How old is my Bradford White water heater?

By Dana Whitlock. Updated October 2026. Official format.

Bradford White reuses its year letters every 20 years, so a T on the label can mean 1999 or 2019. The serial opens with two letters, year then month. The digits after them are a production count, and how many digits there are breaks the tie.

Bradford White publishes both the letter tables and the digit-count rule on its contractor site, which makes this an Official format here. Type your serial in and you get a year and a month. In the rare cases where the letters still allow two readings, you get both candidates.

Where to find the label on a Bradford White water heater

Look for the rating plate on the front of the tank jacket, usually at eye level or a little lower on a standard tank. It is a printed label with the model number, gas or electrical ratings and the serial. The serial is the field that starts with two capital letters. Use a flashlight if the tank sits in a closet or crawl space, and wipe dust off the label with a dry cloth. You never need to take off the burner access cover or an electrical cover to find it. If a tank is wedged against a wall, photograph the label with your phone held at an angle instead of pulling on the water or gas connections.

How to read the code

Take the first character as the year and the second as the month. Month letters run A for January through M for December, skipping I, so J is September, K October, L November and M December. Year letters skip I, O, Q, R, U and V, which leaves 20 letters, and the cycle starts over every 20 years: A is 1984, 2004 or 2024; T is 1999 or 2019; Z is 2003 or 2023. Now count the digits after the two letters. Eight digits means the tank was built in December 2007 or later. Seven digits means it was built before December 2007. So a serial like YE1395234, with seven digits, reads as May 2002, which matches the dates in a 2002 federal recall notice that listed that exact number.

Real serials in this code

When the format changed

Bradford White switched from a seven-digit production count to eight digits in December 2007, which it marks as month code DM. That single change settles most of the 20-year ambiguity. With eight digits, E through Z can only mean 2008 through 2023, and A, B and C mean 2024, 2025 and 2026. With seven digits, a letter from E to Z points to the earlier cycle, so T means 1999. The hard cases are seven-digit serials starting with A, B, C or D, which could be 1984 to 1987 or 2004 to 2007. For those, check the date printed elsewhere on the label (many plates show the ANSI standard year), look at install paperwork or a permit record, or run the serial through Bradford White's warranty lookup. One odd batch exists: a computer error produced serials starting with OA, and Bradford White says all of them were built in January 1997, even though O is never a normal year letter. Some home inspectors also date very old tanks to the 1964 to 1983 cycle (A as 1964); Bradford White's own chart starts at 1984, so treat those older readings as a last resort for a tank that looks its age.

Who makes Bradford White

Bradford White builds its own tanks and describes itself as an American company with manufacturing in the United States. It does not sell at big-box stores: its water heaters reach homes through plumbing professionals and wholesalers, which is why you rarely see the name on a store shelf. No other brand in our database shares the Bradford White letter code, so a decoder for a store brand will not read these serials correctly.

How sure is this?

Official format. Bradford White publishes how its serial numbers encode the date. We tested the bradford white rules against 7 serials, 3 of them with a date known from a recall notice, a printed label date or the maker. None decoded to a wrong year; codes whose year mark repeats show every possible reading. Always confirm with Bradford White's serial lookup before you spend money on the answer.

Quick notes

• Count the digits before you trust the year. Seven versus eight is the whole difference between, say, 1999 and 2019.
• If your serial starts with OA, the tank dates to January 1997.
• A seven-digit serial starting with A, B, C or D needs a second clue: the printed standard year, a receipt, or the warranty lookup.
• A tank bought off a big-box shelf is not a Bradford White. The brand sells only through plumbers and wholesalers, so check the badge before decoding.
• Bradford White's warranty center looks up coverage by serial, which also confirms the build date when the letters leave doubt.