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Homepage Although the age of your boiler is not the main factor in determining whether it’s time to replace it, it may be useful to be able to date the installation. Imagine you move into a property that has got an [old boiler installed] and you have no idea when it was installed.
If it turns out to be more than 10 years old then you might want to consider how long that boiler is going to last and whether you should be replacing it.
The easiest way to find an answer to the question of how old is my boiler is to look for its serial number. It’s a long sequence of digits and letters found printed on the side or on a label pasted on its drop-down front panel.
Other places to look for the serial number would be bottom of the boiler or on the installation manual (which you as a customer are unlikely to have).
All boilers will have a serial number but with the more obscure models you will struggle to figure out the pattern. It’s not like the manufacturers make it easy for us to decipher those serial numbers. In most cases the boiler manufacturing date will be coded and hidden somewhere within the serial number.
If it’s an older and discontinued model, you can attempt to find the date when they stopped making these boilers. Your best point of reference is the Building Energy Performance Assessment site who have a very convenient boiler database. Select the fuel, type, brand and model and then click on “details”. It will give you the first and last year of manufacture.
If they’ve stopped making a boiler in 2006 then at least you can assume that your boiler is no younger than 9 years. Of course, it’s not a very accurate way of telling the age of your boiler so let’s hope we’re looking at one of the main brands. Dating their products is relatively easy. So how can I find the age of my boiler? Let’s look at some of the most popular brands.
Depending on the age, a Baxi boiler will have a seven, twelve or fourteen-digit serial number. Luckily, the manufacture year is always the fourth and fifth characters. For example this serial number:
BCP051100298ZX
means the boiler has been made in 2005. If you run into problems, you can check this page for reference.
Although Worcester Bosch might be the most popular boiler brand out there, it is virtually impossible to date their products unless you’re a professional. Their serial numbers were designed for internal use.
No matter how old a Worcester Bosch boiler is, its serial number will contain an FD number that has the production date coded in but that’s what it is – coded. So, if you need to tell the age of your WB, you’d need to contact their support team or phone in on 0330 123 3366.
This manufacturer makes it relatively easy for you to read the date. A serial number on a Vaillant will be between 20 and 28 characters long and in most cases the 3rd and 4th character will represent the manufacturing year while the next two characters will tell you the assembly week number.
26012463030010256754
This characters we’re interested in are 01 and 24. This means our boiler has been assembled around June 2001.
Depending on age and model designation, Ideal serial numbers read differently. The most popular Ideal Logic range will have a 24 or 25-digit number preceded with a two-letter prefix. It is conveniently split into 3 sections.
The last two sections will help you tell the age of your boiler. Starting from the 16th or 17th character you have a 4-digit code representing the year and the week of production. Then the last 6 digits represent the production date.
When attempting to read a date of older Ideal Logic boilers, keep in mind that the date is in a very weird format. It’s neither the UK nor the American way. Pre-2015 boilers are dated in a following format – YY/MM/DD.
After 2015, the date format starts following the normal UK format DD/MM/YY
XY 124854000000112 0834 08/08/18
This boiler was made in the week 34 of 2008 or more precisely, on 18th August 2008.
The M Series is following the same serial number pattern so if you need to find out how old is your Ideal M Series boiler, you’d approach it exactly the same way as if you’d be trying to tell the age of a pre-2015 Logic boiler.
The Ideal Classic is a little bit different. Its serial number is shorter. It consists of only 17 or 18 characters. You’d be looking for the 3rd cluster that contains 4 digits; and it would represent the year and week of production.
UZ 202034 0612 00149
This Ideal Classic boiler was manufactured during the 12th week of 2006.
Ideal Mini is a whole different story. Its age is coded in the serial number as month and year rather than week and year.
N104250308
The last four digits tell us that this boiler was made in March 2008. For other Ideal models, please get in touch with their technical support.
We hope this article helped you answer the question of ‘how old is my boiler’ This tutorial only covers the four main brands in the UK. If you come across a more obscure boiler and you struggle telling its age, please get in touch and we’ll see if we can help.