How to get rid of a refrigerator in Dallas

The short answer

A refrigerator is a sealed refrigerant appliance, which makes it legally different from a sofa. It cannot go in a bin. Municipal bulky programs across DFW handle sealed units separately from furniture when they take them at all. Scrap yards generally will not accept one unless the refrigerant has already been recovered and certified.

Three realistic routes: retailer haul-away if you are buying new and it is on the order; your own city's appliance stream, if it has one; or a private removal on a date you choose.

Our prices: standard refrigerator $164, side-by-side or French door $183, built-in or Sub-Zero $238, commercial glass-door merchandiser $316, mini fridge $115, chest freezer $146, upright freezer $149, large floor wine cooler $156, small countertop wine cooler $111, ice maker $115. No refrigerant fee.

The Dallas garage fridge

This is the single most common version of the job in this city, and it exists because of how Dallas houses are built.

No basements. A single-story ranch with an attached two-car garage, and that garage is the only overflow space the house has. So the second fridge goes out there — for drinks, for the overflow at Thanksgiving, for a deep freeze after a hunting trip. It runs fine for years.

Then it does several summers in an unconditioned space that sits well past a hundred degrees for weeks at a time, with the compressor working continuously against that heat. Eventually it quits. Often nobody notices for a while, because nobody goes into a Dallas garage in August unless they have to.

The result is a dead sealed appliance with a summer's worth of ruined contents inside it. Do not open it. Tape the door shut, leave it closed, and tell us at booking so the crew arrives with gloves and a strapped dolly. A standard fridge is $164, a chest freezer $146, an upright freezer $149, a mini fridge $115.

Retailer haul-away

If a new fridge is being delivered, this is the easiest route and you should ask about it at the point of sale rather than on the day.

Three limits. It normally covers a like-for-like swap only — the old fridge when the new fridge goes in, not the garage freezer as well. It generally only happens on the delivery visit, so if the old unit is not accessible and empty that morning, the offer disappears. And in Texas it is a commercial courtesy, not a legal obligation, so get it written on the order.

If you are having a kitchen refitted, the same logic applies to the installer. Ask whether removal of the old appliances is in the scope before the cabinets come out, not after.

Municipal collection and scrap

Some cities in the metro take large appliances through bulky collection, frequently on a separate stream, and sometimes with a condition attached for sealed refrigerant units. Because DFW is a patchwork of separate municipalities — Dallas, Richardson, Garland, Irving, Carrollton, Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney and the rest — the only reliable check is your own city's current bulky-item page, looked up by address.

Look specifically for how sealed appliances are handled, because that is the detail that differs most between neighboring cities, and it is the detail a neighbor is most likely to get wrong on your behalf.

Scrap is the other option. A fridge is a lot of steel and it has value at the yards along the industrial corridors. Ring ahead: most will not take a unit with refrigerant still in the system, and getting it recovered and certified is precisely the hard part of the job.

Getting it out of the house

A full-size fridge weighs more than most people estimate and its center of gravity is high. Two Dallas-specific access notes.

Kitchens in older ranch houses. East Dallas, Lakewood, Casa Linda, Preston Hollow's older streets — these kitchens were laid out for a much smaller refrigerator. A modern French-door unit was often installed by removing a door or a section of trim, and it has to come out the same way. Not a problem, but worth two minutes of thought before the day.

Alley garages. If the fridge is in a detached garage off a rear alley in the M Streets, Junius Heights or Winnetka Heights, this is the easy version — the truck backs straight up to it.

Uptown and Downtown buildings. A fridge coming out of a mid-rise or high-rise means a booked service lift, a loading-dock slot and a certificate of insurance held by management before anyone is allowed up. We carry the COI. Send us the building and management contact at booking and it goes over ahead of the visit.

None of this changes the price. Carry-out from any floor is included, there is no stair charge, and there is no same-day surcharge.

Prices in full

• Refrigerator, standard: $164
• Refrigerator, side-by-side / French door: $183
• Refrigerator, built-in / Sub-Zero: $238
• Refrigerator, commercial / glass-door merchandiser: $316
• Mini fridge: $115
• Freezer, chest: $146
• Freezer, upright: $149
• Freezer, commercial reach-in: $316
• Wine cooler, large / floor: $156
• Wine cooler, small / countertop: $111
• Ice maker: $115

Kitchen and garage together is addition. A standard kitchen fridge at $164 plus a chest freezer from the garage at $146 = $310. A full appliance strip for a remodel: standard refrigerator $164 + electric range $134 + dishwasher $109 = $407.

The visit minimum is $75, which every refrigerator clears on its own.

Preparing it

• Empty it, unless it has been dead a while — in that case leave it shut and tape it.
• Unplug it at least a few hours ahead if it is still running, so it stops producing condensate.
• Disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker or a dispenser. Turn the valve off first. A fridge still plumbed in is a job for you or a plumber, not for a removal crew.
• Do not remove the doors. They give the crew something to grip and the unit is safer to move intact.
• Clear the path, and say at booking if it is coming down stairs, out of a garage or up out of a basement-style storeroom.

Once it is unplugged, disconnected and free-standing, everything after that is ours.

Doing it properly matters more than usual

Two reasons to resist the temptation to put a fridge at the curb and hope.

The refrigerant is the whole point. A fridge left on a verge or in an alley reliably gets stripped for its copper, which means someone cuts the sealed system open on your property and vents it. That is exactly what the handling rules exist to prevent, and you are left with a gutted carcass that no program will now collect.

And an unsecured fridge with its door still functional is genuinely dangerous around children. If a unit has to sit outside for any period at all — waiting on a collection date, waiting on a scrap trip — remove the door or secure it shut. Better still, do not let it sit outside at all.

Frequently asked questions