Ferroli data plate: where the serial number and GC number are

Where is the data plate on a Ferroli boiler?

Ferroli does not say, and that is worth knowing before you spend ten minutes on your knees with a torch. Twenty one UK installation manuals were read for this page, from the current BlueHelix HiTech RRT back to the Falcon, and not one of them states a position for the data plate. What they do state is what the plate carries. Every range tells you the boiler is set for either 2nd or 3rd family gas, and that this is shown on the packaging and on the data plate. Every range tells you the electrical supply must suit the maximum power absorbed by the unit as given on the dataplate. And every range tells the installer to stick the LPG conversion label next to the data plate after a gas change, which at least means the plate is somewhere a sticker can go beside it.

One line from the current BlueHelix HiTech RRT manual is worth carrying onto site with you. Ferroli warns that removing the casing could cause combustion products to escape even when the unit is off. So if the number you want is not visible with the case on, the answer is the manual and the Benchmark logbook rather than a screwdriver.

What is a GC number?

A GC number is the Gas Council number, a seven digit appliance reference written as 00-000-00 that identifies one exact appliance variant rather than a range name. Ferroli prints it on the front cover of most of its UK installation instructions and, on the Optimax HE PLUS ranges, on a G.C. row at the foot of the technical data table. Two boilers can wear the same Ferroli badge, take different burners and different parts, and the GC number is what settles which one you are stood in front of. It is the identifier to write in the appliance details on a gas safety record, and our GC number hub carries the same lookup for every other make.

What is the GC number on a Ferroli boiler?

Look it up by the exact model and output, because Ferroli gives each output its own number. The Bluehelix generations are the ones most likely to be on a wall you are working on, and the tables below are read straight off the covers and technical data tables of the manuals cited under Sources. Nothing here is taken from a factor's listing.

Watch the naming on the system boilers. Ferroli UK publishes that document as the Bluehelix Tech RRT 18S, 24S and 30S manual, the running header inside says Bluehelix Tech RRT, and the model lines on the cover say BLUEHELIX PRO RRT against those three GC numbers. Same book, two names. If a customer tells you they have a Bluehelix Tech system boiler, the numbers above are the ones you want.

Three of the discontinued manuals print no GC number anywhere, so there is nothing to give you: the Modena S HE covering the 18s, 25s and 32s, the Optimax 25 OV, and the DOMIcompact F 24 D. On those the plate is the only source, and if it has gone the honest entry on the record is the make, the model and a note that the GC number could not be read.

A pattern worth carrying in your head. Every Ferroli GC number found across those twenty one manuals has 267 as its middle group, with 47 in front of it on the combis and 41 on the system boilers. Ferroli built that into its own paperwork: the Benchmark page in the Optimax, DOMIcompact and Falcon manuals is preprinted BENCHMARK No. 2 6 7 and tells the installer to add the first four digits of the boiler serial number to complete it.

How old is my Ferroli boiler?

There is no published decode, so the serial number will not date the boiler on its own. Ferroli gives no year and week rule of the kind Vaillant and Worcester Bosch put in their manuals, and nothing in the twenty one manuals read for this page breaks the serial into fields. What Ferroli does publish is the shape of it. The warranty registration page shows a barcoded label captioned SERIAL NUMBER and gives two formats beside the entry box, 1234L12345 and 1234LE1234. That is enough to tell you whether you are looking at the right label, and no more. Everything else comes off the paperwork.

How do I check a Ferroli guarantee?

By phone or email, because Ferroli publishes no online guarantee checker. The route in Ferroli's FAQ is the customer name and the postcode rather than the serial number, which is a useful difference from Worcester Bosch and Vaillant: you do not have to get a number off the appliance to find out where a customer stands. Registering a new one is the other way round, and asks for the serial, the model, the fuel, the installation date, the installer's Gas Safe number and whether a magnetic filter is fitted.

• The BlueHelix HiTech RRT carries seven years of parts and labour as standard, provided a high performance magnetic filter is fitted and the boiler is serviced annually.
• Ferroli offers an upgrade from seven years to ten on the Bluehelix HiTech for 180 pounds including VAT, arranged through Installersmate or by ticking the box on the registration form.
• The registration form warns that where no filter is fitted there is only a one year warranty.
• The appliance has to be registered within 30 days of installation for the warranty to be valid, and the Benchmark checklist has to be completed and available on site.
• The warranty period runs from the date the new appliance is installed and certified by a Gas Safe approved heating engineer, not from the date of purchase.
• The online form only accepts an appliance installed less than a year ago. Anything older and Ferroli asks you to ring 0330 205 0000.

What should you copy onto the record?

• Make and model exactly as the plate writes it, including the C or S suffix, because the output and the type both change the GC number.
• GC number in full with both hyphens, taken from the plate where it is legible and from the manual cover where it is not.
• Serial number from the barcoded label, which is what Ferroli will ask for on a warranty registration or a parts enquiry.
• Gas family, since every Ferroli manual states that the plate shows whether the boiler is set for 2nd or 3rd family gas, and a conversion label beside the plate tells you it has been changed.
• The commissioning date and notification number off the Benchmark page, which are the only dates Ferroli's own paperwork will give you.
• A note where a number genuinely cannot be read, rather than a number worked backwards from the range name.

A make that will not tell you where its plate is puts all the weight on the photo you take while you are stood there. Manifold's PlateScan reads the make, model and GC number straight off a data plate photo, drops them into the CP12 or service record, and keeps the appliance history against the property, so the next visit to that Ferroli starts with the numbers already filled in.