How Old Is My Dishwasher? Bosch, Whirlpool and Other Brands
This dishwasher age calculator finds your dishwasher's age from its serial number: Bosch, Whirlpool, GE, KitchenAid and more. Pick your brand, enter the serial (or the FD number on a Bosch), and we'll decode the manufacture date.
Where’s the serial number?↓
- On the inner edge of the door — open the door fully and look along the left or right side of the door panel.
- On the tub rim, along the top edge of the opening where the door seals.
- On the side of the tub, visible when the door is open.
- Under the toe-kick panel at the very bottom on some European models.
Not the E-Nr (Enummer) on Bosch, Siemens and Neff machines — that is the model number. Bosch dishwashers carry their date in the separate FD number, not the serial.
- Bosch is the important exception: the serial carries no date. Look for the FD number — the year is the first two digits plus 1920, so FD 0301 is January 2023. Our decoder accepts it with or without the FD prefix.
- GE dishwashers follow the standard GE two-letter month-and-year scheme at the start of the serial.
Is your dishwasher broken, or are you just checking?
The age means different things depending on the answer. Pick one and we'll show you only what applies.
What the age actually means for a dishwasher
A dishwasher typically lasts 7–12 years, averaging about 9.
What does the age mean if something is wrong?
Age changes the economics; symptoms tell you what to diagnose. Neither alone determines the answer.
Usually worth diagnosing/repairing
Replacement becomes more worth considering when
Still not sure? See the full repair-or-replace guide →
And the money: An expensive repair on a dishwasher near or beyond its typical lifespan deserves closer comparison with replacement.
Where a dishwasher sits in its lifespan
7–12 years
Typical range
~9 years
Planning average
Early life (Years 1-3)
A major repair usually doesn’t make replacement economical yet. Spray-arm blockages and detergent-dispenser latches are examples, not the only possibilities — usually cleaning rather than repair.
Mid-life (Years 4-7)
Repair history and component cost start to matter more than the age number alone. Drain pumps, door-latch switches and worn door seals are examples of repairs where the decision gets closer.
Planning window (Years 8-10)
Expensive or labour-heavy repairs deserve more scrutiny as the dishwasher approaches its typical lifespan. Circulation pump, heating element and control-board work are examples of repairs where replacement economics may become more relevant.
Beyond typical range (Years 11+)
A working dishwasher can keep going, but an expensive repair deserves closer scrutiny. Rack tines can corrode, and older machines may use more water per cycle than current efficient models.
*Actual lifespan depends on usage, maintenance and quality. Well-maintained appliances often exceed these averages.
If there’s a problem, age changes the repair economics; if it’s working, maintenance is the next step.
Dishwashers last 7 to 12 years, averaging about 9 — meaningfully shorter than a fridge or a washer, because the pump and heating element run continuously in hot, mineral-heavy water. That means the repair-or-replace line arrives sooner than people expect: a quote that's obviously worth paying on a 9-year-old refrigerator is often not worth paying on a dishwasher of the same age.
On a younger dishwasher, isolated faults — a spray arm, a drain pump, a door-latch switch, a worn seal — are often relatively inexpensive next to a new machine, so repairing is frequently the more straightforward call. As a dishwasher ages, circulation-pump, heating-element and control-board repairs become more relevant to the repair-vs-replace decision, and repair history starts to matter as much as the age number itself.
The screening line applies more strictly here than on other appliances: a repair approaching half the price of a comparable new machine is worth treating as a warning sign, especially past year 8 — because average service life is only about 9, so a big repair is often buying a short extension. Age, repair history and the specific failure still matter more than any single number.
Things worth knowing about your dishwasher
It beats washing by hand
A modern dishwasher uses only a few gallons per cycle, well under what a running tap gets through doing the same dishes by hand. Scraping rather than pre-rinsing is one of the more effective things you can do for both water use and results.
Quieter machines need you to clean the filter
Older dishwashers ground food waste up with a built-in disposal, which was effective and loud. Most machines sold in the last decade dropped that in favour of a removable filter — much quieter, but it needs rinsing out by hand every few weeks. A clogged filter is a common cause behind a "my dishwasher stopped cleaning" complaint.
Shorter-lived than a refrigerator
At roughly 9 years on average, a dishwasher tends to wear out sooner than a refrigerator or washer. The pump and heating element work continuously in hot, mineral-heavy water, which is harder duty than a fridge compressor faces.
Common questions
How old is my dishwasher?
Open the door and find the serial number on the inner edge of the door panel or the tub rim, then enter it above. The manufacture date is encoded in the serial for most brands — Bosch is the exception and uses its FD number instead.
Where is the serial number on a dishwasher?
Open the door fully and look along the inner edge of the door itself, on the left or right side. If it is not there, check the tub rim along the top of the opening.
How long does a dishwasher last?
Dishwashers last 7 to 12 years, averaging about 9 — shorter than a refrigerator or washer, because the pump and heating element work in hot, mineral-heavy water.
Is it worth repairing a dishwasher?
Often, on a younger machine with an isolated fault. Past about 8 years, weigh the repair against the screening line: if it approaches half the price of a comparable new dishwasher, replacement is usually the better buy — a failed circulation pump or control board is the kind of repair that tends to hit that line.
For dishwashers that are still working, rinse-aid and hard-water upkeep are the practical next steps.
Recommended products
Help an aging dishwasher last
Affresh Dishwasher Cleaner
Helps remove detergent and mineral buildup inside the machine.
Check price on Amazon →
Lemi Shine Hard Water Stain & Film Remover
A hard-water stain and film treatment, added to the wash cycle — useful if your household is on hard water.
Check price on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. How this works
The tool above reads these automatically — this is the reference if you want to check it yourself, or your brand isn’t listed above. Where the sticker is on a dishwasher is covered in step 1 — below is how each brand encodes the date once you’ve found it.
How old is my Bosch dishwasher?
- Covers:
- Bosch, Thermador, Gaggenau, Siemens, Neff — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- The FD number: "FD" + 4 digits (FD 0301 = Jan 2023), often with extra digits after it (FD030100233 works too)
- Don’t use:
- NOT the E-Nr — that's the model number, and it's the first thing you'll see on the tag. The date lives only in the FD number next to it.
- Worked example:
FD030100233 → January 2023
How old is my Whirlpool, Maytag or KitchenAid dishwasher?
- Covers:
- Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Amana, Jenn-Air, Roper, Inglis, Kenmore (Whirlpool-built) — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- A letter, then a year code (letter or digit), then digits — e.g. C21234567. The 3rd-4th digits are the week (01-53).
- Reading the year:
- Whirlpool reuses letter year codes about every 30 years (e.g. A = 2021 or 1991) — the week digits and your purchase era settle it.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model number (starts with letters like WRF, MVW, KDT). The serial is the second code on the same tag.
- Worked example:
C21234567 → March 2012
How old is my GE dishwasher?
- Covers:
- GE, General Electric, GE Profile, Café, Monogram, Hotpoint (US only) — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- Two letters + 6 digits, sometimes a letter at the end (e.g. TL123456B)
- Reading the year:
- GE reuses year letters every 12 years, so one serial can match two or three plausible years — pick the one that matches when you bought or moved in.
- How we narrow it down:
- When we can find a dated GE spec sheet or a retailer's listing history for the specific model, we narrow the cycle automatically instead of defaulting to the newest option — for example, GE's own GSD2100V/2101V dishwasher spec sheet is stamped April 2011, which rules out a 2024 or 2000 reading of that model's serial. See our full case log.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model number (the longer code with digits and letters mixed throughout, e.g. GTS18GTHWW).
- Worked example:
TL123456 → October 2018
How old is my Kenmore dishwasher?
- Covers:
- Kenmore, Kenmore Elite, Kenmore Pro, Sears — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- Whatever the actual builder uses — Sears sold other makers' machines under the Kenmore name. Enter the serial and, if you have it, the model number.
- Reading the year:
- Kenmore units were built by Whirlpool, LG, Frigidaire and others, each with its own dating scheme. Where a serial reads plausibly on more than one of them, the model number settles it.
- How we narrow it down:
- We identify the actual builder from the model number's 3-digit prefix and defer to that builder's own scheme in full — including every plausible cyclic year, not just its top pick — rather than collapsing to a single guess. For a specific model line where we've found dated corroboration, we narrow further: one LG-built Kenmore refrigerator line (prefix 795.72043) is bounded to before 2015 based on owner reports and a contemporaneous review of the sibling product line. See our full case log.
- Don’t use:
- The MODEL number is genuinely useful here (it starts with three digits and a dot, e.g. 110.45862400) — it tells us who built the unit. Enter it in the model box if the serial alone is ambiguous.
- Worked example:
810KWXX12345 → October 2018
How old is my Frigidaire or Electrolux dishwasher?
- Covers:
- Frigidaire, Electrolux, Kenmore (Electrolux-built), Gibson, Kelvinator, Tappan, White-Westinghouse — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- Usually two letters + digits; some 10-character serials use digit + product letter (e.g. 4A53011705). Date starts at character 3: year digit + week.
- Reading the year:
- Only the last digit of the year is encoded, so it repeats every decade (8 = 2018, 2008 or 1998) — go by when you bought the home or unit.
- How we narrow it down:
- For models with a traceable retail history, we check when the exact model was actually being sold rather than assuming the newest decade — for example, the Frigidaire FFBD2406N dishwasher shows up in retailer archives from early 2013 with no listing after 2015, which rules out a 2022 reading of that model's serial. See our full case log.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model number (mixes letters throughout, e.g. FFTR1814TW).
- Worked example:
NF81064326 → March 2018
How old is my Samsung dishwasher?
- What the serial looks like:
- 15 characters — the 8th is the year letter, the 9th the month (on short 11-character serials it's the 4th and 5th)
- Reading the year:
- Samsung reuses year letters every 20 years, so the letters that have come round again (L, R, T, W, X, Y) match two plausible years — your purchase era settles it.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model number (starts with RF, WF, DW etc.). The serial is on the same sticker, usually below a barcode.
- Worked example:
0AB74AEKA00123Z → October 2018
How old is my LG dishwasher?
- Covers:
- LG, Kenmore (LG-built) — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- Starts with 3 digits: first = year, next two = month 01-12 (e.g. 810KW... = Oct 2018)
- Reading the year:
- The year is a single digit, so it repeats every 10 years (8 = 2018 or 2008) — your purchase era settles it.
- How we narrow it down:
- When a dated LG spec sheet, press review, or discontinued-model listing exists for the specific model, we use it to rule out impossible cyclic years instead of assuming the newest one — for example, LG's own WM2455 washer spec sheet is dated February 2008 and the model is on LG's discontinued list, which rules out a 2019 reading of that model's serial. See our full case log.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model number (starts with letters, e.g. LFXS26973S).
- Worked example:
810KWXX12345 → October 2018
How old is my Electrolux (Europe) dishwasher?
- Covers:
- Electrolux (Europe), Zanussi — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- A short all-digit number with no letters (e.g. 61300719): 1st digit = year's last digit, 2nd-3rd digits = week 01-52. Different from North American Electrolux, which is the separate "Electrolux (North America)" option built by Frigidaire.
- Reading the year:
- Only the last digit of the year is encoded, so it repeats every decade (a 1 could be 2021, 2011 or 2001) — go by when you bought the home or unit.
- Don’t use:
- Not the Product Number (PNC) — a separate number on the same plate, often 9 digits starting with "9", that is not a date. Look for the field actually labelled "Serial number", not "Prod. No." or "PNC".
- Worked example:
13500016 → September 2021
How old is my Fisher & Paykel dishwasher?
- Covers:
- Fisher & Paykel, DCS — they share one dating scheme.
- What the serial looks like:
- Two or three letters then digits — e.g. RPU766991. The first letter is the year, the second is the month.
- Reading the year:
- The year is one letter for the final digit of the year, so it repeats every 10 years (B = 2004 or 2014) — your purchase era settles it.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model or product code (E522B, RF522BLPX6, DD24DDFTX2) — that names the model line, not the build date.
- Worked example:
RPU766991 → July 2016
How old is my Crosley dishwasher?
- What the serial looks like:
- Whatever the actual builder uses — Crosley units are made by Whirlpool (laundry, fridges) or Frigidaire (dishwashers). Enter the serial and, if you have it, the model number.
- Reading the year:
- Crosley is built by Whirlpool or Frigidaire depending on the appliance, each with its own dating scheme. Where a serial reads on both, the year is only reported if they agree.
- Don’t use:
- Not the model number (e.g. CAE2743BQ0, VRT21F5AW) — though it is worth entering too, since it identifies the builder.
- Worked example:
C21234567 → March 2012
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The Dishwasher Series
- 1How Old Is My Dishwasher? Bosch, Whirlpool and Other BrandsYou’re here — the tool above.
- 2How Long Does a Dishwasher Last?What changes as it ages, what can shorten it, and the Bosch warranty exception.
- 3Should You Repair or Replace a Dishwasher?The decision, in one place — with the age line and the cost line that settle it.
- 4How Much Does It Cost to Replace a Dishwasher?Unit price by tier, installation cost, and what pushes the price up.