How to Tell the Age of a General Electric Appliance

If you acquired used appliances or moved into a house with existing appliances, you may not know how old these devices really are. Luckily, determining the age of an appliance is fairly easy.  You just need to use the information sticker on your General Electric appliance to decode its age.

1. Locate the sticker containing the model and serial numbers for your appliance.  For help finding this sticker, see your owner's manual or the General Electric website.


2. Write down the serial number in an easy to remember location such as across the front of your owner's manual. In addition to telling you the age of the appliance, this number will make getting warranty and repair information much easier.


3. Find the first two letters of the serial number. These letters tell you the month and year in which General Electric manufactured the appliance. The first letter is the code for the month and the second for the year.


4. Go to the GE appliances website. Scroll down to the "Support & Troubleshooting" section. Click on the "Troubleshoot Your Appliance" link. Go to the section labeled "Most  Common FAQs." Click on the question labeled "How old is my appliance? Are there ways for me to determine the age or year of manufacture of my appliance?" to bring up a decoder chart.


5. Consult the decoder chart to determine the correct age of your appliance. For example, a refrigerator with a serial number beginning with the letters "AJ" dates from January of 1952. If your appliance has a serial number which corresponds to multiple years on the chart, you will need to choose the most likely age based on the appearance and known history of the appliance. If you cannot make such a determination, proceed to step 5.


6. Go to the General Electric appliances website, and click on the "Contact Us" link. The resulting page will give you e-mail and phone contact information for customer service. Call or e-mail a customer service representative with the model and serial numbers of the appliance, and he or she should be able to give you the manufacture date.