Feature
Goodman encodes the build year and month directly in the first four digits of its serial number.
A sortable, filterable table decoding serial-number date codes for Goodman and eleven other HVAC brands, with worked examples and thirty sourced links.
By Mara Keene · HVAC Lens editorial · · 1 min read
- Published
- 2026-08-02
- Last revised
- —
- Filed under
- Feature
- Length
- 110 words
- Read time
- 1 min
- Review status
- Editorial
Goodman prints the manufacture date directly into the serial number: the first two digits are the two-digit year, and the next two are the month. A serial starting 9704 was built in April 1997; one starting 1602 was built in February 2016 on Daikin-badged units using the same scheme. No lookup tool or nameplate photo is required — the digits alone give the year and month. The table below applies the same logic to eleven other manufacturers, since each brand encodes date differently.
Sort and decode. Filter the table by brand and click any column to sort — every row cites the source it came from.
Serial Format Timeline
Gray bands are retired or unconfirmed past their last documented year; the accent band is this page's own Goodman / Amana / Daikin scheme. Fujitsu and Bosch's older FHP-prefix style are not charted: no source gives either a decodable serial date.
| Manufacturer Group | Brands Owned | Serial Format Example | Date Characters | Decoding Rule | Worked Example | Years Scheme Applied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodman / Amana / Daikin | Goodman, Amana (acquired by Goodman 1997), Daikin (acquired Goodman 2012); shared residential split-system nameplate scheme | 9704011000 (10-digit numeric) | positions 1-2 and 3-4 | 1st-2nd digits = year (2-digit); 3rd-4th digits = month (01-12) | 9704011000 -> '97'=1997, '04'=April -> April 1997 | circa early 1990s-present (Daikin-badged residential units continue the same YYMM scheme, e.g. 1602393269 = Feb 2016) |
| Carrier / Bryant / Payne | Carrier, Bryant, Payne (all Carrier Global); ICP brands (Heil, Tempstar, Comfortmaker, Day & Night, Keeprite, Arcoaire) folded in after 1999 ICP acquisition but keep the ICP scheme, not this one | 3608A17330 (10-char, digits+letter+digits) | positions 1-2 and 3-4 | 1st-2nd digits = week of year (01-52); 3rd-4th digits = year (2-digit) | 3608A17330 -> week 36, year '08' -> week 36 of 2008 (~early September 2008) | 1980-present (older 1960-1979 letter-year and pre-1969 styles also documented but superseded) |
| Trane / American Standard (current) | Trane, American Standard, Ameristar, Oxbox, RunTru (all Trane Technologies, formerly Ingersoll Rand/American Standard Companies - not Johnson Controls) | 11241KADBB (10-char) | positions 1-2 and 3-4 | 1st-2nd digits = year (2-digit); 3rd-4th digits = week of year (01-52) | 11241KADBB -> '11'=2011, '24'=week 24 -> June 2011 | 2010-present |
| Trane / American Standard (legacy) | Trane, American Standard | F23456789 / C01D47415 (9-char, letter+digits) | position 1 (letter) and positions 2-3 | 1st character = year via a non-sequential letter chart (A, I, L, O, Q not used; confirmed points: S=1986, F=1991, Z=2001); 2nd-3rd digits = week of year | F23456789 -> 'F'=1991, week 23 -> 23rd week of 1991; C01D47415 -> 'C'=1988, week 01 -> 1st week of 1988 | 1983-2001 |
| Lennox | Lennox, Armstrong Air, Ducane, Concord (Lennox International) | 1606B13871 (10-char) | positions 3-4 and position 5 | 1st-2nd characters = factory/plant code (not date); 3rd-4th digits = year (2-digit); 5th character = letter code for month | 1606B13871 -> '06'=2006 (month requires the manufacturer's letter-to-month chart, which is image-only on the source page and not reproduced here) | 1973-present (exclusive since 1973; shorter pre-1973 numeric YY+M/MM format used before that) |
| Rheem / Ruud | Rheem, Ruud (sister brands, both built by Rheem Manufacturing at Fort Smith, AR, and share identical serial formatting) | F2317A12345 (plant letter + digits) | positions 2-3 and 4-5 | Position 1 = plant code letter (e.g. F = Fort Smith); 2nd-3rd digits = year (2-digit); 4th-5th digits = week of year (01-52) | F2317A12345 -> year '23'=2023, week '17' -> week 17 of 2023 | 1996-present (five older numeric/letter styles predate this and are used for pre-1996 equipment) |
| York / Coleman / Luxaire | York, Coleman, Luxaire, Fraser-Johnston, Evcon, Borg-Warner-era brands (Johnson Controls); Luxaire and Coleman listed as 'sister' brands under York on the same reference page | N0D6653823 (10-char) | positions 2 and 4 (year), position 3 (month) | 2nd and 4th characters combined = year (2-digit); 3rd character = letter code for month (A=Jan ... N=Dec, 'I' skipped) | N0D6653823 -> 2nd+4th = '0'+'6' = 2006, 3rd = 'D' = April -> April 2006 | October 2004-present (a distinct 1971-2004 letter-coded style, e.g. WAKM011379, also documented but no text-form decode chart was found for it) |
| Nordyne / Nortek | Frigidaire and Maytag confirmed as Nortek/Nordyne-built HVAC brands on the same reference site; Nortek's broader private-label portfolio (Westinghouse, Tappan, Intertherm, Broan, Concord, Grandaire, Miller) is commonly cited but was not independently re-verified in this pass | FGA030310579 (3 letters + 9 digits) | positions 4-5 and 6-7 | 4th-5th digits = year (2-digit); 6th-7th digits = month (01-12) | FGA030310579 -> '03'=2003, '03'=March -> March 2003 | documented on current-era 12-character serials; a distinct dash-suffix style (e.g. 21584-97B) uses digits 7-8 for year and digit 9 for month instead |
| Heil / ICP | Heil, Tempstar, Comfortmaker, Day & Night, Keeprite, Arcoaire (International Comfort Products, acquired by Carrier Global in 1999 but continues its own legacy scheme) | E072514528 (letter + 9 digits) | positions 2-3 and 4-5 | 2nd-3rd digits = year (2-digit); 4th-5th digits = week of year (01-52) | ICP A/C unit example on manufacturer-parts-distributor page: week 48 of 2003 | documented examples span 1992-2008; distinct older H-prefix and 6-digit styles also exist for earlier units |
| Mitsubishi Electric | Mitsubishi Electric residential and VRF/mini-split lines (single scheme cited across sources, though exact digit positions are reported inconsistently between sources - see gaps) | 89D00488D / AU1701234567 (styles vary by source) | position 1 (older/fiscal-year style) or positions 3-6 (plant-code style per one source) | Older style: 1st digit = last digit of fiscal year (Apr-Mar fiscal year, so decade is ambiguous and must be confirmed from unit condition/refrigerant); a second, differently-described style claims positions 3-4 = year and 5-6 = month after a 2-letter plant code | 89D00488D -> 1st digit '8' = fiscal 1988 or 1998 (ambiguous decade, per source's own caveat) | circa 2000-present per one source; older style undated by its source |
| Fujitsu | Fujitsu General mini-splits | LTN019205 / C001294 (alphanumeric, no fixed length) | none confirmed | No confirmed date encoding. Fujitsu's own stated position (per a home-inspection reference site) is that serial numbers are sequential and do NOT encode manufacture date; the same source says it suspects but has not confirmed a hidden year code in the letter prefix | not decodable - contact Fujitsu General America service (866-952-8324) or use the warranty lookup tool with the serial number | unresolved as of the source's 2023 update |
| Bosch (incl. FHP geothermal) | Bosch, Florida Heat Pump (FHP) geothermal units | 3540-112-000001-T111M01973 / SE111724T (styles vary) | positions 5-7 combined (current style) or a 2-letter prefix (older FHP style) | Current style (since ~2010): a 3-digit code in positions 5-7 maps to month+year via a manufacturer chart; older 2-letter-prefix FHP style uses a separate lookup chart | not decodable from text - both charts are published only as images on every source checked; no source gave a fully worked numeric-to-date example | current style: 2010-present per source; older 2-letter-prefix style undated |
No manufacturer or brand matches that filter.
Sources
- 2024 Unitary Product Nomenclature (Goodman) primary
- 2023 Unitary Product Nomenclature (Daikin) primary
- Goodman HVAC age secondary
- Goodman HVAC Age Lookup Tool secondary
- Amana HVAC age secondary
- Daikin HVAC age secondary
- Carrier HVAC age secondary
- Carrier HVAC Age: Serial Number Breakdown secondary
- Payne HVAC age secondary
- Trane HVAC age secondary
- Trane Serial Number Lookup: Decode Age, Model & Tonnage secondary
- Lennox HVAC age secondary
- Rheem HVAC age (via hvacagelookup.com) secondary
- Ruud HVAC age secondary
- York HVAC age secondary
- York HVAC Age: Serial Number Decoding secondary
- Luxaire HVAC age secondary
- NORDYNE HVAC age secondary
- Maytag HVAC age secondary
- Frigidaire HVAC age secondary
- Serial Number Nomenclature - ICP, TempStar and Heil Parts primary
- Heil HVAC age secondary
- Mitsubishi HVAC age secondary
- How can I determine the age of a Mitsubishi ductless mini-split heat pump from the serial number? secondary
- Mitsubishi HVAC Age — Serial Number Decoder secondary
- Fujitsu HVAC age secondary
- Bosch HVAC age secondary
- Decipher Bosch Geo Serial and Model Numbers secondary
- Trane Technologies secondary
- Johnson Controls secondary
Method
WebSearch was unavailable (session budget exhausted before this task's searches ran), so all 10+ discovery searches were run instead via WebFetch against DuckDuckGo's no-JS HTML endpoint, one query per manufacturer group plus follow-ups for brand-ownership verification. Every candidate URL that mattered for a dataset row was then fetched directly and read with WebFetch; two official manufacturer nomenclature PDFs (Goodman, Daikin) were fetched and confirmed to be model-nomenclature documents, not serial-date-code documents. No site required a fetch proxy; none returned a 403. Two sources (Wikipedia) were used only to verify corporate brand ownership, not date-code rules.
Gaps
No official manufacturer document giving a serial-number date-code rule was found for any brand in this table, Goodman/Daikin included — both official nomenclature PDFs fetched cover model-number strings only. The Goodman/Daikin YYMM-in-first-4-digits rule is corroborated by three independent secondary sources, the strongest corroboration in this set. Weakest rows: Fujitsu has no confirmed date code at all, per the source's own explicit statement. Bosch's current-style chart exists only as an image on every source checked, so no numeric worked example could be produced without fabricating one — none was included. Mitsubishi has two sources that disagree on which serial positions carry the date; both are reported rather than silently reconciled. York's pre-2004 legacy scheme and Lennox's month-letter chart are also image-only on their source pages, so those two rows carry a rule description but a partial or absent worked example. Nordyne/Nortek's full private-label brand list is commonly cited industry-wide but was only independently confirmed here for Frigidaire and Maytag; the rest are flagged as unverified rather than asserted as fact.