Who picks up old appliances in Jacksonville?

The short answer

Five groups pick up appliances in Jacksonville: the retailer delivering your new one, scrap metal collectors, possibly your utility, municipal bulk collection, and a junk removal crew.

Four of the five come with conditions - a purchase, a disconnection you have already done, a specific week, or an appliance that is actually made of enough metal to be worth someone's diesel. The fifth is $164 for a standard refrigerator, $133 for a washer, $128 for a dryer, on a window you pick, with the disconnect and the carry-out handled.

Work down the list. If one of the free routes fits your situation, take it.

1. The retailer delivering the new one

This is the best free option and it exists for exactly one day. Haul-away is arranged at purchase and happens on the delivery run, not before and not after.

What reliably kills it, and these come up constantly in Jacksonville:

• The old unit is not where the new one is going. If the new fridge goes in the kitchen and the old one is the beer fridge in the carport, the delivery crew is usually not taking the carport one.
• It is not disconnected. Water line to the ice maker, gas line to the range, hardwired dryer. Most delivery crews will not disconnect.
• It is upstairs. Second-floor laundry is standard in the newer two-story builds out in Bartram Park, Oakleaf and Nocatee, and some delivery contracts do not cover carrying an old washer down.
• It is filthy or moldy. A front-loader with a black gasket after a few Jacksonville summers can be declined on the doorstep.

Confirm the haul-away in writing when you buy, and specify the location of the old unit.

2. Scrap metal collectors

Put a washer, dryer, water heater or range at the end of a Jacksonville driveway and there is a decent chance it is gone before the city gets to it. Scrap runs are a real, active trade here, particularly on the Westside and Northside, and metal-heavy appliances are what they want.

The catch is selection. They take what pays: steel-bodied washers, dryers, water heaters, ranges. They generally do not want dishwashers with plastic tubs, microwaves, or the plastic-heavy modern fridge. And they take it when they take it - which may be tomorrow or may be never, while your appliance sits in the rain.

One caution worth stating: a refrigerator or freezer contains refrigerant, and pulling a compressor out on a driveway is not a legitimate way to handle it. If someone offers to strip a fridge on your property, that is not the person you want.

3. Your utility, sometimes

Utilities in many parts of the country run appliance recycling programs - typically aimed at old, working, energy-hungry second refrigerators and freezers, sometimes with a rebate attached. Whether one is running in your part of Northeast Florida at any given time changes, so check directly with your electric provider rather than assuming.

If a program is available, the typical requirements are that the unit is currently plugged in and running, within a size range, and accessible. That last one matters in Jacksonville, where the second fridge almost always lives in the garage or carport - which is fine for access, but it also means it has spent its life running in 95-degree heat and may no longer be working, which disqualifies it.

4. Municipal bulk collection

Duval's residential collection generally handles bulky items on a scheduled basis, and white goods often have their own rules because of the refrigerant and the mercury components. Check your city bulk-waste page for the current window, the item limits, and whether appliances have to be reported separately.

Two Jacksonville-specific practicalities. First, doors: an unattended fridge or freezer with a working door latch sitting out for days is a genuine hazard with children around, and most guidance is to remove or secure the door. Second, weather: a week in the swale during summer means several soakings and, if there was any food left inside, a smell that makes the whole job worse for whoever finally lifts it.

5. A junk removal crew

Disposal is inside those numbers, including the refrigerant handling on anything that has a sealed system. There is no environmental surcharge and no separate gate fee. Minimum $75 per visit.

Why Jacksonville kills appliances early

We pick up a lot of appliances that should have had years left, for reasons that are specific to here:

• The garage fridge. With no basements, the second refrigerator lives in the garage or carport, where it runs flat out through six months of Northeast Florida summer. They do not last.
• Salt air. Outdoor condensers, carport washers and dryers, and anything on a lanai at Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach or Jacksonville Beach corrode from the outside in.
• Storm outages. After a multi-day power loss in hurricane season, chest freezers full of spoiled food routinely get written off rather than cleaned. That is one of our busiest post-storm categories.
• Hard water. Households on wells out on the Westside, the Northside and into Clay County go through water heaters faster.

Which one should you pick

Buying new and the old unit is in the same room, disconnected and clean? Take the retailer haul-away. It is free.

Otherwise, run the numbers on your actual list. A washer and dryer together is $133 + $128 = $261. A garage fridge and a chest freezer is $164 + $146 = $310. A full kitchen - fridge $164, electric range $134, dishwasher $109, countertop microwave $30 - is $164 + $134 + $109 + $30 = $437, which is more than the half truck at $431, so on a kitchen gut book the half truck and put the cabinets in it too.

Frequently asked questions