I have a Hotpoint WMA33N, serial number 78117343. How can I discover the manufacture date of this machine and thus prove it must still be within its 5 year parts warranty? (Receipt has been lost).

(It has noisy bearings, I phoned the Service Centre and they are charging £94 labour, plus they won't cover the cost of the parts unless I can produce a receipt to personally show the engineer the machine is less than 5 years old. As we bought it in Jan 2002, I don't see how Hotpoint could even have been making them 5 years ago - otherwise it was hanging around in someone's warehouse for at least 21 months???)

Ron West, April 2005

the first two digets are the date code ie 78 is the date code as this shows as june 2000 so you are in your 5yrs (hotpoint engineer)

darren, April 2005

if you ring hotpoint and give them the number inside the door they will verify year of manufacture and sale

aa, April 2005