Kenmore manufacturer prefixes

How to read a Kenmore model number

A Kenmore model number looks like 110.12345678. The three digits before the dot are the manufacturer prefix; everything after identifies the specific model. Canadian appliances carry a C first, as in C110, and those need checking before the three-digit codes because they are four characters long.

Once you know the prefix, the appliance follows its actual builder's serial system with no Kenmore-specific translation. A Kenmore washer with prefix 110 is decoded exactly as a Whirlpool washer would be.

Why Sears did this

Sears sourced appliances competitively across suppliers, often running several manufacturers in the same product category simultaneously. The prefix system let Sears track who built what without putting the manufacturer's name on the front of the appliance.

The practical consequence is that two Kenmore washers of the same vintage, sitting next to each other, can have been built by entirely different companies with unrelated serial formats. There is no shortcut around checking the prefix.

Which prefixes we can decode

Where the builder is Whirlpool, GE or Frigidaire, we apply that manufacturer's full rule and give you the complete result. Where it is a manufacturer we have not sourced — LG, Samsung, Panasonic and others — we still identify the builder, which tells you whose support site and whose parts catalogue to use. That is frequently the more useful answer.