The serial code: GE Appliances' guide to an appliance's age says to “use the serial number, not the model number.” Its serial numbers begin with two letters, followed by six digits and a letter, while a model number begins and ends with a letter. The first two letters give the month and the year of manufacture. The year letter rotates about every 12 years, so one code can point to more than one year; the guide's own example is a serial beginning GA, which means April 2001 or April 2013. Other makers may use formats of their own. That matters in Post Falls: census estimates for 2020 to 2024 count about one in four of the city's housing units as built from 2000 to 2009, and GE's year chart lists 2005 and 2017 under the letter H. In a house from that decade, the letter alone cannot tell the original oven from its replacement.
About 1 in 4
of Post Falls housing units were built from 2000 to 2009 (ACS 2020 to 2024)
The owner's manual: Most owner's manuals carry a print date on the front or back page, usually beside a publication number, in a form such as 02-20 for February 2020, 01-21 for January 2021 or 04/17 for April 2017. A print date close to one of the serial readings confirms which year is right. If the manual is gone and the year is still in doubt, the guide asks owners to contact GE Appliances with the model and serial numbers ready.
Where the tag is: On a wall oven, the model and serial tag is inside the door, on the front face. On a range, the listed spots include behind the front door, inside the drawer, and, on models with front controls, inside the frame under the control panel. Others are on the left leg behind the drawer or kick panel, under a lift-up cooktop, or, on some gas ranges, on a metal flag behind the middle of the rear control panel that rotates up to show the label. Some newer tags carry a QR code that opens the product's own information when scanned with a phone.
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