How to get rid of a refrigerator in Jacksonville

The short answer

That price includes carrying it out - from the kitchen, the garage, the carport, the Florida room or wherever it ended up - and full disposal with proper refrigerant recovery. No environmental fee, no refrigerant charge, no stair fee. Minimum $75 per visit, which any of the above clears on its own.

The Jacksonville garage fridge

Almost every second refrigerator we collect in this city is the same appliance, and it lives in the same place.

Florida houses have no basements. So the overflow fridge - the drinks fridge, the deer-season freezer, the one that got demoted when the kitchen was remodelled - goes in the garage or the carport. And a garage in Jacksonville is not a cool room. From May to October it is routinely well over 95 degrees in there, and a refrigerator in that environment runs almost continuously against ambient heat it was never designed for.

The consequences are predictable: they draw a lot of power, they run loud, and they fail years early. That is why the garage fridge is our single most common appliance pickup, and it is why the utility recycling programs that exist in some markets so often do not help - they typically require the unit to still be running, and by the time somebody wants rid of it, it is not.

Beach households get a second version of this. Salt air at Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach corrodes coils and cabinets on anything in a carport or an open garage.

The post-storm freezer

This deserves its own section because it is one of our busiest categories after any named storm affects Northeast Florida, and because people make it worse with good intentions.

A chest or upright freezer that lost power for several days in summer is not a cleaning project. The contents have been at ambient temperature in a sealed insulated box, and it is genuinely unpleasant - enough that the usual outcome is that the appliance goes rather than the food coming out.

What to do:

• Do not open it again. Once you know, leave it shut.
• Tape the lid or door closed. Duct tape across the seam, all the way round.
• Leave it where it is. Do not drag it to the curb where it will sit in the sun for a week.
• Book it. A chest freezer is $146 and an upright is $149, spoiled or not. There is no surcharge for the contents.

If you want to try to save the appliance, that is a defrost-and-deodorise job and there is plenty of guidance on it - but be realistic about whether you will ever want to store food in it again.

Five minutes of prep before we arrive

• Empty it, unless it is the post-storm situation above, in which case tape it shut and leave it.
• Unplug it the night before if you can, so the last of the condensate drains.
• Shut off the water line to the ice maker and disconnect it. That small valve behind the fridge is usually a quarter-turn.
• Clear the path. Fridges do not turn tight corners. In the 1920s Riverside and Avondale bungalows in particular, the kitchen doorway is the pinch point - if the door comes off its hinges, that helps.
• Say if you have wood floors. Original heart pine in a Springfield or Murray Hill house does not want a loaded appliance dolly dragged across it. We bring protection, but it is worth flagging.

You do not need to remove the doors. We will handle it if the unit needs to come apart to get out.

Refrigerant is handled, and it is not a surcharge

Every refrigerator and freezer has refrigerant in a sealed system. Federal rules require it to be recovered properly by certified technicians before the appliance is scrapped, rather than vented. That is why fridges sit outside ordinary bulky waste in most collection programs.

We handle that. You arrange nothing and produce no paperwork, and there is no separate line for it - a standard fridge is $164 with the handling already inside the number. If a competing quote adds an environmental or EPA fee on top, that is a real difference in what you will pay.

The corresponding warning: do not let anyone cut the compressor or the copper out of a fridge in your driveway for scrap. Opening the sealed system vents the refrigerant, and the appliance came from your address.

The free routes, and where they stop

Retailer haul-away. The best free option and it lasts one day. Arrange it at purchase, confirm it in writing, and state where the old unit is. It usually fails for one of four reasons: the old fridge is in the carport rather than the kitchen where the crew is working, it is still connected, it is upstairs, or it is dirty enough to be refused on the doorstep.

Scrap collectors. Active across Jacksonville, particularly on the Westside and Northside. They want metal, and modern plastic-heavy fridges are less attractive to them than a washer or a range. And see the refrigerant warning above - ask what they intend to do with it.

Utility recycling. Some electric providers run programs for old working second refrigerators and freezers, occasionally with a rebate. Availability changes, so check with your provider directly. The usual catch is that the unit has to be plugged in and running to qualify.

Why the curb is a poor plan for a fridge

Three reasons, one of them serious.

It may not be collected. White goods commonly have separate rules from ordinary bulky items because of the refrigerant. Check your city bulk-waste page before you put one out, or it sits there.

The door is a hazard. An unattended fridge or freezer with a functioning latch, left out for days where children play, is a genuine risk. If you do put one out, remove or secure the door.

Weather and the swale. Much of Jacksonville has open drainage swales rather than curb and gutter. A fridge parked in the swale blocks stormwater in a city that gets a great deal of it every summer afternoon, and it will earn a complaint faster than almost anything else you could leave out there.

Worked totals and booking

Kitchen and garage together. Refrigerator $164 plus chest freezer $146. $164 + $146 = $310.

Kitchen swap. Refrigerator $164, electric range $134, dishwasher $109. $164 + $134 + $109 = $407. That sits under the $431 half truck, so itemize - unless the old cabinets are going too, in which case book the half truck and fill it.

Fridge plus the drinks fridge. $164 + $115 = $279. If they pack down into a quarter truck, $241 is cheaper - ask when you book.

To book, tell us the type, where it is, and whether it is emptied and disconnected. There is no stair fee for the upstairs unit and no carry-distance fee for the one at the back of a deep Westside lot.

Frequently asked questions