Find the number first
Every decoder on this site starts with a number — and the number owners type most often is the wrong one. Here is where each brand actually puts it, and the traps to step around.
Stamped into the cast bed of the machine itself. On most pre-1950s machines: on top of the bed, front-right corner. On later machines: on a raised pad under the bed, near the edge — tip the machine back (or lift it from its case) to read it. Treadle and hand-crank machines carry it on the bed the same way.
The motor number is a different number — it dates the motor, not the machine. Two numbers? Use the longer, higher one. Faint letters? Read them in raking light from a flashlight held low; a stamped B and 8, or G and 6, are easy to swap, and the prefix decides which register your number belongs to.
Kenmore dating runs on the model number, printed on the model plate. Common spots: the front bottom edge of the machine, the back, or the underside. Machines in cases or cabinets often hide the plate until you tilt the machine back. The number looks like 158.17540 — three digits, a dot, then the model digits.
The four-digit number on the motor is the motor's model — the classic wrong number. No dot? Later plates print the number run together (15817540); the first three digits are still the maker code. Decode it on the Kenmore page.
On many models the serial is stamped inside the casting, to the right of the thread take-up slot (open the face plate area and look with a light). On others it is on a plate under the machine or on the back of the pillar. Letter-first serials (1963–1982) read from the first character.
Pre-1963 machines start with a digit, not a letter — that digit is the year digit, and it is genuinely ambiguous between two decades until you match the model. A stamped mark like an upside-down V at the start is not damage — it is Elna's 1982 code.
One box handles all three brands: the SerialStitch decoder. Type the number exactly as stamped — the tool explains the record behind every answer, and tells you plainly when a number does not fit any published record.
Identification is the first step of a good sale and the kit takes it from there: pricing from sold listings, the safe-start checks, and the listing playbook.
Included in the $39 Seller & Restore Kit