Who makes Navien water heaters
CPSC’s 2018 recall notice names the manufacturer as Kyung Dong Navien Co. Ltd. of South Korea and the importer as Navien Inc. of Irvine, California. CPSC’s 2011 recall covers Navien CR and CC tankless models “manufactured in 2008” and sold from February 2008. Navien’s site now lists “high-efficiency tankless and heat pump water heaters”, combi-boilers and boilers.
Basis: official (CPSC recalls 19-057 and 12-074; navieninc.com).
Where the serial number is
CPSC: “The serial number is printed on a label which is affixed to the side of the unit and on the product packaging.” Navien’s serial lookup expects a serial of 15 or 16 characters. Don’t open the unit’s cover to look for it: if the side label is missing or worn, check the box or the paperwork, or ask your installer.
How to read the date
CPSC’s 2018 Navien recall notice gives the rule: “The first two digits identify the year, the next single digit identifies the month, and the last two digits identify the day. For example, 18709 stands for July 9, 2018. X stands for October.”
Those five characters don’t start the serial. The recall lists serials such as 7410x18709xxxx: a 4-digit model code (7410 is the NPE-180A), one more character, then the date.
| Characters | Means | In 7414C14X1771143 |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | Model code | 7414 |
| 5 | A letter, not part of the date | C |
| 6–7 | Year | 14 = 2014 |
| 8 | Month | X = October |
| 9–10 | Day | 17 |
| The rest | Production number | 71143 |
Basis: official (CPSC recall 19-057). The layout of the other characters is from the recall’s serial list and Building Intelligence Center’s Navien page, which gives the year as “6th & 7th positions” and the month as the 8th.
Month codes
| Code | Month | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 9 | January to September | official (CPSC 19-057) |
| X | October | official (CPSC 19-057) |
| Y | November | industry references only |
| Z | December | industry references only |
Y and Z come from Building Intelligence Center and TanklessHelp; CPSC and Navien don’t mention them. The checker marks those readings as medium confidence.
A common mistake is to look for a number between two letters. That only works for October to December units; for January to September the month is a digit, so the only letter is character 5.
Units made 2008 to 2010: the date between dashes
Navien’s early service manual shows a label reading 9262 - 20081208 - 1027, with the three blocks captioned “Model No. (Code)”, “Product Date” and “Unit Number”. The middle block is the whole date: year, month, day, so December 8, 2008. CPSC’s 2011 recall of 2008 units says the side label “lists the model number along with the manufacturing year in YYYY format.”
Son-Rise Plumbing, a Canadian plumber, shows a second early layout, 9010-2008-114-1014, and explains that “the day of manufacture will always have two digits, but the month may have only one. So ‘114’ always reads as January 14, and not November 4.”
Basis: official (Navien NR/NP service manual; CPSC 12-074); the second layout from Son-Rise Plumbing (industry reference).
Worked examples
| Serial | Date characters | Built | Where the example comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7410x18709xxxx | 18 · 7 · 09 | July 9, 2018 | CPSC 19-057 (stated) |
| 7410x18X14xxxx | 18 · X · 14 | October 14, 2018 | CPSC 19-057 serial list; our reading, which matches the recall’s last production date |
| 9545J1152752044 | 11 · 5 · 27 | May 27, 2011 | Son-Rise Plumbing (stated); Building Intelligence Center |
| 7414C14X1771143 | 14 · X · 17 | October 17, 2014 | Building Intelligence Center (our reading of its rule; Son-Rise gives 2014) |
| 2087D2231171845 | 22 · 3 · 11 | March 11, 2022 | TanklessHelp (our reading of its rule) |
| 9262-20081208-1027 | 2008 · 12 · 08 | December 8, 2008 | Navien service manual label; Son-Rise Plumbing (stated) |
| 9010-2008-114-1014 | 2008 · 1 · 14 | January 14, 2008 | Son-Rise Plumbing (stated) |
The first two rows are CPSC’s patterns with placeholders (x), not full serials. The checker above shows the day as well as the month, because Navien encodes it.
If you can’t read it
Call Navien technical support at 800-519-8794 and select option 2 (Monday to Friday 8 am to 8 pm Eastern; weekends and holidays 8 am to 4 pm Eastern). Navien’s online serial lookup tells you whether a product has been registered; we found no sign that it shows a manufacture date.
Recalls to know about
| Recall | What | How to tell |
|---|---|---|
| CPSC 19-057 (Dec 2018) | NPE-180A, NPE-180S and NCB-180E units that have been or will be converted from natural gas to propane: “A kit installed on the tankless water heaters and boilers to convert them from natural gas to propane can cause the unit to produce excessive amounts of carbon monoxide.” About 3,400 units | Made July 9 to October 14, 2018: date characters 18709 to 18X14 |
| CPSC 12-074 (Dec 2011) | CR-180(A), CR-210(A), CR-240(A), CC-180(A), CC-210(A) and CC-240(A) made in 2008 (“T-Creator” on the front): the vent collar can separate, a carbon monoxide risk. About 13,000 units | Year 2008 on the side label |
Basis: official (CPSC notices in the sources). For 19-057, CPSC says owners of affected units running on propane should stop using them and contact Navien for a free replacement conversion kit. Navien’s recall line is 800-244-8202 (recall@navien.com). Old recalls may have closed; check the notice, and run the model through our recall check.
What the age means
Navien says its water heaters “can have a longer life expectancy than conventional tank water heaters—up to 20 years” with proper installation, application and maintenance. The US Department of Energy gives tankless heaters about 20 years: the figure in its Energy Saver guide (now archived) and in the analysis for its 2024 gas tankless rule, which was withdrawn in 2025. That is the figure the checker compares a Navien’s age with. More sources: how long do water heaters last?
Budgeting for the next tankless heater? The replacement cost estimator opens on tankless, with labor and optional extras.
Limitations
- Y (November) and Z (December) are from industry references only; CPSC confirms 1 to 9 and X.
- We found no published serial format for Navien’s NWP500 heat pump water heater (a tank model). Read the date on its label or ask Navien.
- Early 2008 to 2010 labels are read from Navien’s service manual and plumbing references; the one-digit-month layout (9010-2008-114-1014) rests on one plumbing reference, so the checker marks it medium.
- The same serial layout appears on Navien combi-boilers (the NCB-180E in CPSC 19-057), so the checker reads those too.
- The serial gives the build date, not the install date.
Checked against the sources below on 30 September 2026; sources added or changed on 6 October 2026 were checked that day.
