How to get rid of a refrigerator in Phoenix

The short answer

A standard refrigerator is $164. A side-by-side or French door is $183. A built-in or Sub-Zero, which has to come out of cabinetry, is $238. A mini fridge is $115. A chest freezer is $146 and an upright freezer is $149. All of those include the pull-out, the carry and the disposal, with no refrigerant fee and no stair charge.

You can also try your city's bulk program, a scrap collector, or a utility recycling incentive if one is running. Each of those trades money for control over timing, and each one requires the fridge to already be outside.

The Phoenix garage refrigerator

This is the single most common refrigerator job in the Valley, and it exists because of a chain of local facts. Houses here have no basements, so the garage is the storage room. Garages here are two and three bays wide. And a household that entertains outdoors from October to April wants a second fridge for drinks. So the old kitchen unit gets demoted to the garage instead of leaving, and it lives there.

Then summer happens. A compressor working against a garage that spends four months well above outdoor air temperature is working very hard, and garage refrigerators here die younger than kitchen ones. They usually die in August, which is when nobody wants to be dealing with it.

Standard refrigerator, $164, whether it is in the kitchen or the third bay. Mini fridge, $115.

Before the truck arrives

• Empty it. Completely. A fridge that has been off for two days in a Phoenix garage is genuinely unpleasant, and the crew is not going to be able to do much about it once it is on the truck.
• Unplug it. Ideally the night before, so it is not dripping meltwater across the tile when it moves.
• Disconnect the water line if there is an ice maker or dispenser. Shut the valve behind the unit first.
• Tape the doors if it has to sit outside for any period. An accessible refrigerator with a working door latch is the one appliance hazard everyone takes seriously.
• Clear the path. Not strictly necessary — the crew works around things — but a clear route from the kitchen to the driveway makes it a five-minute job.

The other routes, honestly assessed

Retailer haul-away. Best option when you are buying a replacement and the delivery window works. It covers the unit being replaced and it happens on their date. It does not cover the second fridge in the garage.

City bulk collection. Every Valley city runs its own program — Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale, Tempe and the rest — and sealed refrigeration units are frequently treated differently from other bulk material. Read your own city's current bulky-item page rather than a metro-wide summary, and check your HOA's CC&Rs too, because a fridge on the curb for a week is exactly what most Valley HOAs are written to prevent.

Scrap collectors. Works for some appliances, less reliably for sealed units, and only if it is already outside and you can wait.

Utility incentives. Some utilities run recycling programs for older working refrigerators. Check whether yours currently does — it takes two minutes and it is worth knowing.

Prices for the whole cold-storage category

Clearing out the garage cold storage in one go — a standard refrigerator at $164 and a chest freezer at $146 — is $164 + $146 = $310. A kitchen replacement where the built-in goes and the old mini fridge goes with it is $238 + $115 = $353.

Access in Valley homes

Most of the time this is the easy part. Single-story homes with a wide driveway and a roll-up garage door mean a short, flat, straight carry. The awkward cases are specific: a built-in that has to come out of a cabinet surround in a north Scottsdale or Arcadia kitchen, a unit in a casita at the back of a walled lot where the route is a pedestrian gate, and the occasional second-floor kitchenette.

None of that changes the price. There is no long-carry charge and no stair charge. If the community is guard-gated, tell us at booking and we sort the pass before the truck is at the kiosk.

If it still runs

A refrigerator in genuinely good working order is worth trying to place. Some charities in the Valley accept working appliances, and a garage fridge that still holds temperature has real resale value here, especially heading into the fall entertaining season.

Be honest about condition, though. A unit that has run in a Phoenix garage for years and is now struggling to hold temperature in the summer is not going to be accepted, and listing it wastes a week you could have spent with the third bay empty.

Booking it

Tell us the type — standard, side-by-side, built-in, mini — and where it is. You get the flat number before you book, and it is fixed at that point. The crew handles the pull-out, the dolly work, the load and the disposal.

Same catalog across the metro, from Buckeye to Apache Junction, with no distance or fuel line. The visit minimum is $75, which a refrigerator clears on its own.

Frequently asked questions