Used and refurbished battery-powered equipment are abundant and are often found at great prices. Although the vehicle may be in good working order, it’s important to determine how old the deep-cycle batteries are. In most cases, battery manufacturers stamp or etch a date code on the battery, indicating the month, year, and location of manufacture.
Reading the Date Code
U.S. Battery uses a stamped code on the terminals of its flooded lead-acid batteries. The top left letter stamped on the terminal correlates to the month it was manufactured (A-L refers to January to December). In this example, the letter “K” is the 11th month indicating the battery was manufactured in November. The number indicates the year 2014, and the bottom letter specifies the U.S. Battery plant where it was produced.
U.S. Battery Mfg. Co. Plant Codes
- The letter “X” is for Corona, California plant.
- The letter “Y” is for Augusta, Georgia plant.
- The letter “Z” is the Evans, Georgia plant.
U.S. Battery AGM Batteries
The date, month, and year on the battery case are etched into the top of the battery and are clearly visible. The date is in the format of DDMMYY or YYMMDD. In this example, September 15, 2014.
24 Responses
What are date codes for 2020 and up batteries?
Hi Wesley,
2020 to the present will be indicated by the numbers 0-3 stamped on the terminal. The letters A-L will tell you the month (January – December) the batteries were produced.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
My batteries have a B 2 Y on it. 8 volt, also all of them have a black sticker with 6-22. F-22. Would like to know if these are 2012 or 2022 batteries.
Thanks!
Hi Dena,
One way to tell if your batteries are from 2012 or 2022 is if the batteries look like the images on our website. If your batteries and labels do not look like the images on our site, then they are from 2012. If the labels look like the images on our website, the batteries are from 2022.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. – Marketing
My B2Y 8 volts are black and the label matches your website. But I mostly see red batteries and one black. If the label is identical they should be 2022 correct?
Hi Brandon,
You are correct base on your code your batteries are from February 2022. You may have our US 8VGCE XC2 batteries which are in black cases.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
C2Y is my stamp on 8vgc batteries. I assume these are 2022 and not 2012. Am I correct? Also, what is the life span and warranty on these batteries. I just purchased the cart and the seller informed me that the batteries were only about a year old. They are dead dead. All 6 will not take a charge. Any help would be greatly appreciated
Hi Rickey,
I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble charging your batteries. If they are red batteries, they are from 2022. Our engineers may have some ideas that could help you. I will forward them your information, and someone will contact you shortly.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
I have a 6 digits on the top of my ub1280 battery. 202116 does that means 2021 Jan 6th
Hi Melissa,
It looks like January 6, 2021 is correct, but to be certain we recommend contacting the company that manufactured the battery. They may use a different date code from the ones we use.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
Hello I have some battery’s that’s stamped l1y would that mean December 2021 is there a warranty on the battery’s I’m having trouble charging them thanks
Hi Bruce,
We offer a one year limited liability warranty covering defects in material and workmanship. Information on our Warranty can found here. I would be happy to put you in contact with our engineers they may have some thoughts on troubleshooting the charging issues you are experiencing.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
OK that would be nice thanks can you tell me the year of them from the numbers in the first message
Hi Bruce,
2021 would be the correct year, based on the date code you provided. I will pass your information to our engineering team, and someone will reach out to you shortly.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
What are the codes for 2010 to 2019 US2200 batteries? I was sold a cart in which they said the batteries are 2022 but they have black cell caps and the stamped codes are different and don’t match what’s on the code list I downloaded.
Hi Phil,
I talked with our Senior Vice President of Engineering, and he said that we have been using the same 3-character date coding, on our FLA batteries, for more than 20 years. Occasionally one of the characters may get reversed, but otherwise they have been the same. Can you provide us an image of the terminal with date code, so we can help decipher the date on your battery? You can send it to me at mwallace@usbattery.com.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
Hi, Im trying to date golf cart batteries for an elderly neighbor. They are the red 8VGC with A2X on the positive post. Stamped into the top of the battery is C317D. Under the seat someone wrote that the batteries were changed in 2015 but these dont look that old. Any thoughts?
Hi Bob,
A2X indicates that the batteries are from January 2022, the X means that is was produced in our Corona,CA plant.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
Hi, I have a date code on my 8 V batteries that doesn’t seem to match up with anything. I see here in the comments or in the manual. The first stamp is the letter A followed by 15604. The stamp below that is 0649. Any help is appreciated thank you!
Hi Mike,
Can you send an image of the stamp on the terminal on your battery? It would be helpful to see what the code looks like. You can send the image to me at mwallace@usbattery.com.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
I am looking at a cart that supposedly has new batteries. In one picture I can see A32901 but I can’t figure out how new they are. Thank you!
Hi Clint,
The A32901 code is our assembly code but does not indicate when the battery was shipped. For that you need the warranty code that is stamped on the positive battery terminal. It is the three-character code described in this post. Without that code we cannot accurately decipher the batteries’ age. If the seller will supply that three-character code I would be happy to help you figure it out.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing
Battery is US8VGC XC2 with stamped code F0Y I’m assuming June 2020 Augusta, Ga. date of manufacture. Thanks.
Hi Leland,
You are correct, the date code on your battery is June 2020 from our Augusta, GA plant.
Best,
-Mike Wallace, V.P. of Marketing