Water Heaters Electric Residential Heat Pump The purpose of this manual is twofold: one, to provide the installer with the basic directions and recommendations for the proper installation and adjustment of the water heater; and two, for the owner– operator, to explain the features, operation, safety precautions, maintenance. Of the water heater; and two, for the owner–operator, to explain the features, operation, safety precautions, maintenance and trouble shooting of the water heater. This manual includes a parts list. It is imperative that all persons who are expected to install, operate or adjust this. Rheem Manufacturing Company P.O. Box 244020, Montgomery. Download 1152 Rheem Water Heater PDF manuals. User manuals, Rheem Water heater Operating guides and Service manuals. Owner's Manual And Installation Instructions. Owner's Manual And Installation Instructions. Owner's. Commercial Point-of-Use Electric Water Heater. Use & Care Manual. Commercial Power Direct Vent Water heater.

• Rheem Tankless Electric Water Heater
• Rheem Hot Water Heater User Manual
• Rheem Electric Water Heater Specs
• Rheem Electric Water Heater Installation Manual

• POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about how to find out the age of a Rheem-brand water heater

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Determine the age of a Rheem water heater based on decoding the serial number.

We give contact information for Rheem brand water heaters, geysers, cylindes, calorifiers and for Rheem water heater installation, operation, & troubleshooting manuals.

We also provide a MASTER INDEX to this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need.

Page top photo: a Rheem brand electric water heater installed in a Christchurch New Zealand home.

Rheem water heater age determination, serial number decoding, manuals

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.

We discuss Rheem-manufactured water heater date codes in more detail below.

[Click to enlarge any image]

The Rheem water heater serial number is found on the data tag or label on your water heater's exterior.
On Rheem tankless water heaters the serial number is located inside of the heater body on the right side.
On Rheem heat pump water heaters the serial number is located on a label on the upper left side of the unit.

Photo: Rheemglas Fury model Rheem water heater data tag on a home in Boca Raton Florida. Serial No. RH 0806B17262 decodes to August 2006.

Rheem produced water heaters sold under many other brands including

ABS water heaters, Aqua Therm water heaters, Cimarron water heaters, Citation water heaters, Coast to Coast water heaters,

Energy Master General Electric water heaters, EverKleen water heaters (Richmond), Intertherm & Miller water heaters,

Lowe's water heaters, Mainstream water heaters, Montgomery Ward water heaters (see MONTGOMERY WARD WATER HEATER AGE & MANUALS), Professional water heaters,

Rheem water heaters, Rheem/Ruud water heaters, Richmond water heaters, Ruud water heaters, Servi-Star water heaters, True-Value water heaters, Vanguard water heaters,

Shown in our photo: Some Rheem water heaters such as this electric water heater made by Rheem New Zealand and installed in a Christchurch home will give the date of manufacture explicitly.

This water heater was manufactured 14/05/2007 and sports a serial number of 0723.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Rheem serial numbers on modern heating equipment can be decoded by mapping the corresponding digits of the unit's serial number as follows:

MMYYPnnnn

where

MM = month of manufacture

YY = year of manufacture

P = plant identifying code

nnnn = a consecutive serial number for your individual unit

Rheem water heaters that may be sold under other brand names include

AquaTherm water heaters, General Electric water heaters, Hotpoint water heaters, Professional Brand water heaters, Vanguard water heaters & Western Auto water heaters.

- http://globalimageserver.com/FetchDocument.aspx?ID=682d9e43-35ec-48e9-b3f7-1a41d328375d retrieved 6/24/2014

Contact information & Manuals for Rheem Water Heaters

• Rheem Water Heaters, Rheem National Sales Dept., Rheem Sales Co. Inc. 1241 Carwood Ct Montgomery, Al. 36117 USA Tel: 1-800-535-9538 (Customer service, warranty, parts), Website: http://www.rheem.com/ Email: customerservice@rheem.com
  Rheem technical support: 800-432-8373
  
• RHEEM ELECTRIC WATER HEATER MANUAL [PDF] Installation, use, care

Rheem Manufacturing Co., in business since 1930, produces commercial and residential water heaters as well as HVAC equipment sold under many brand names including Ruud and other companies listed below.

Rheem is a subsidiary of Paloma industries. Rheem equipment is produced and sold in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bahrain, Chile (CEM S.A.) , China, Brazil, Canada, Iraq, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zelaand, Oman, Quatar, Saudi Arabia,Singapore, the UAE, Ukraine, and the United States.

Also see

• RHEEM WATER HEATERS CATALOG 1950 [PDF]

Reader question: what is the life expectancy of a Rheem hot water cylinder

(Oct 26, 2012) meme said:

How many years should a Rheem hot water cylinder last

Reply:

Meme, Rheem's warranty period for hot water heating equipment (cylinders, geysers) varies by product series but is typically 5-10 years.

You will need your product name and model number as well as serial number to look up the exact information for your unit. For example, the HPWH has a 10-year tank leak warranty and a 10-year parts warranty and a first year in-home labor warranty is included as well.

Some Rheem heating equipment such as gas furnaces includes longer periods for the heat exchanger, such as 20 years or 'lifetime'.

You should be sure to register your hot water cylinder at the company's website as that will aid in any future warranty claim. You can call Rheem directly for help. In North America call 1-800-621-5622 and listen for the prompt to take you to warranty information provided by the company

Reader question: decode the age on this 1950's Rheem water heater Serial #B950-3138 RCY-5

2018-02-27 Nick said:

Trying to determine the age of a water heater in my house. Rheem Model #62-52-D; Serial #B950-3138 RCY-5.

The serial number format does not match the Rheem age encoding scheme above on this page.

The # on the unit is B950. Baltimore - September 1950, posssibly. I know the unit is at least 40 years old.

Nine Rheem Water Heater Serial Number Decoding formats

Thank you for the added information, Nick.

I will continue researching to see if we can find a key to older Rheem water heaters that pre-date the modern date encoding schema.

Because Rheem water heaters or calorifiers or geysers were sold under quite a few brands and over many years, there is a plethora of Rheem water heater serial number formats.

Rheem provides their own Rheem water heater age decoder at https://www.rheem.com/how-old-is-my-water-heater however we found that this web page does not work on older Rheem water heater serial numbers.

To date we have found at least nine Rheem water heater age encoding schemes depending on the era of manufacture and also on the type of water heater. We summarize these below.

Photo: an older Rheemglas Standard water heater, Serial No. # R 0884B10488 decodes to August 1988.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Rheem Tankless Electric Water Heater

1. Rheem current 10-digit serial number code: MMYYP12345 where
   P is the plant code and 12345 a consecutive unique ID and of course MM YY are month and year of production.
   This serial number may be prefixed by R, RN, RNG, RHNG or other letter combinations.
2. Rheem 8-digit serial number: 1234WWYY ?
   Uncertain, possibly WWYY are week number and two-digit year number for older Rheem water heaters like the Rheemglas glass lined water heater
   
3. Rheem 9 digit serial number code with alphabetic prefix: ABCDMMYY2345
   MM and YY are the month and year of production.
   ABCD in this serial number format may be 1 to 4 alphabetic characters in length: R, RN, RNG, RHNG, RHUNM or other letters. The MMYY are the first numeric characters in the code.
   Example: RN 1292A29282 - 12 92 or December 1992
   Alternative Rheem 9 digit serial number code using week number, with initial character: ZWWYY12345
   WW is the consecutive week number (1-52) and YY is the two digit year code
4. Rheem 10 digit serial number code without plant code: MMYY123456
   MM YY are month and year of production.
   This serial number may be prefixed by R, RN, RNG, RHNG or other letter combinations.
   Alternative Rheem 10-character serial number code without plant code: MM.YY-123456
   MM.YY are month and year of production.
   This serial number format is used on some Rheem tankless water heaters.
5. Rheem 11-character serial number code with plant code: MMYYP123456
   MM YY are month and year of manufacture, P is a plant code.
   This serial number is used on certain Rheem tankless water heaters.
6. Rheem 12-character serial number code: B950-3138 RCY-5
   This serial number was provided by reader Nick 2018-08-27 and has not been precisely de-coded.
   Nick adds that the heater was made on or before 1978 and he speculates tht the B950 could refer to B-Baltimore and 950 to 9 - September and 50 - 1950.
   However Rheem does not have and appears not to have had a manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland.
   
7. Rheem 16-character serial number code with plant code: ZMMYYP12345689X
   MM YY are the month and year and P is a plant code.

Decoding Older Rheem Water Heater Data Tags

On 2018-05-23 by (mod) - Age of a Rheem Model #62-52-D; Serial #B950-3138 RCY-5.

Nick
Typically on a Rheem water heater thte age is encoded in a 10-digit serial number as MMYYa12345
Your heater's serial No. is B95-3138 RCY-5 which of course doesn't fit the schema of newer Rheem units.

On 2018-03-02 by Nick

Thanks again. The only reason I speculated about Baltimore is because it was listed on the nameplate along with 5 other cities (Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, Chicago, & Houston).

On 2018-03-02 by (mod) -

Nick,
Thanks, these are great photos. I'm traveling for the next few days but when I'm back in a computer I'll be sure to copy them over to our new page dedicated to Rheem water heaters and found at
https://inspectapedia.com/plumbing/Rheem-Water-Heater-Age-Decoder.php
We'll continue researching this heater and will see if anyone at Rheem can help.

On 2018-03-02 by Nick

I researched Rheem's history and it looks the they stopped using the logo pictured on the front of the unit sometime prior to 1960.

Thanks for your reply. Here is the nameplate. I'll get some pictures of the unit itself tonight.

On 2018-02-28 by (mod) -

Nick
Please use the picture frame icon next to the Comment button to show us some sharp photos of the water heater and a close-up of its data tag or labeling.

Thank you for the added information, Nick. I will continue researching to see if we can find a key to older Rheem water heaters that pre-date the modern date encoding schema.

On 2018-02-28 by Nick

I saw it, but the formats didn't match. The # on the unit is B950. Baltimore - September 1950, posssibly. I know the unit is at least 40 years old.

On 2018-02-28 by (mod) -

Above: the control thermostat on Nick's 1960's Rheem electric water heater.

Did you see Rheem water heater age decoding at
RHEEM WATER HEATERS & HEATER AGE

On 2018-02-28 by Nick

Trying to determine the age of a water heater in my house. Rheem Model #62-52-D; Serial #B950-3138 RCY-5.

...

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Technical Reviewers & References

• Scott C. LeMarr has provided his file of keys to decode Water Heater Age from the data provided on the manufacturer's equipment labels. Mr. LeMarr is a professional home inspector, Certified Professional Inspector/President, MASTER Indoor Environmental Specialist (MIES). Vice President of Wisconsin NACHI. He and his company, Honest Home Inspections, LLC. can be reached at 262-424-5587 or by email to scott@honesthomeinspections.com
• Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, have provided us with (and we recommend)Carson Dunlop Weldon & Associates' Technical Reference Guide to manufacturer's model and serial number information for heating and cooling equipment ($69.00 U.S.). Technical Reference Guide, Carson Dunlop Weldon & Associates, Ltd., 120 Carlton St. Suite 407, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 4K2 Canada, ISBN 1-895585-90-2 165pp.
• Mark Cramer Inspection Services Mark Cramer, Tampa Florida, Mr. Cramer is a past president of ASHI, the American Society of Home Inspectors and is a Florida home inspector and home inspection educator. Mr. Cramer serves on the ASHI Home Inspection Standards. Contact Mark Cramer at: 727-595-4211 mark@BestTampaInspector.com
• John Cranor is an ASHI member and a home inspector (The House Whisperer) is located in Glen Allen, VA 23060. He is also a contributor to InspectApedia.com in several technical areas such as plumbing and appliances (dryer vents). Contact Mr. Cranor at 804-873-8534 or by Email: johncranor@verizon.net

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