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
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’sinformationalFieldData:
- 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:
Some are easier than others. Water heater plates are typically clear; electrical panel age stickers are sometimes hand-written and harder to OCR.
For unrecognized equipment, Sys Info either:
- 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:
These thresholds aren’t configurable per-tenant currently — they’re platform defaults. A future enhancement may allow per-tenant overrides for regional climate adjustments.
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:
Both contribute to recurring revenue: Warranty Engine produces 11-month warranty inspections; Aging Equipment Flagging produces re-inspection-recommended findings that can drive future booking.
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
Related articles
- AI During Capture → Sys Info — the inspector-side flow
- AI Features Guide — the IT cost reference
- Inspection Reviewer — where aging-flag data appears for the office
- Templates Overview — informational fields the aging data feeds into