How old is my refrigerator? Read the date from the serial number

Step 1: Find the label inside the fresh-food section

Almost every refrigerator carries its model and serial number on a label or rating plate inside the fresh-food (refrigerator) section. Open the door and check the side walls near the top first, then the ceiling, then behind the crisper drawers.

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.

Basis: official manufacturer support pages (Whirlpool, KitchenAid, GE, LG, Samsung, Frigidaire, Bosch) and Sears PartsDirect for Kenmore. The Samsung locations are from Samsung Canada’s support page, which covers the same North American styles.

Checking a Sub-Zero? Its manufacture date may be printed in a separate Date Code field, and our automatic checker does not support the brand. See Sub-Zero refrigerators further down this page for the plate locations by series and Sub-Zero’s route when the date is missing.

Basis: Sub-Zero’s official age guidance.

Step 2: Decode the fridge serial by brand

Basis: GE’s rule is official (GE’s age page). LG’s rule is official (LG’s support page, archived 22 October 2026). The rest come from independent date-code references (electrical-forensics.com and others), cross-checked against documented units. None of those brands publishes a decoder. Full tables are on the brand pages: GE, Whirlpool and KitchenAid, Samsung, LG, Frigidaire, Maytag, Amana, Bosch and Kenmore. Samsung, Bosch and Sub-Zero have their own sections further down.

Samsung refrigerators

Count the characters in the serial. On a 15-character serial, the 8th is the year and the 9th the month. On an 11-character serial, use the 4th and 5th.

Months: 1–9 = January–September, A = October, B = November, C = December.

Basis: electrical-forensics.com (covers 2001–2017) and an accepted answer on Samsung’s own US community forum (covers 2001–2025), which agree where they overlap. Samsung publishes no official appliance decoder. The 2026 code is unverified. If the 20-year cycle holds it would repeat 2006’s letter, but no source confirms that yet. Sears PartsDirect’s Kenmore guide lists E for 2014; both sources above list F.

Example: refrigerator serial B11343BCB00158A (an example serial from tab-tv’s Samsung guide). Character 8 is C (2012) and character 9 is B (November), so it was built in November 2012. For comparison, a Samsung range serial J0V07DDD801404K has D (2013) and 8 (August) in those spots, which gives August 2013 (electrical-forensics).

Bosch refrigerators (FD number)

Look for FD followed by four digits on the rating plate. The first two digits give the year and the last two the month.

• For 50–99, add 1920 to the first two digits: FD 9111 = November 2011.
• For 00–09, the code has wrapped into the 2020s: FD 0301 = January 2023 (03 = 2023, 01 = January).

Basis: electrical-forensics.com (rule and the FD 9111 example) and other decoding references. electrical-forensics’ rule implies the 2020s wrap, and tab-tv’s chart lists FD 0301 = January 2023; treat post-2019 readings as likely rather than certain. Bosch’s own documentation says where the FD is but doesn’t explain how to read it.

Sub-Zero refrigerators

Sub-Zero prints the manufacture date, when there is one, in a separate Date Code field on the rating plate. Our automatic checker does not decode Sub-Zero serials, so this section gives the label spots and the manufacturer’s route instead of a serial formula or a worked serial example.

Where the Sub-Zero rating plate is

Start with a readable photograph of the whole plate, with the model, serial and date fields in one image. On a used listing, ask the seller for that photograph before you try to judge the age. Sub-Zero’s locator sorts refrigerators by configuration and series:

Basis: official Sub-Zero serial-tag locations, checked 10 October 2026. Its diagrams also cover all-refrigerator, undercounter and wine-storage configurations.

If no row matches your refrigerator, use that illustrated locator. For any drawer removal or panel access, follow the model’s manual or ask Sub-Zero. Our model-number guide helps keep the identification fields apart.

Read the Date Code field

Sub-Zero’s age guide names Date Code as the manufacture-date field and shows it in an upper-right or lower-right position. Some tags print no manufacture date at all.

Copy the date exactly as printed. If a character is unclear, get a sharper photograph before settling on a year, and keep the image with your notes so the reading can be checked later.

If the Sub-Zero date is missing or unreadable

When the plate has no manufacture date, Sub-Zero’s route is to contact Customer Care through its age guide with the unit’s serial number. Send the complete model and serial as printed, a readable plate photograph if you have one, and a direct request to confirm the manufacture month and year. For a missing or unreadable plate, ask what identification Sub-Zero can use, and leave the age unconfirmed until it answers. Don’t fill an uncertain digit from memory or from a similar refrigerator’s listing.

A model timeline gives the era, not the build date

Sub-Zero publishes timelines for its product lines, including older series, and sends individual-unit age questions to its manufacture-date guidance. A family’s first or last production year is not the build year of the refrigerator in front of you. Keep the confirmed date, the family’s production period and any purchase or installation paperwork as separate notes, and call a timeline-only figure an era estimate in a listing or buying note.

Four fridge serials (three documented units), and why the newest reading can mislead

Basis: the first three are units documented by electrical-forensics.com, with their build dates; the Samsung serial is tab-tv’s example. The readings are ours, using the rules above.

• The first answer was the wrong decade three times out of four. The checker lists the most recent possible date first: April 2022 for the Kenmore, December 2020 for the GE and April 2018 for the Frigidaire-family fridge. Each documented unit was 20 to 30 years older than that.
• The Kenmore needs two steps. Prefix 106 means Whirlpool built it, so read the 2nd character as the year (B) and the next two digits as the week (17, late April).
• The Samsung needs no decade check. C appears once in Samsung’s year table, so November 2012 is the only reading.
• What settles it on a fridge: an older-looking cabinet, door handles and controls point to the earlier dates, but confirm with the model’s sale period or the manual’s print date (Step 3) before you rely on one.

Step 3: Settle the decade on a fridge

Most codes repeat, so check the decode against at least one of these:

1. Model number. Look it up on the manufacturer’s support site. The period covered by its manuals and parts shows the era.
2. Owner’s manual print date. GE’s advice: most manuals show a print date on the front or back page. If it’s close to your decoded date, you’ve picked the right cycle.
3. Paperwork. A receipt, a delivery note or the registration card.
4. Design. Styling and features differ a lot between decades.

What the build year tells you about a refrigerator

• Which federal energy limits it was built to. DOE reset its limits for refrigerators made on or after January 1, 1993, again for those made on or after July 1, 2001, and again from September 15, 2014. The 2014 limits are still the ones in force in 2026. Basis: official (DOE final rule, September 2011, and 10 CFR 430.32).
• What an ENERGY STAR label meant. Refrigerators have been an ENERGY STAR category since 1996. The current criteria took effect on September 15, 2014, the same day as the federal limits, so a label on an older fridge reflects the criteria of its day. Basis: official (ENERGY STAR).
• How to get rid of a very old one. EPA’s Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) guidance for its partners says to assume a refrigerator’s capacitor contains PCBs if it isn’t marked “contains no PCBs” or if the refrigerator was made before 1979. Basis: official (EPA), for the PCB rule. Our advice: a fridge that old belongs with a proper recycler, not at the curb; see where to sell or recycle used appliances.

If the fridge label is missing or unreadable

• Check every possible spot. GE lists up to six on a top-freezer fridge. Samsung puts a second label outside at the bottom left. KitchenAid quad-door models may have it on the back panel.
• Find paperwork. KitchenAid notes that the registration card packed with its refrigerators also shows the serial. Ask the seller for any receipt, manual or card.
• Use the model number alone. It still gives the era and lets you run a recall check, though not the exact build month.
• Contact the manufacturer with whatever numbers you have.

If you can’t find any age evidence at all, treat the age as unknown when you judge the price. The used refrigerator price table shows how age moves value.

What the age means for a refrigerator

A build date tells you roughly how far into its service life a fridge is. See how long refrigerators last for typical lifespans: about 12 years is typical, with published figures from 9 to 13. By simple subtraction (our estimate, not a forecast for one fridge), a refrigerator built in 2014 or earlier has reached that typical age in 2026, and one built before 2013 is past the 13-year high end. If you’re weighing a repair, use the repair or replace calculator.

Warranties are normally counted from the purchase or delivery date. Without a receipt, some makers count from the build date instead: GE states it uses the manufacture date when there’s no proof of purchase, and LG’s US refrigerator warranty starts 90 days after the manufacture date when there’s no valid proof of purchase.

Limitations

• The serial shows the build date, not when the fridge was sold, installed or last serviced.
• Decoding rules for most brands come from well-corroborated independent references, not the manufacturer. GE’s is the only fully official chart.
• The Samsung 2026 code and Bosch’s 2020s FD reading are less certain than the older ranges.
• For Sub-Zero we give the manufacturer’s route to the printed date, not a serial decode, and nothing on remaining life, resale value or warranty.

Next steps

If the fridge is becoming a garage spare, check its location requirements with our garage-ready refrigerator guide. The age result is only one part of that decision.

1. Enter the fridge’s brand and serial in the checker above.
2. Check for recalls with the recall check.
3. Inspect the fridge with the used appliance buying checklist.

Checked against the sources below on 26 September 2026; the Whirlpool year codes and warranty note on 6 October 2026; the Sub-Zero guidance on 10 October 2026 (the Sub-Zero guide merged in as a section on 2 November 2026); documented fridge examples, federal and ENERGY STAR dates and the EPA disposal note on 16 October 2026.