Mor-Flo Water Heater Age Lookup

Mor-Flo is a discontinued American brand with roots in 1915 and The Hotstream Heater Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The name itself dates to 1961, when Hotstream merged with Buckeye Water Heater to form Mor-Flo Industries. The 1972 purchase of California based American Appliance created the Mor-Flo/American brand family, and Mor-Flo grew into one of the largest domestic water heater producers in the country. It also developed the Flame Guard flammable vapor ignition resistant system, introduced commercially around 2000, ahead of the requirement that applied to common residential gas water heaters from July 2003.

The corporate trail explains where to go for support now. Southcorp of Australia acquired Mor-Flo Industries in 1993, the various entities merged into American Water Heater Company in 1997, GSW bought that company in 2002, and A.O. Smith bought GSW in 2006. Nothing is built under the Mor-Flo name anymore, so parts and specifications come from the equivalent American Water Heater model of the same period, matched by capacity, fuel, and vent type.

Serials vary by era. The common modern formats put the two digit year and a two digit week either at the start of an all numeric serial or immediately after a single letter prefix, so 043812019 is week 38 of 2004. Units from the 1970s and 1980s often used a plain sequential serial with no date in it at all. Those units carry a separate warranty code on the data plate instead, either a letter for the month followed by the year, or a four digit year and week. Entering that warranty code above, rather than the serial, will return the date.