Documentation Index
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Aging Equipment Flagging
The Aging Equipment Flagging workflow is the platform’s way of automatically surfacing equipment-near-end-of-service-life during inspection capture. When an inspector photographs a label plate and uses the System Info Tag tool, the platform extracts the manufacture date and — if the equipment is past its typical service life — surfaces a toast warning at save time.
This isn’t a separate feature you turn on; it’s a cross-cutting behavior that emerges from System Info Tag + the platform’s equipment knowledge base. This article documents the flow so inspectors and operators know what to expect.
When it triggers
Aging equipment flagging activates when all of these are true:
- The inspector captures a photo with a recognizable equipment label (HVAC nameplate, water heater plate, panel sticker, etc.)
- The inspector taps the ℹ️ Sys Info button on the Capture Screen
- The AI extracts a manufacture date or year via
extract-metadata-photo (3 IT)
- The extracted age exceeds the platform’s typical-service-life threshold for that equipment type
- The inspector taps Save + New or Save + Finish
If any of those fail (no Sys Info tap, OCR fails to find a date, equipment type is unknown), no flag is raised.
What the inspector sees
[SCREENSHOT: aging-equipment-toast.png — mobile, the Capture Screen at save time showing a small toast at the top: ”⏰ Aging Equipment Detected — Water heater is 14 years old. Typical service life is 8–12 years. Recommend evaluating replacement timing.”]
A toast notification appears at the top of the screen after Save. Format:
⏰ Aging Equipment Detected
[Equipment type] is [N] years old. Typical service life is [low]–[high] years. Recommend evaluating replacement timing.
The toast auto-dismisses after a few seconds; the inspector can also tap-to-dismiss.
Importantly: the toast does not automatically add anything to the finding. It’s a soft prompt — the inspector decides whether to:
- Add a deficiency narrative about the aging (manual edit)
- Set the rating to
D (Deficient) for safety-of-life issues
- Note the age in the field note for office follow-up
- Ignore (genuinely aged-but-functional equipment doesn’t always need flagging)
What the office sees
When the finding syncs to the cloud, the equipment age data is stored on the finding’s informationalFieldData:
{
"manufacturer": "Rheem",
"model": "G50-50",
"manufactureDate": "2010-06",
"ageYears": 14,
"typicalServiceLifeYears": [8, 12],
"agingFlag": true
}
- The executive summary if the finding is flagged for the summary
- The AI Draft narrative generator (the AI uses the age data to write a contextually-appropriate narrative)
- The SPO generator (aging equipment factors into the System Performance Opinion)
How equipment types are recognized
The OCR + AI extraction looks for:
| Equipment | Recognized labels |
|---|
| Water heater | Tank brand + model + manufacture date code |
| Furnace | Carrier / Lennox / Trane / etc. nameplate |
| AC condenser | Outdoor unit nameplate |
| AC air handler | Indoor unit data tag |
| Electrical panel | Federal Pacific / Zinsco / Square D / GE / etc. + date stamps |
| Roof shingles (limited) | Manufacturer’s stamp on the shingle back — rarely OCR-able from inspector photos |
- Falls back to text-only extraction (1 IT) if the caption mentions the year
- Returns no data — no flag fires
Service life benchmarks used
The platform’s “typical service life” data is from industry-standard sources (InterNACHI Standard Operating Procedure, manufacturer guidance, ASHI reference data). Sample values:
| Equipment | Low (years) | High (years) | Aging threshold |
|---|
| Water heater (tank) | 8 | 12 | ≥ 10 yrs |
| Water heater (tankless) | 15 | 20 | ≥ 15 yrs |
| Furnace (gas, atmospheric) | 15 | 20 | ≥ 18 yrs |
| Furnace (gas, condensing) | 18 | 25 | ≥ 20 yrs |
| AC condenser | 12 | 17 | ≥ 14 yrs |
| AC air handler | 15 | 20 | ≥ 17 yrs |
| Electrical panel (FPE / Zinsco) | — | — | Always flag (legacy safety concern) |
| Asphalt shingles | 20 | 30 | ≥ 22 yrs |
| Roof underlayment | 20 | 25 | ≥ 20 yrs |
The “always flag” case — Federal Pacific & Zinsco panels
Two legacy electrical panel brands (Federal Pacific Electric / FPE and Zinsco) are flagged regardless of age because of well-documented safety defects. The toast wording adjusts:
⏰ Safety Concern — Aging Panel
Federal Pacific panels are widely known to have circuit-breaker reliability issues. Recommend replacement evaluation by a licensed electrician.
This applies even if the panel was installed last year (rare but possible — refurbished panels still bear the FPE brand).
Disabling aging flags (rare)
There’s no UI toggle to disable aging-equipment flagging at the tenant level. The flag is benign — it surfaces information; the inspector decides what to do with it. If an inspector doesn’t want the toast, they can simply not use Sys Info on that finding — the rest of the capture proceeds normally.
For future enhancement requests (per-tenant config, per-equipment-type toggles), file a support request.
How it integrates with the Warranty Engine
The Warranty Engine surfaces inspections approaching 11-month warranty deadlines on new-construction orders. Aging Equipment Flagging is the inspector’s-end-of-the-stick for older properties — flagging equipment that’s nearing end-of-life regardless of warranty status.
The two are independent:
| Feature | Trigger | Audience |
|---|
| Warranty Engine | Inspection completed 11 months ago + new construction | Office (dashboard pipeline) |
| Aging Equipment Flagging | Sys Info reveals equipment is past service-life threshold | Inspector at capture time |
Best practices for inspectors
- Always photograph the label on water heaters, furnaces, AC condensers, and panels. Sys Info needs a clear shot.
- Speak the data into the caption before tapping Sys Info — if the OCR fails, the text-fallback uses the caption.
- Don’t assume the toast is a verdict. Look at the equipment yourself; functional 18-year-old equipment is sometimes still serviceable.
- For panel inspections, photograph the panel cover sticker AND the inside breaker labels. The FPE / Zinsco flag fires from either.
Best practices for operators
- Watch for aging-flag concentration — if many of your inspections in a neighborhood flag aging water heaters, the report’s executive summary can lean into preventive maintenance recommendations
- Use aging data in your follow-up emails — “Your water heater is approaching end-of-service-life. Here’s what we recommend planning for…”
- Build narrative library entries for common aging scenarios (e.g. “Water heater is X years old. Typical service life is 8–12 years. Recommend planning for replacement within the next [N] months…”) — see Narrative Collections
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