Whirlpool Serial Number Year Lookup

You can find your Whirlpool appliance’s manufacture year, and if the unit was built in 2010 or later, you can decode it straight from the serial number. Whirlpool doesn’t publish a consumer-facing serial decoder, and the third-party charts floating around disagree with each other, so we built the chart below the honest way: from Whirlpool’s own service literature, verified by our technical specialist, and bounded to the era it actually covers. This guide gives you the decoder for 2010-and-newer units, the reliable ways to confirm the build year, and the reasons to keep avoiding unverified charts for anything older.

Can I decode a Whirlpool serial number to a year?

Yes — if your appliance is Whirlpool-manufactured and was built in 2010 or later. Whirlpool still provides no consumer-facing decoder chart on its public support pages (Source: Whirlpool Product Help, producthelp.whirlpool.com, 2026), but Whirlpool’s own service literature documents the current serial format, and the chart below is built from that literature plus verification by our technical specialist. It applies to the current serial system only, which began in 2010.

Who this chart covers. The 2010-to-present system applies to household appliances manufactured by Whirlpool Corporation: Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana, KitchenAid, JennAir, Estate, and Roper, plus the Kenmore models Whirlpool built. Kenmore manufactures nothing itself; a Kenmore model number beginning 106, 110, or 665 is the usual sign of a Whirlpool-built unit — see our guides to who builds Kenmore refrigerators and whether Kenmore is the same as Whirlpool. This chart does NOT apply to Samsung, LG, Bosch, Electrolux, Frigidaire, GE, or any other manufacturer, and it does NOT apply to units built before 2010. It also does not apply to Maytag Commercial laundry equipment (the MXR series), which uses its own serial scheme with different year letters. Pre-2010 Whirlpool serials used different, era-specific codes that appear in older service literature (a 1996-era range job aid, for example, reads the letter F as the year 1996), so for an older unit confirm the date with Whirlpool directly.

How to read the serial, left to right (the format Whirlpool prints in its service manuals — for example the label C 0 41 01002 in Whirlpool’s Vertical Modular Washer service manual):

1. Division letter, sometimes two letters. The manufacturing division responsible for the unit (C = Clyde, OH on that label).
2. Year character. One digit or letter for the year of production (0 = 2010 on that label). Use the year table below.
3. Week, two digits. The production week of the year, 01 through 52, plus 53 in 53-week years: 01 is early January, 24 is mid-June, 41 is mid-October.
4. Product sequence number, the remaining digits. The unit’s order off the line that week. It says nothing about age.

Year table, 2010 to present:

From 2010 through 2019 the code is simply the last digit of the year. In 2020 Whirlpool switched to letters with a one-time jump to X, and from 2021 the letters run up the alphabet (A = 2021, B = 2022, and so on). One caution on X: at the tail end of Whirlpool’s previous serial system, some units built in 2010 also carried X as the year character, so if an X-year serial sits on a machine that is clearly not from 2020, confirm the date with Whirlpool.

Worked examples:

Division letters, for context. The leading letter identifies which Whirlpool division built the unit, and because plants specialize, it often tracks the product type:

A few other letters exist, some tied to specific plants or product lines, and rare ones surface now and then. The division letter is context, not the payload: the year and week characters are what date your unit.

How this chart is sourced. The field layout and the year codes for 2010 through 2022 come from Whirlpool service literature held by AppliancePartsPros, including the Vertical Modular Washer service manual (serial label C 0 41 01002, with 0 = 2010 and 1 = 2011), a Maytag service manual that lists the year codes from 2008 through 2018 in a single table, and Whirlpool dishwasher technical manuals W11542838 and W11480208 (9 = 2019, X = 2020, A = 2021, B = 2022). The year codes for 2023 through 2026 and the division-letter product associations are verified by Rory D, Technical Specialist. Whirlpool publishes no consumer-facing decoder; this chart exists so you do not have to trust an unsourced one.

If your appliance predates 2010, do not run its serial through the chart above, and do not trust the unofficial charts online either: Whirlpool used different serial conventions before 2010, and the same character can mean different years in different eras. For older units, use the reliable confirmation methods below.

How do I find my Whirlpool appliance’s age?

Use the numbers Whirlpool does support, in this order:

1. Read the owner’s manual or original paperwork. The purchase date plus the standard one-year warranty window usually brackets the build date closely.
2. Use Whirlpool’s product lookup. Entering your model and serial into Whirlpool’s own Product Lookup returns product information tied to your specific unit.
3. Contact Whirlpool with your model and serial. Whirlpool can confirm the manufacture date from the serial on their end, which is the authoritative answer.
4. Check the rating label itself. Many labels print a date or date-adjacent code directly, separate from the serial, which sidesteps decoding entirely.

Each of these gets you a trustworthy year without relying on an unverified chart.

Where is the serial number on a Whirlpool appliance?

On the rating label, and its spot depends on the appliance type (Source: Whirlpool Product Help, “Where is my Model and Serial Number Located?”, producthelp.whirlpool.com, 2026):

• Refrigerator: inside the fresh-food compartment, on the upper area of an interior side wall, often near the light.
• Top-load washer: lift the lid and look at the upper frame on the left or right, or behind the tilted control panel.
• Front-load washer: open the door and check the inner frame, typically front-left.
• Dryer: around the door opening or on the rear panel.

Record the full model and serial numbers together. You will need both for warranty, recalls, and especially parts.

Model number versus serial number: which do I actually need?

For repairs, the model number. The model number defines your appliance’s configuration and is what determines which parts fit. The serial number is unique to your unit and is what Whirlpool uses to confirm the build date and warranty. So if your goal is age or warranty, the serial is the key (via the sourced methods above). If your goal is a repair, jump straight to the model number.

Need help locating either number? Our how to find your appliance’s model number article maps the label spots for each appliance type.

What about the third-party Whirlpool decoders online?

Treat them with caution. Several websites publish their own Whirlpool serial decoders, and they do not agree with one another on which character or scheme applies to which serial format. Two traps sit behind the disagreements. First, Whirlpool has used more than one serial convention over the years, so a chart built for one era misreads serials from another: in Whirlpool’s own service literature the letter X appears as a year code for 1990, for 2010 on some transition-year units, and for 2020 in the current system. That is exactly why our chart above is bounded to 2010-and-later, and why its X row carries a caution. Second, Whirlpool model numbers carry their own year letter that follows a different sequence from the serial’s year character, and charts that mix the two hand you confidently wrong answers. If the date matters for a warranty claim or a recall check, decode with the era-bounded chart, then confirm with Whirlpool directly. An approximate age from your purchase records is still safer than a confident decode from the wrong era’s chart.

Why look up the year at all?

Because age drives the three decisions that follow every appliance question:

• Warranty: Confirms whether you are still inside Whirlpool’s coverage window.
• Recalls: Safety recalls are tied to serial and date ranges, so the build year tells you if your unit is affected.
• Repair versus replace: Newer Whirlpool units tend toward control and sensor faults, while older ones need wear parts like belts, pumps, valves, and gaskets. The age frames whether a fix is a quick win or a stopgap.

Once you have the model number, the right part is straightforward. Browse genuine Whirlpool parts and match to your model. A frequently ordered example is the everydrop Filter 1 (EDR1RXD1), which fits many Whirlpool and Whirlpool-built Kenmore refrigerators and is currently $64.50 and in stock.

Watch: decoding a Whirlpool serial number to find the appliance age

The bottom line

For a Whirlpool-built appliance from 2010 or later, the serial number now gives you the year directly: read the year character against the chart above, then the two week digits after it. For older units, or when the date has to be right for a warranty or recall decision, confirm through the owner’s manual, Whirlpool’s product lookup, or Whirlpool support using your model and serial. Then let the model number carry you to the correct parts.

Written by: AppliancePartsPros Team Reviewed by: Rory D, Technical Specialist, 7.5 years as an appliance repair technician.