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

Vaillant splits the information across two plates. The serial number sits on a plate behind the front flap, held in a plastic strap, and can also be shown on the display. The data plate itself is fitted to the underside of the boiler at the factory, and that is where the GC number lives.

Where is the data plate on a Vaillant boiler?

On the underside of the appliance. Vaillant fits the data plate to the bottom face of the boiler at the factory, so on a wall-hung ecoTEC or ecoFit you are reading it from below rather than from the front. It carries the product designation, the gas category and connection pressure, the heat output and heating load figures, the maximum water pressures, the electrical rating, the NOx class, the DSN code and the GC number. It also records the country the appliance was built to be installed in, which is worth a glance on anything that has come through a trade seller.

Where is the serial number on a Vaillant boiler?

Behind the front flap, on a plate held in a plastic strap. Vaillant's installation and maintenance instructions put the serial number there rather than on the underside data plate, and the same number can be brought up on the boiler's own display if the plate is unreadable or the strap has gone walkabout. Vaillant's customer-facing guidance says the serial number will usually be underneath the boiler or on the control panel, so on some appliances you will find it in both places. It should also be written in the Benchmark logbook if the original installer filled one in.

What do the digits in a Vaillant serial number mean?

They encode the build date and the article number. Vaillant's manual sets out the positions: the third and fourth digits give the year of production, the fifth and sixth give the week, the seventh to sixteenth give the product article number, and the seventeenth to twentieth record the place of manufacture. A current Vaillant serial number runs to twenty-eight characters, starting with 21 and ending with the letter N followed by one more digit. That build date is the honest way to answer how old the boiler is when the customer has lost the paperwork.

What is the GC number and why does it matter?

It is the Gas Council number, a seven digit appliance reference written in the form 00-000-00, and Vaillant prints it on the data plate. It identifies the exact appliance variant rather than the marketing name, which is what makes it useful. Two boilers can wear the same range badge and take different parts, and the GC number is what a merchant or a parts catalogue will ask you for. It is also the cleanest thing to record on a safety record, because it does not depend on how the customer describes their boiler.

How to read the plates without wasting the visit

What to copy onto the record

• Make and model as written on the data plate, not as described by the customer.
• GC number in full, including the dashes, so the variant is unambiguous.
• Serial number from the flap plate or the display, which also gives you the build year and week.
• Gas category and connection pressure, so the appliance can be checked against the supply on site.
• Anything that does not match the Benchmark book or the previous record, noted as found.

Reading the plate is the easy part. Typing it twice, once on the pad and again in the office, is where the mistakes creep in. Manifold's PlateScan reads the make, model and GC number straight off the data plate photo, drops them into the CP12 or service record, and keeps the appliance history against the property so the next visit starts with the numbers already filled in.