A sofa and a fridge can be the same size and the same weight, and the fridge still costs more to get rid of. People assume that is a markup on something awkward. It is not. It is a different job with a legal step in the middle of it.
The gas is the whole reason
Every fridge, freezer, window air conditioner and dehumidifier has refrigerant sealed inside it. Federal law treats that as something that cannot simply be released into the air, and it has to be recovered by a certified technician before the shell can be scrapped.
That is why a scrapyard will take a washing machine off your hands and turn down a fridge, or take the fridge and charge for it. Somebody has to do the recovery, and somebody has to be paid for it.
It also means anyone offering to take a fridge away for nothing is either doing that step, or is not. If it is not, the appliance is going somewhere it should not, and the gas is going into the sky over Marion County.
Take the doors off before it sits outside
If the appliance is going to stand in a carport or by the kerb for even a day, take the doors off first, or take the latch off.
This is not fussiness. A sealed appliance that a small child can climb into and cannot open from the inside is the reason the rule about removable doors exists at all, and it exists because of what used to happen. It takes a screwdriver and five minutes.
Try the cheaper routes first
If it still runs, it has value to somebody, and none of these involve us:
- The shop delivering the new one will often take the old one, sometimes free, usually for less than a separate collection. Ask at the point of sale, not after.
- Your utility may run a rebate on old second-fridge units — the garage beer fridge from 1994 that costs more a year to run than it is worth. Worth ten minutes checking before you pay anyone.
- If it works and it is clean, a charity resale shop may want it. If it does not work, they will not, and asking them to take a dead one just moves your problem onto a charity.
When it is worth calling us instead
When it is upstairs. When it is one of four things going at once. When it has been dead in a Florida garage for two summers and nobody wants to be the one who opens it.
That last one is not a joke, and it is the call we get most. A freezer that lost power in a storm and stayed shut for a fortnight is a different job from a fridge, and it is worth saying so on the phone rather than at the door — it changes how we bring it out and it changes the price.
We take it whole, doors and all, and it goes to a route that does the recovery properly.
What it costs
One appliance on the ground floor with clear access sits at the bottom of our pricing. The number moves for stairs, for a tight turn at the top of a staircase, and for the freezer nobody has opened.
Photos price it. A wide shot showing the route out is more useful than a close-up of the appliance.