How Old Is My Boiler?

The thing about old boilers is that they are often unreliable and can decide to call quits when you most need them. Moreover, old boilers are usually less efficient, and you’ll find yourself paying over the odds in energy bills to maintain heating in your home.

As such, the age of your boiler is one of the critical factors that determine when it is time to replace your boiler. Knowing your boiler’s age and installing a replacement where necessary will help you avoid any untimely breakdowns that would have otherwise rendered your home cold and uncomfortable.

How Do I Check My Boilers Age?

There are quite a few ways of finding out how old your boiler is. In this guide, we will look at some of the ways of identifying your boiler’s age, whether it is a Baxi, Ideal, Vaillant, or a Worcester Bosch model.

That said, here are the two most common ways of identifying a boiler’s age.

Visit the official industry database

This approach, though tedious, helps trace the age of older and discontinued models of boilers. Your best reference point would be the Building Energy Performance Assessment site, a very convenient database. You need to input your boiler’s fuel, type, brand, and model and click on “details”.  This action will relay back the first and the last year of manufacture.

Based on the year they stopped manufacturing, you can somehow gauge the age of your boiler. You can arrive at your boiler’s estimated age by calculating the elapsed time between the last year of manufacture and now. Of course, this method is not very accurate, but it gives a reasonable estimate of your boiler’s age, especially if you are looking at one of the leading brands.

Look at your boiler’s serial number

The easiest and the most accurate way of finding out your boiler’s age is to look for the serial number. A serial number is a long succession of numbers and letters unique to that particular boiler. It is generally printed on the side or a label pasted on its front drop-down panel. You can also find it underneath the boiler or on the installation manual if you have it.

However, if you buy a house with an already installed boiler, chances are you probably do not have the installation manual. You shouldn’t panic though, as we have you covered.

Here is the description of how to look and interpret the serial numbers of different brands if you do not have the original installation manual.

How old is my Baxi Boiler?

It is pretty simple to find and decipher the serial number of a Baxi boiler. Depending on its age, your Baxi boiler will have a seven, twelve or fourteen-digit serial number.

Whatever the case, the manufacturing year is always the fourth and the fifth digits of the serial number. The first three numbers or letters in the serial number are the product code, and the sixth and seventh digits represent the week number within the year of manufacture. For instance, if the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh digits are 0511, the manufacture date was the eleventh week in 2005.

If your Baxi boiler is older than 2003, you can contact the Baxi database with your serial number, and they can help with the information you need.

How old is my Worchester Bosch Boiler?

Worchester Bosch might be the most popular boiler brand, but it is pretty challenging to date their products. The serial numbers are designed for internal purposes only, and unless you are a professional, you will be racking your head for a long time. You can try putting your serial number into a database, but this won’t give the exact date.

The only viable option you have is to contact the Worchester Bosch Boiler support team or phone in on 0330 123 3366.

How old is my Vaillant Boiler?

The serial number in a Vaillant Boiler is somewhat straightforward to read. They will contain twenty to twenty-eight characters. The fourth and the fifth digits will indicate the year of manufacture, while the two digits after that show the assembly week number. For instance, if the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seven digits are 0824, it was manufactured in the twenty-fourth week of 2008.

How old is my Ideal Boiler?

Determining the age of your Ideal Boiler will depend on the age and model of your boiler. They are conveniently split into three types of serial codes.

• Ideal Logic/ Ideal M Series

The very end code will be the manufacturing date. The pre-2015 boilers are dated in the following format- YY/MM/DD. Boilers manufactured after 2015 follow a familiar British format- DD/MM/YY. The third cluster of this type of serial number indicates the assembly week and year of manufacture. For instance, 0834 suggests the boiler was made in week 34 of 2008.

• Ideal Classics

The serial number of an Ideal Classic is a bit different. Its serial number has shorter characters, seventeen to eighteen characters, compared to the Ideal Logic. However, like in the Ideal Logic, the third cluster indicates the assembly week and year of manufacture.

• Ideal Mini

Refer to the last four digits of the Ideal Mini serial number. Its serial number is relatively short and represents the month and year of manufacture. For instance, if the last four digits are 0308, it implies the boiler was manufactured in March of 2008.

Signs of an ageing boiler

Even without checking your boiler’s age, you can determine whether it is nearing the end of its lifespan by looking for the following tell-tale signs of an ageing boiler.

• Rising heating bills. As your boiler ages, its efficiency drops, and it will consume more fuel to heat your house, thereby causing your heating bills to rise.
• Regular Breakdowns. If this is the case, you should consider a replacement as your boiler is ageing. It digs deep into your pockets as regular repair bills accompany it.
• Hard to find parts. If your heat engineer is having a hard time finding repair parts, it simply means you have an old boiler whose parts are out of commission.
• Your boiler doesn’t seem to work as it did. If your boiler no longer gets the work done, you should consider its ageing possibility and get a new efficient one.