The short version
ApplianceWorth has no accounts, no newsletter and no shopping basket, so there is nothing here to sign up for and nothing to pay with. The serial numbers you type into the tools are used to work out an answer and are not stored. The site does carry Google Analytics and Google AdSense, and both of those set cookies — the sections below say exactly what they see and how to switch the personalised part off.
Serial and model numbers
When you decode a serial number, the brand, serial and optional model number are sent to our own API so the date can be calculated, and the answer is sent back. They are not written to any database, not attached to you, and not shared with advertisers. They do not appear in the page URL either, so they are not in browser history, in referrer headers, or in anything a search engine can index.
A serial number is not a secret in the way a password is, but it does identify one specific appliance. If you are asking a stranger for help somewhere else on the internet, the production part of the code is enough — there is no need to publish the whole string.
What our server records
To stop automated abuse, the API keeps a short-lived counter in memory, keyed on a value derived from your IP address. It holds no history, is not written to disk and disappears when the server restarts. Ordinary web-server logs may record the usual request information for a short period.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to see which pages are read and which tools get used — pages viewed, rough location at city level, device type and whether a lookup succeeded. We do not use it to identify individuals, and it is not loaded on the private areas of the site at all.
Google’s own description of how it handles this data is in Google’s privacy policy. To keep out of Analytics everywhere, Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on.
Advertising
This site is paid for by advertising served through Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads and, where you have allowed it, to base those ads on your previous visits to this and other websites. Third-party vendors may also use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits.
- You can turn personalised advertising off at Google’s Ads Settings. Ads do not disappear; they stop being tailored.
- To opt out of third-party vendors’ use of cookies more broadly, see aboutads.info/choices, or youronlinechoices.eu in Europe.
- Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent before personalised advertising cookies are used, as Google’s publisher requirements provide.
If you write to us
Mail sent to support@, corrections@, partners@ or api@applianceworth.com is read by a person and kept only as long as the exchange needs. Corrections sent in by technicians — a serial number and the real build date — are used to check and improve the decoding rules; if you would rather yours were not used that way, say so and it will not be.
Your choices
Because the site holds no account and no profile, there is usually nothing of yours for us to find, export or delete. If you have written to us and want that correspondence removed, email support@applianceworth.com and it will be deleted. Browser settings can block or clear the cookies described above at any time; the tools here will keep working without them.
Children
This site is aimed at homeowners and repair technicians. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If what we collect changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top moves. Questions about any of it go to support@applianceworth.com — see the contact page.