero’s official age guidance.
Where the label is, by appliance
Open the door or lid first. On most appliances the label sits on the frame around the opening, where you only see it when the door is open.
Spots 1 to 4 are inside the fresh-food section and 5 is outside, low on the front; the spot depends on the fridge’s brand and door style. Refrigerator label spots by brand
Front-loaders carry the label around the door opening (1); on some models it’s outside, on the lower right front corner (2). Front-load washer label spots by brand
Top-loaders usually have it under the lid (1); some models use the back of the control panel or the back panel (2), or a lower corner of the cabinet (3). Top-load washer label spots by brand
The label is usually on the rim of the door opening (1) or beside the drum opening (2); on some ventless models it’s behind the water tank. Dryer label spots by brand
Open the door fully: the label is usually on an edge of the tub frame (1, 2) or on the door’s side or top edge (3). Dishwasher label spots by brand
- Oven frame or side trim, seen with the door open (Whirlpool, Maytag, Frigidaire, GE, LG)
- Frame of the storage drawer, with the drawer pulled out (Whirlpool, Maytag, Frigidaire, LG, GE)
- Under the cooktop or behind the control panel on some models (GE; Frigidaire and Maytag cooktops underneath)
Basis: Official manufacturer help pages (Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, GE, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire, Bosch) and Sears PartsDirect for Kenmore. Diagrams are simplified; your model's exact spot can differ.
| Appliance | Where manufacturers say to look |
|---|---|
| Refrigerator | Inside the fresh-food compartment: the upper side wall, the ceiling, or the frame behind the crisper drawers. Whirlpool and Maytag put side-by-side labels on the right-hand side and top- and bottom-freezer labels on the left; other brands vary |
| Front-load washer | Inside the door, on the rim of the opening |
| Top-load washer | Under the lid, on the tub rim; some models put it on the back of the control panel |
| Dryer | Inside the door opening, or in front of the lint screen, or on the back panel |
| Dishwasher | On the edge of the tub frame or the side or top edge of the door, with the door fully open; sometimes behind the kickplate |
| Range or cooktop | On the oven door frame, on the frame behind the storage drawer, or under the cooktop |
| Wall oven | Top of the oven cavity, or on the front frame around the opening (some brands put it at the bottom left); on double ovens, usually the lower oven |
| Over-the-range microwave | On the front frame, with the door open |
Basis: official manufacturer help pages (Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, GE, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire, Bosch) and Sears PartsDirect. Your model’s own manual gives the exact spot.
Look up your model number on the maker’s own site
Each maker’s manual and parts search takes the model number exactly as printed, so paste it into the maker’s own tool rather than working it out from the characters.
| Brand | Maker’s own lookup | What the maker says about the number | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whirlpool | Whirlpool manuals | No format published | Whirlpool serial number lookup |
| Maytag | Maytag manuals | No format published | Maytag serial number lookup |
| KitchenAid | KitchenAid model-number page | No format published | KitchenAid serial number lookup |
| Amana | Amana model-number page | No format published | Amana serial numbers |
| GE, Hotpoint, Café, Monogram | GE manuals, GE parts, Café finder | GE and GE Profile model numbers always begin and end with a letter; GE’s parts search says to leave out spaces | GE serial number lookup |
| Frigidaire | Frigidaire product support | No format published | Frigidaire and Electrolux serial number lookup |
| LG | LG support, LG parts | Model numbers start with a letter, serial numbers with three numbers; LG’s parts store searches by serial first | LG serial number lookup |
| Bosch, Thermador | Bosch manuals, Thermador manuals | The model number is the E-Nr; the label also carries the FD number and the Z-Nr. Thermador asks for capital letters | Bosch serial number lookup |
| Kenmore | Kenmore manuals, Sears PartsDirect | The three-digit prefix names the maker (Sears PartsDirect); Kenmore’s search takes no special characters, so leave out the dot | Kenmore serial number lookup |
| Samsung | Samsung manuals | Samsung’s US site calls it the model code | Samsung serial number lookup |
Basis: official (each maker’s own site, listed in the sources below); the Kenmore prefix rule is from Sears PartsDirect.
What the characters mean
Most makers don’t publish a full key to their model numbers. Only two do, and both wrote it for service and trade staff rather than owners:
- GE: its 2025 nomenclature guide gives each brand a letter (Z is Monogram, for example), and the positions after it change from one product line to the next, so no single key covers every GE appliance.
- Whirlpool: service manual W11296289 covers Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana and IKEA refrigerators and includes a model-number key (its worked example is a Whirlpool model). The key’s year letter is the year the model was introduced, not the year your unit was built.
For every other brand, use the maker’s lookup above. Basis: official (GE; Whirlpool).
Use the full number, including any suffix. Sears PartsDirect advises using “the full model number from the tag, including any version or revision codes”, not the number on the front panel or in the manual, which often gives only the base model. Basis: Sears PartsDirect, a parts retailer.
Two brands that label things differently
Bosch and Thermador don’t print “model number”. They print E-Nr, short for Erzeugnisnummer, with a version number after the slash. The FD number is the production number, which encodes the build date, and Z-Nr (Zähl-Nummer) is the individual serial number. On a Bosch rating plate, the number you want for parts and recalls is the E-Nr; the number you want for the build date is the FD. Basis: Bosch’s own product-number documentation.
Kenmore model numbers start with a three-digit prefix before a dot, such as **110.**20622991. That prefix is not decoration: it identifies the manufacturer that actually built the unit. Sears PartsDirect gives 790 (Frigidaire-built) and 795 (LG) as examples. You need the prefix before you can decode a Kenmore serial at all. The Kenmore guide has the full table with its sources. Basis: Sears PartsDirect, a parts retailer.
What you can actually do with a model number
- Check for recalls. This is the most valuable use, and it’s free. Paste the model number into the recall check above, which searches the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s published recall data, then confirm on the official notice at CPSC.gov. Recall notices list affected model numbers and often a serial or date-code range, so you need both numbers to be sure.
- Buy the right part. Parts sites and manufacturer parts catalogs are organized by model number, including the trailing revision digit. Use the full model number exactly as printed, including any trailing digits, when you search a parts catalog.
- Download the manual or spec sheet. Manufacturer support sites look manuals up by model number.
- Register the appliance or make a warranty claim. Manufacturers ask for the model number and the serial number together.
- Find out who really made it. Relevant for Kenmore, and for house brands generally.
- Settle the decade on an ambiguous serial. See below.
Can you get the age from the model number?
Not on its own. The date code lives in the serial number, not the model number, on every brand we decode.
The model number is still useful for age, in one specific way. Most serial date codes repeat: Frigidaire’s and LG’s every 10 years, GE’s every 12, Samsung’s every 20, the legacy Maytag code every 24 and Whirlpool’s every 30. So a serial often decodes to two or three possible years. A model number, by contrast, is typically only in production for a few years. Looking the model up in the manufacturer’s support site, and checking the print date on the manual it returns, is usually enough to tell you which of the candidate years is the real one.
That’s the workflow the checker uses too: it shows every plausible date, newest first, and tells you to settle the decade with the model number, the manual’s print date or the purchase paperwork.
If you can’t find the label
- Look again with a flashlight and your phone camera. These labels are small, often white-on-gray, and frequently tucked behind a door seal or a drawer. Photographing the spot and zooming in beats squinting at it.
- Check the paperwork. The manual, the original receipt, the delivery ticket, a protection-plan document or the product-registration email all normally carry the model number.
- Try the manufacturer’s model finder. Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, GE, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire and Bosch all publish a page or tool showing exactly where the label sits for each appliance type. They are linked in the sources below.
- Contact the manufacturer. If the label is gone entirely, customer support can sometimes identify a unit from photographs or from a purchase record.
- Don’t guess from the appearance of the unit. A model number you invent or approximate will return the wrong parts and the wrong recall answer.
Limitations
- Label positions vary by model and by production year. The tables above are the spots manufacturers list most often, not a guarantee for your specific unit.
- A model number tells you what the appliance is, not what condition it’s in and not how it was used.
- Not every appliance in a recall notice is affected. Recalls are usually limited to a serial number or date-code range within a model, which is why you need both numbers.
- We don’t decode model numbers into features or build years. Model-number structures differ by brand and change over time, so use the manufacturer’s own lookup for that.
What to do next
- Check the model number against recall notices: use the tool above, then appliance recall check
- Get the age from the serial: appliance age checker or the brand guide for your make
- Buying used? Used appliance buying checklist
- Work out a fair price: how much is my used appliance worth
Checked against the sources below on 24 October 2026.
