U.S. Craftmaster Water Heater Age Lookup

U.S. Craftmaster is a wholesale brand of American Water Heater Company in Johnson City, Tennessee, now part of A.O. Smith. The lineage runs through Mor-Flo Industries, which merged its brands into American Water Heater Company in 1997. GSW bought that company in 2002, and A.O. Smith bought GSW in 2006, which is how U.S. Craftmaster ended up alongside American, State, and Whirlpool branded tanks.

The units are residential gas and electric tanks from 30 to 80 gallons, built to the American Water Heater standard: glass lined tank, magnesium anode, foam insulation, six years of tank coverage on most models. Specifications and parts are shared with the American and Envirotemp models of the same period, which is how a wholesaler will find a replacement gas valve or element when the Craftmaster part number returns nothing.

The serial gives the two digit year followed by the production week, so a serial starting 0431 is week 31 of 2004. One era detail is worth knowing on gas models. A model number carrying a plain G, with no FG or BF in it, predates the flammable vapor ignition resistant requirement that took effect in July 2003, which places the build date before then and means the burner assembly is not the sealed design sold today.