Life expectancy of a Montgomery Ward water heater:

This article describes how to read the data tag and de-code its numbers to determine the age of a Montgomery Ward water heater.

We show typical water heater data tag model and serial number formats and note where in that information the year or week or month and year are encoded: Wards Signature, Reliance & State water heater identification, age, parts, & installation manual sources.

How to De-Code the Data Tag on a Montgomery Ward Water Heater - Age Determination

Montgomery Ward Water Heater Age De-Coding Guide

Because we had trouble finding Montgomery Ward serial number decoding guides for the wide range of ages of manufacture of Wards water heaters in the books and de-coding charts provided by most publishers, we include a Wards water heater serial number decoding guide and de-coding examples here.

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How to Decode Wards water heater serial numbers in format SNN 1280A12345

Standard de-coding for many Montgomery Ward water heaters whose serial number is printed as

SNN 1280A12345

In this format the water heater age (or date of manufacture) depends on two pairs of digits in the serial number,

digits 4&5 = the month of manufacture

and digits 6&7 = the year of manufacture.

Note that we're counting "SNN" as the first three "digits" of the Ward water heater serial number in this example.

So for my example the heater with this serial number would have been made in

12 80 or December of 1980.

Montgomery Wards water heaters have also been marketed under Wards Signature brand and the Reliance brand and were produced by State water heaters (according to some sources) and by Rheem (LeMarr). Ward Signature water heaters were sold in several models such as the Signature 500 Glass lined and the Signature 300 glass lined heaters.

For State water heaters manufactured for Montgomery Ward, an 8-character serial number was used (one more digit than yours) and are decoded as follows from Carson Dunlop Associates Associates comprehensive Technical Reference Guide at the end of this article.

Ward water heater Ser# B9912345 

In this format, the "B" position is an alphabetic code for month of manufacture (A-M omitting use of I, where A = January) followed by two numeric digits of year - B9912345 would decode as February 1999.

Use the CONTACT link at page top or bottom of our website pages and send me some sharp photos of your water heater and closeups of its labeling.

Scott LeMarr at Honest Home Inspections [ Website: www.HonestHomeInspections.com ] informs us that Montgomery wards should have been made be Rheem, Rudd / Richmond. For Montgomery Ward water heaters

• the first two digits equal the month,
• the next two digits give the year

Mr. LeMarr has shared his free WATER HEATER AGE DETERMINATION CHART [PDF] that decodes both furnace age and water heater age for many brands.

How to De-code Older Montgomery Ward water heater serial numbers in format Ser# TE22780

Query: 01/24/2014: G M Wagner said: Montgomery Ward Electric Water Heater-Model 94-SHT-2861A,

Serial # TE22780 .

Would you please tell me how old it is. Remodeling the basement and finally putting in a new one. thank you.

Images here and below: Montgomery Ward water heater descriptions from a 1935 catalog provided at the end of this article.

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Reply: best guess: July 1980

For decoding the age of a Montgomery Ward water heater, your Montgomery Ward electric water heater serial number is of an older format TE22780 that does not match the water heater age decoding formats I give just below.

Providing you're giving me the whole n umber, and pending further research most-likely the year in which the water heater was manufactured is coded in the last two digits of your example - meaning this heater was made in 1980.

Scott adds this helpful tip:

Even looking at the model and serial number nothing matches the other water heater manufactures. Typically Rheem, American, and AO Smith were the only ones that would "Blue Label" a water heater.

Typically the Model number has the tank size which the heater just above (SN TE22780) does not..kind of weird.

On occasion there is a yellow "Energy" label on the unit and at the bottom (sometimes middle) will tell you what ANSI Spec it was built to or it may give you an estimated cost on a particular year.

If it reads ANSI Spec 1994 that it would have to be 94 or newer typically these specs come out every 2-3 years.

Query: (Jan 11, 2012) Doug said: My Montgomery Ward Signature 700 water heater is not working. Any idea how long it's been in my house?

SER# is 1170 3310 SN 

Reply: Doug, MM YY NNNN - 11 70 3310 means it looks as if your Wards Signature 700 water heater was built in November 1970.

We can't say when it would have been put in the home, but if it is the original water heater then it would have been installed most often not long after its production, perhaps a year or two.

Reader Question: Age of a Montgomery Ward Electric Water Heater-Model 94-SHT-2861A, Serial # TE22780

(Jan 24, 2014) G M Wagner said:

Montgomery Ward Electric Water Heater-Model 94-SHT-2861A, Serial # TE22780 . Would you please tell me how old it is. Remodeling the basement and finally putting in a new one. thank you.

Reply:

Mr./Ms. Wagner:

For decoding the age of a Montgomery Ward water heater,

your Montgomery Ward electric water heater serial number is of an older format TE22780 that does not match the water heater age decoding formats I give below. Providing you're giving me the whole n umber, and pending further research I'm guessing the year is coded in the last two digits and = 1980.

Standard de-coding for many Montgomery Ward water heaters whose serial number is printed as SNN 1280A12345 depends on two pairs of digits in the serial number, digits 4&5 = the month of manufacture and digits 6&7 = the year of manufacture. So for my example the heater would have been made in December of 1980.

Wards water heaters have also been marketed under Wards Signature brand and the Reliance brand and were produced by State water heaters (if not other manufacturers).

For State water heaters manufactured for Montgomery Ward, an 8-character serial number was used (one more digit than yours) and are decoded as follows, using Carson Dunlop Associates example of

B9912345

where the "B" position is an alphabetic code for month of manufacture (A-M omitting use of I, where A = January) followed by two numeric digits of year - B9912345 would decode as February 1999.

Use the CONTACT link at page top or bottom of our website pages and send me some sharp photos of your water heater and closeups of its labeling and I'll research this further.

Reader Question: Montgomery Ward Signature 700 water heater age

(Jan 11, 2012) Doug said:

My Montgomery Ward Signature 700 water heater is not working. Any idea how long it's been in my house? SER# is 1170 3310 SN

Reply:

Doug, I decode this serial number as MM YY NNNN - 11 70 3310

It looks as if your Wards Signature 700 water heater was built in November 1970. We can't say when it would have been put in the home, but probably not long after its production, perhaps a year or two at most.

Question: Gorilla glue the stripped Montgomery Wards water heater pilot knob?

(Oct 23, 2014) Cherise said:
Hello
I have a 1974 Montgomery wards hot water heater, model SRM 33475 with a stripped on-off pilot knob. Is the any way to source this item? Or should I gorilla glue it? :-)
Thanks for any help you can provide!

Reply:

You may have to replace the water heater valvce and control if you can't turn it, Cherise. I'd try the Glue approach with this warning:

Watch out: most water heater pilot knobs require that you push in the knob to un-latch it to turn it and/or to light a pilot light (on models that don't do that automagically). If you try gluing a stripped control knob and drip glue into the control or make a mess of the job with glue running down into the control you may find that you can no longer turn the knob nor ignite the pilot.

Wards, Rheem, Paloma water heater history, sales, acquisitions:

Rheem Manufacturing is now [since 1988 - Ed.] owned by Japanese water heater manufacturer Paloma, of Nagoya, Japan. - Scott C. LeMarr - HonestHomeInspections.com

Rheem Australia is the largest domestic & commercial water heater manufacturer in Australia. Quoting water heater history from Rheem / Paloma Australia:

Rheem Manufacturing Co (Australia) Proprietary Ltd was incorporated in Melbourne, Australia on November 26, 1936 as the first overseas venture of Rheem Manufacturing Company, an American drum manufacturer.

Rheem ® began making drums in Australia in 1937 and manufactured its first gas water heaters in Australia at Waterloo, an inner Sydney suburb, in 1939. Electric water heaters commenced manufacture in 1945.

Over the years, the Rheem product range has diversified and has set up manufacturing plants as markets have developed. The most up-to-date technology has been installed to keep Rheem at the forefront of manufacturing techniques. ...

Since 2001, Paloma Co Ltd, an international leader in water heating and space heating technology and manufacturing, has been the ultimate controlling entity of Rheem Australia Pty Ltd. - http://www.paloma.com.au retrieved 1/24/2014

Spare Parts for Rheem, Paloma, Wards water heaters

You will need your equipment brand, model number and serial number to be sure that proper parts are being ordered. Look for the data tag on the equipment. On furnaces and some other HVAC equipment the data tag may be inside of an access panel or cover. [Turning off power for safety may be necessary before removing the access cover on some equipment.]

• Rheem water heater spare parts in the U.S.: Website: http://www.rheem.com/products/replacement_parts/
• Rheem water heater spare parts in Australia: Tel: 1800 812 916

[Online and telephone support are readily available. Good luck trying to find a brick-and-mortar address or email - Ed.]

Question: how old is this Wards 300 Energy Saver Glass Lined water heater?

Can you tell me how old this water heater is? - Anonymous by private email 2018/02/17

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Reply:

Anon: your Montgomery Ward 300 Energy Saver "glass lined" water heater's serial number, found on the data tag, is

SERIAL NO. SN     0483113079

In that format I'm guessing your heater was made in 04 (April) 83 (1983)

Near the top of this page you will see a very similar Ward water heater from that decade, the Ward Signature 500 Glass Lined water heater. Yours is a 300-series glass lined water heater from the same company.

Please help me out by telling me the country, state/province and city where this home is located and tell me the when the home was built.

If that data argues against my decoding I'll research the question further.

From the data tag we can also see that this is a "glass lined" electric water heater with two heating elements, Montgomery Ward Model SRM 35334A

Find the Data Tag on an Older Montgomery Ward Water Heater

Question: age of old Montgomery Ward Water Heater SN

SN: 567 12441 - Anonymous by private email 2018/02/23

Reply:

As you might have seen if you found MONTGOMERY WARD WATER HEATER AGE & MANUALS above on this page, there is a bit of variety in how serial numbers were encoded and that indeed it can be difficult to decode older heater ages.

Given your better view of the data tag on this old Montgomery Ward & Co. water heater reads 567 12441, I'll guess that this heater could have been made in

5 67 or May 1967.

Often the company encoded the Ward's water heater year as just one or two digits and the production week as another pair of digits. The remaining digits are a sequential number identifying the individual heater - its true unique ID.

Many Wards water heaters were produced by Rheem (bought by Paloma, a Japanese firm) who encoded the manufacture date in the serial number as MMYY nnnn but I couldn't map that to your heater.

That left me having to guess.

Reasoning:

"56" would not be a week ID since that's greater than 52. Months might have been encoded 1-9,A,B,C for example.

An alternative for this serial number would a guess of YYM or 1956 August, but unless you tell me the home is that old I have to guess the date I gave above.

Bottom line, don't know but we can still guess.

I'm still researching this question and have added a 1935 Wards building materials, plumbing, and heating catalog to citations at the end of this article.

General approach to decoding unfamiliar water heater serial numbers to get water heater date of manufacture

Typically the manufacturer used
a two digit month and two digit year,
OR
1 digit month that used alphabetic characters
OR
2 digit week (1-52) and 2 digit year
WITH sometimes a plant ID code in the serial number, typically a letter, separating the numeric or other age and serial number digits.

So if we have no other data, we look for a pattern that can decode to a reasonable year using those schemas.

I go back to Rheem because they many, not all, water heaters sold under the Montgomery Ward brand
Modern Rheem water heaters use a 10 digit code:

MMYYX12345 where X is the plant code and 12345 a consecutive unique ID and of course MM YY are month and year.

Tell me the age and location of the home and that will give us some context. Also look around the heater, perhaps stuck in a floor joist or on a wall top nearby, to see if you can find the manual for your heater. That will also get us close to its year of manufacture.

More advice is at DATA TAG DECODING ADVICE for NON-STANDARD DATE CODES - general procedure

Reader Question: what is the age of this old Montgomery Ward Signature electric water heater?

6/24/2014 Donna  said

Hi, we need an age of our electric water heater. I've attached several photos, we could not find a serial number plate. Thanks for your help. We are trying to win a "Oldest water heater in use" contest, to win a new water heater! Thanks, D.P.

(June 23, 2014) Donna Paar, dmpaar26@aol.com said:

We have an old Montgomery Ward Signature 500 Series, electric water heater. We cannot find a serial number. Would a picture help or is there another way to determine the age of the unit.

Reply:

Good looking water heater. If you have access to all sides of the heater exterior and still don't see an actual data tag, I would pull the access cover on the front - chances are there will be a data tag inside on the cover or on the heater itself. If you do that, send me images of what you see.

I'll post your photos to see if other readers can offer further help, but best bet is to inspect all around the heater sides and top and behind the removable front service panel for a data tag.

The Signature water heater line sold generally under the Wards brand was made by several manufacturers (listed in the article above) and has been sold in North America since, by my estimate, 1948.

Your Signature 500 electric water heater (or geyser or cylinder depending on where you live) looks like a much newer installation.

I see light colored wood 2x studs (recent construction) and shiny copper electrical wiring at the ground connection at the heater top.

Also I see the use of modern red PEX tubing used for the temperature/pressure relief valve discharge tube.

Certainly the heater could be older than its present wiring and plumbing, but if those are any guide, this is not a very old unit.

Depending on where you live we could get a more accurate estimation of the year of installation of the water heater plumbing as presently shown even before finding the heater's data tag (which I am betting is there somewhere). PEX surged in popluarity in the U.S. beginning around 2000.

For example, in the United States, California, one of the last adopters, did not approve the use of PEX (cross-linked polyethylene tubing) for household plumbing until 2007 (on a case by case basis) and not until 2009 for all homes.

More about PEX plumbing pipes used for building water supply and hot water heating applications can be read at PEX PIPING INFORMATION.

Glass Lined, Un-Dated Wards Signature Water Heater: Where's the data tag?

Above, this Wards Signature brand water heater is marked as "Glass Lined" without the "Signature 500" logo, contributed by reader Anonymous by email 2017/07/14 - readers who have found the data tag location on this heater are asked to send us a photo of the data tag using our email at CONTACT

The "glass liner" used in water heater tanks was patented by A.O. Smith back in 1936 and began mass production in 1939. The process for lining water tanks with glass was first developed in 1933 and involves actually fusing a layer of glass to steel, initially used in large brewery tanks.

Montgomery Wards Water Heater Manuals, Catalogs, Age Decoders

• MONTGOMERY WARD COMPLETE CATALOG of PLUMBING HEATING BUILDING MATERIALS [PDF] (1935), retrieved 2018/02/23, original source: https://ia801600.us.archive.org/7/items/WardsCompleteCatalogOfPlumbingHeatingBuildingMaterials/WardsCompleteCatalogOfPlumbingHeatingBuildingMaterials.pdf
• Montgomery Ward Gas Fired WATER HEATER USE & CARE MANUAL [PDF] - this document also includes model numbers for the Montgomery Ward SRM series water heaters, 100 series, 500 series, 800 series, and 1000 series heaters and includes a replacement parts list. The instructions note that you will need the model number and serial number from the rating plate.
• Contact Montgomery Ward: Website: http://www.wards.com/ Customer Service Telephone: 877-784-2836
• RANGE BOILERS illustrates an older type of water heater sold by Montgomery Ward and other providers.

You may be able to obtain Montgomery Wards water heater parts online or by calling 800-269-2609

More water heater brand ID help and manuals are at WATER HEATER AGE & MANUALS - separate article series - live link given below.

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Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

On 2021-03-14 - by (mod) -

@Theresa Carnegie,

From the Wards Signature boiler/water heater serial number age decoding notes at the top of this page, a guess for your heater would be 1964

On 2021-03-14 by Theresa Carnegie

Hi, I live in what was my grandfather's house. It is old. I have lived here for 25 years. I have a boiler that heats my hot water as well as my house. I was just curious as to how old it is. There is a tag on the top that reads Signature. The model is SHL 7025A-140, the serial is 64Y 1259.

Also on this tag is WARDS OIL FIRED, MCA OF AMERICA. I thought if anyone could tell me how old the boiler is it would be you. I live in Maine, so it gets quite a workout at this time of year. I'm not very good with the computer so I don't know how to send an image, otherwise I would.

On 2019-11-10 - by (mod) -

Itsays

Not all water heaters use a pilot light; many if not most modern heaters use an electronic ignition.

SO look for an electrical wire between the control and the burner - that'd be a clue.

Post a photo of your water heater's data tag so we can help you find the manufacturer and model and thus manual.

On 2019-11-10 by It says automatic on it I do not know how to light the pilot

it says automatic on it I do not know how

On 2019-03-10 by Patrick Stevens

What year was this manufactured SNN 773 58226
IMAGE LOST by older version of Clark Van Oyen’s Comments Box code - now fixed. Please re-post the image if you can. Sorry. Mod.

On 2019-02-23 - by (mod) -

Impressive.

On 2019-02-22 by Anonymous

It was built approximately 1910, Bellefontaine Ohio USA

On 2019-02-17 - by (mod) -

Mitch I suspect it's a 1975 heater - when was your house built, and in what country and city is it located?

On 2019-02-17 by Mitcholeman

I am curious of the age of my Wards Glass Filled electric water heater. Model SHT-2837B, Serial - 75X128. It appeared old when we bought the house in 1984 and is still working.

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Continue reading  at WATER HEATER AGE & MANUALS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see MONTGOMERY WARD WATER HEATER AGE & MANUALS FAQs - questions & answers posted originally at this page

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• AGE of PLUMBING MATERIALS & FIXTURES
• AGE of HEATERS, BOILERS, FURNACES
• WATER HEATER LEAK REPAIR
• WATER HEATER LIFE
• WATER HEATER RESET BUTTONS & CONTROLS
• WATER HEATER SAFETY

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Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.

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