How to get rid of a refrigerator in Atlanta

The short answer

Each price includes the carry from wherever it is, the loading, refrigerant recovery and correct disposal. There is no refrigerant fee, no EPA fee, no stair charge and no surcharge. The visit minimum is $75, so a single fridge stands on its own at $164.

Your four options, ranked

1. Retailer haul-away, on delivery day. The cheapest option that exists, often free, if you are buying a replacement. The conditions are consistent: delivery day only, usually one-for-one, and the old unit must be emptied, defrosted and disconnected before they arrive. Many delivery teams will not take it up or down stairs, which in this city rules out a lot of houses.

2. A scrapper. Free, sometimes same day, but they want the metal and they work curbside. Nobody is going down into a Sandy Springs daylight basement for a freezer. And a fridge gutted for copper in your driveway by someone not certified to recover refrigerant leaves you with the shell and the mess.

3. Your bulk program. Metro Atlanta is a patchwork — the City of Atlanta, unincorporated DeKalb and Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton and each individual city run their own arrangements, and refrigerant-bearing appliances are frequently handled separately or excluded. Check your own jurisdiction's current page. Where it exists it is curbside and needs scheduling.

4. Flat-price removal. $164, from wherever it actually is, on a fixed window, with everything included. This is the option that works regardless of floor, condition, or whether you bought a replacement.

Refrigerant, and why the price is what it is

Refrigerators and freezers contain refrigerant, and it cannot legally go to a landfill in the unit. It has to be recovered by someone certified before the shell is scrapped, and the receiving facility has to be one that does that.

That routing costs money, which is why a fridge is priced higher than a similarly sized piece of furniture. It is also why a suspiciously cheap quote for a fridge should make you ask what happens to it — and why a quote that adds a refrigerant line at the truck was never a quote.

Here it is inside the $164. Nothing is added afterwards.

Where Atlanta keeps its second fridge

Almost every fridge call in this metro is really about two appliances.

The basement garage. The split-foyer and split-level stock through Chamblee, Doraville, Brookhaven, North Druid Hills and Tucker puts a garage under the house at the bottom of a steep driveway. The overflow fridge lives there, behind the bins and the lawn equipment.

The carport. On the 1950s and 60s ranches through Decatur, East Point, College Park, Hapeville and Smyrna, the second fridge is under the carport, open to the weather. A few Georgia summers of humidity and it is rusted at the base, the gasket has perished and the door seal has given up.

The daylight basement. Ranches across Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, East Cobb and Decatur with a lower level that opens onto the back yard. Fridge, chest freezer, and a flight of stairs between them and the street.

The standard combination: refrigerator $164 + mini fridge $115 = $279. Or the kitchen unit plus the deep freeze: refrigerator $164 + chest freezer $146 = $310. A full kitchen-and-basement clear: side-by-side $183 + upright freezer $149 = $332.

What to do before the crew arrives

• Empty it. Completely. Food, shelves you want to keep, ice trays, everything.
• Defrost it. Start at least 24 hours ahead. A freezer that thaws mid-carry leaks the entire way up a basement stair.
• Disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker, and shut off the valve.
• Unplug it the night before so the coils are not hot.
• Remove or secure the doors? No — leave them on and leave them closed. The crew will handle it. Taking doors off a unit sitting outside is a genuine child-safety hazard in the interim.
• Clear the path. If it is in a basement garage behind six bins, move the bins or tell us at booking.

Tell us at booking whether it is in a kitchen, a basement, a carport or an upper floor. It does not change the price; it changes the crew size and the time allowed.

Access in this city

A fridge is the worst-shaped heavy object in a house, and Atlanta's terrain does not help.

Steep driveways. Standard in Decatur, Brookhaven, Chamblee and across the inner ring. A box truck usually cannot back down to a basement garage door, so it parks on the street and the appliance comes up the grade. Included in the price.

Narrow kitchen doorways. In 1920s bungalows through Grant Park, Kirkwood and Cabbagetown, the kitchen door was not sized for a French-door unit. Doors come off hinges; sometimes the fridge doors come off too.

High-rises. In Midtown and Buckhead towers, the fridge goes down the freight elevator, which needs a reservation and a certificate of insurance filed with management. Arrange at booking.

Five-over-ones. Along the BeltLine and Howell Mill, the garage clearance often keeps a box truck outside, so the carry runs across the deck. Longer, not dearer.

Is an old fridge worth anything?

Rarely, and be careful about giving one away.

A unit that has been running in an unconditioned Atlanta garage or carport is working against heat and humidity all summer, which is hard on the compressor and expensive on the electricity bill. A fridge cold enough to keep drinks is not necessarily cold enough to keep food safe, and a hand-me-down unit with a perished gasket is not a favor to anyone.

If it genuinely still works well and it is accessible, offering it locally is fine. If it has been sitting unplugged for years — which is the usual situation — it is a removal, not an asset.

Booking it

Pick the units, see the total, choose a fixed window. Defrost the night before and unplug it. One visit, $164 for a standard unit, refrigerant handled, nothing added at the end.

Same-day slots run across the metro — intown, the Perimeter, Marietta, Smyrna, Roswell, Alpharetta, Duluth, Tucker and the south side.

Frequently asked questions