How to get rid of old appliances in Atlanta

The short answer

Every one of those includes the carry from wherever the appliance is, the loading, and correct disposal. The minimum for a visit is $75.

Refrigerant is handled, not surcharged

Refrigerators, freezers, window and portable AC units, heat pumps and dehumidifiers all contain refrigerant. 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 is our problem, and it is already inside the price. There is no refrigerant fee, no EPA fee, no freon surcharge. A standard fridge is $164 and that is the whole number.

This is worth knowing because it is one of the classic places a cheap quote turns into an expensive invoice. If someone quotes you a low figure for a fridge and then adds a refrigerant line at the truck, you were never quoted a price.

Retailer haul-away only works on delivery day

If you are buying a replacement, take the retailer's haul-away. It is the cheapest option that exists, frequently free or close to it, and the crew is already at your house.

The catch is that it is a delivery-day-only offer, and there are conditions people routinely get caught by:

• They take the old unit only if the new one goes in. If the delivery is refused or rescheduled, the old appliance stays.
• It is usually one-for-one. The old fridge goes, the spare garage fridge does not.
• The appliance normally has to be disconnected, emptied and defrosted before they arrive, and a gas range generally has to be disconnected by someone qualified.
• Many delivery teams will not go down to a basement or up to a second floor for the old unit.

That last one matters here. Laundry in a lot of Atlanta housing is in the basement — Decatur bungalows, Brookhaven ranches, split-foyers all over DeKalb — and a delivery driver who will not take stairs leaves you with a washer at the bottom of a flight.

If you missed delivery day, or you have a second unit, the haul-away window is closed and you are back to the flat price.

Where Atlanta appliances actually live

The carry is the job, and this metro makes it interesting.

Basements and daylight basements. The Piedmont grade means a huge share of intown and ITP houses have a finished or half-finished lower level, often with an exterior door that is down a flight of steps set into a hill. A chest freezer at the bottom of that is a two-person, all-the-way-around problem.

Basement garages and split-foyers. In Chamblee, Doraville, Brookhaven and North Druid Hills, the spare fridge is nearly always in the under-house garage, behind whatever else is in there.

Carports. The 1950s and 60s ranches across Decatur, East Point, College Park and Smyrna have carports, and a carport in this climate is a rust factory. An appliance stored there for a few years is seized, corroded and heavier than it looks.

Second-floor laundry. Newer OTP subdivisions in Alpharetta, Suwanee and Woodstock put the laundry upstairs. A stacked combo at $189 coming down a two-story subdivision stair is exactly the job a stair fee would punish you for. There is no stair fee.

Scrappers, and why they are not the answer

Someone will offer to take a metal appliance for free. Sometimes that is fine. Two things to watch.

First, they want the metal, not the job. A scrapper will take a dryer off your carport and leave the dishwasher, the plastic, and the door you took off. Second, refrigerant-bearing units get gutted for copper by people not certified to recover refrigerant, which is exactly the outcome the rules exist to prevent — and a unit stripped in your driveway is now your mess.

If a unit is genuinely clean metal, sitting outside, and you are not in a hurry, letting a scrapper take it costs nothing. For anything with refrigerant, or anything inside the house, it is not a real route.

Common combinations

The prices simply add:

• Washer $133 + dryer $128 = $261
• Refrigerator $164 + electric range $134 + dishwasher $109 = $407 (the standard kitchen gut in a Marietta ranch)
• Refrigerator $164 + mini fridge $115 = $279 (the kitchen unit and the garage beer fridge)
• Water heater $131 + washer $133 = $264
• Stacked washer/dryer combo $189 + microwave $30 = $219

If a kitchen renovation is producing cabinets and countertop as well as appliances, the truck ladder is usually the better shape: quarter $241, half $431, full $732.

Before the crew arrives

• Empty and defrost anything cold. A freezer full of water is heavier and it will leak across your floor on the way out.
• Disconnect water lines and unplug. For a gas range or a gas water heater, have the gas properly shut off and disconnected by someone qualified before the day.
• Clear the path. If the fridge is in a basement garage behind six bins, the bins move first — or tell us at booking and we will plan for it.
• Say where it is. Basement, second floor, carport, behind a gate with a code. It does not change the price, it changes the crew size and the time allowed.

Booking it

Pick the appliances off the list, see the total, choose a window. The number is set before anyone drives out, and the arrival window is fixed — which in a metro where a crew can lose forty minutes to Spaghetti Junction is the part worth paying for.

Coverage runs across the metro: intown, the Perimeter, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Marietta, Smyrna, Roswell, Alpharetta, Duluth, Norcross, Tucker, Stone Mountain, and the south side through East Point, College Park and Hapeville.

Frequently asked questions