Maintenance & Prevention
Where the Rating Plate Hides on Each Kenmore Appliance
On a Kenmore refrigerator the rating plate is inside the fresh-food compartment: on the side wall near the crisper drawers, on the ceiling just inside the door, or behind the bottom drawer on some bottom-freezer cabinets. On a top-load washer it is under the lid on the rim of the tub opening; on a front-loader it is on the frame behind the open door. A dryer carries it inside the door opening. A dishwasher carries it on the edge of the tub, visible only with the door open. A range carries it on the frame behind the storage drawer, or under the cooktop. A range hood carries it inside, behind the grease filter. In every case the number you need starts with three digits and a period.
The full guide
Kenmore refrigerator where to find model number, and every other machine in the house
Nobody enjoys this bit. The plate is always in the least convenient place on the appliance, it is usually behind something, and on a machine that has been in a Miami kitchen for a decade the print has often given up. Here is where to look, machine by machine.
Refrigerator. Inside, with the door open. Most commonly on the side wall at about the height of the crisper drawers, sometimes on the ceiling immediately inside the door, and on some bottom-freezer cabinets behind the lowest drawer. It is not on the back and it is not on the outside.
Washer. Top-loaders carry it under the lid, printed on the rim around the tub opening. Front-loaders carry it on the frame revealed when the door swings open, usually at the bottom of the opening where the boot meets the cabinet.
Dryer. Inside the door opening, on the frame. On a stacked laundry center it belongs to the whole unit and there is only one.
Dishwasher. On the edge of the tub, along the top or the side, and readable only with the door open. It is often the cleanest plate in the house because it lives in a sealed cavity.
Range. Two places. Pull the storage drawer at the bottom right out and look at the frame behind it, or lift the cooktop if it hinges. On a wall oven, open the door and look at the frame.
Range hood. Take the grease filter down — it drops out by hand — and look up inside the canopy.
What to do when the plate is gone
Grease, steam and ten years of cleaning take these labels off, especially on ranges and hoods. Three things still work.
The original paperwork is the fastest, if it exists. So is a registration email, if the appliance was ever registered. And on most machines there is a second label further in — under the top panel of a washer, behind the toe grille on a refrigerator — which we can read on the visit without charging for the privilege.
What does not work is guessing from the appearance of the machine. Two appliances that look identical on the outside can have been built by two different companies, which is the whole reason this page exists.
Why the first three digits get their own line
Because they are the ones that change the answer to everything else. They name the company that built the machine — the one whose parts catalog lists your pump, whose service documentation describes your control, and whose error-code table your display is speaking.
The rest of the number matters too: it identifies your machine within that company's range, and a parts supplier searches on it with the period removed. But if you only get one thing off the plate before your phone battery dies, get the first three digits.
What we do with it
When you call, the number goes into the same catalogs we would use for the manufacturer's own appliance. That tells us which part is in your machine before anybody leaves, which is the difference between one visit and two — and in a county this size, a second visit is a week.
If it turns out to be a repair
What this leads to, and what it costs
Every job on this site is priced the same way: an on-site diagnostic first, the figure agreed in writing before anybody starts.
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Top-load and front-load · 110 and 796 Washers
Laundry is where the decode matters most, because a Kenmore washer can be a Whirlpool, an an LG, and those are two genuinely different machines. A 110 and a 796 do not share a pump, a control board, a diagnostic sequence or a code table, and they do not fail the same way. The model number is not a formality on this appliance — it is the difference between the right visit and the wrong one.
- 110 is Whirlpool-built, 796 is LG-built
- Drain, spin and leaks are most of what we see
- Two washers under one badge, and two code tables
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Built-in · Kenmore and Kenmore Elite Dishwashers
Built-in dishwashers. 665 is the number on most of the plates we see and it is Whirlpool-built; 587 is Frigidaire and 630 is Bosch, and all three turn up in South Florida kitchens. Whirlpool publishes a real code scheme for these, which makes a dishwasher one of the more readable appliances on this badge — provided you read the code against the right builder's table.
- 665 is Whirlpool, 587 is Frigidaire, 630 is Bosch
- Drainage and wash performance are most of the calls
- The code on the display is Whirlpool's code
Questions people ask about this
The sticker has rubbed off. Now what?
Check the original paperwork, the receipt, or the registration email if the appliance was ever registered. Failing that, there is often a second label inside the machine — on a washer under the top panel, on a refrigerator behind the toe grille — and we can read that on the visit.
Is the serial number the same thing?
No. The model number says what the machine is; the serial says which one it is and roughly when it was made. Photograph both, because the second is what dates the appliance.
Which part of the number do you need?
All of it, but the first three digits do most of the work. They name the manufacturer, and that is what decides which parts and which documentation apply.
Why not just tell you it is a Kenmore?
Because that describes about a dozen different machines built by seven different companies. It is the one piece of information that narrows nothing.
Maintenance & Prevention
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The Smell in a Kenmore Washer or Dishwasher Is Water That Never Dried
One cause, two machines, and a house that never really dries out. Both builders publish a cleaning reminder for it, and almost nobody runs the cycle.
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Why a Kenmore Part Number Will Not Always Find You the Part
The component in your appliance is catalogued by the company that built it, under that company's number. A search that returns nothing usually means superseded, not gone.
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Tell us the model number and what it is doing.
This article is based on:
- Official manufacturer documentation
- Internal repair procedures
- Technician repair history
- Company quality standards