How to get rid of a refrigerator in Orlando

The short answer

Carry-out is included from anywhere — a kitchen in a Dr. Phillips house, the back of a garage behind a parked car, a third-floor apartment off Curry Ford West. Refrigerant is recovered properly and that handling is inside the price, not added to it. The per-visit minimum is $75.

The second-fridge problem

In most cities a refrigerator removal is a kitchen replacement. In Orlando it is usually the garage unit.

Almost every house in this metro has one: a beer fridge, a drinks fridge for the pool deck, or a chest freezer bought during a hurricane season and never removed. It lives in an uninsulated garage that comfortably exceeds 100 degrees on a July afternoon, running its compressor continuously against an ambient temperature it was never designed for.

They fail, and they fail badly. The failure usually happens while nobody is home, the contents spoil in the heat, and the garage is unusable for a week afterwards. By the time anyone calls, the door seals are moldy and the unit smells. That is normal work and it does not change the price.

Refrigerant handling is included

Refrigerators and freezers contain refrigerant that must be recovered by someone qualified before the unit is scrapped. It is a federal requirement, and it is the reason a fridge cannot go in the back of a pickup with the rest of a load or be dropped at every collection point.

That handling is inside the $164. There is no recovery fee, no EPA fee, no environmental surcharge and no extra line afterwards. One number, the unit goes, and the compliance chain is our problem.

Retailer haul-away works, on one day only

If you are buying a replacement, ask for haul-away at purchase — it is often included with delivery and is the cheapest available route.

The catch is narrow. It applies on the delivery day and only to the unit being replaced. It will not cover the second fridge in the garage, it will not happen a week later, and delivery crews routinely refuse units they cannot safely disconnect. In this metro that last one bites most often on older water lines to an ice maker, where the valve behind the fridge has seized.

If any of that applies, the old unit is a separate job at the published price.

Why the curb and the scrapper both go wrong

Many collection routes here exclude refrigerant-bearing appliances entirely, so a fridge left at the curb is often simply passed over. Check your city or county solid-waste page for how yours handles them before you move anything.

Meanwhile the unit is sitting outside. In a deed-restricted subdivision — Lake Nona, Horizon West, Winter Garden, Baldwin Park — that is a visible-storage violation and the weekly drive-through will find it. In the unincorporated county it draws a complaint eventually. And an appliance with a door still attached sitting on a driveway is a genuine child-safety issue that every parent on the street will notice before code enforcement does.

A scrapper will take it, but a pickup with a chain is not recovering refrigerant, which is the entire reason the rule exists.

Getting it out of an Orlando house

Slab construction means no basement stairs, which helps. What replaces them:

• The garage route. Most second fridges leave through the garage opening, which is easy — as long as the car is moved out before the window starts. That is the single biggest slowdown on these jobs.
• The kitchen doorway. Older block ranches in College Park, Conway and Azalea Park have narrow kitchen entries. A French-door unit often has to have its doors removed to clear the frame, which crews do routinely.
• Exterior stairwells. A full-size fridge coming down a switchback landing in a garden apartment is a two-person, strapped, slow carry. No stair fee applies.
• Tile floors. Most of this metro is tile or luxury vinyl on slab. Appliance dollies go on protective runners rather than straight across, because a dropped corner chips tile permanently.

Before the crew arrives

• Empty it completely, including the door shelves and the ice bin. Do this the night before if the unit has failed, not while two people are waiting.
• Unplug it and shut off the water line to the ice maker if it has one.
• Tape the doors closed so they do not swing on the carry.
• Put a towel down if it has been leaking. Condensate plus a tile floor is slippery.
• Move the car out of the garage.

If it failed with food inside and you would rather not deal with it, say so when you book. It is a normal request in this climate and the price does not change.

Doing it with the rest of the job

Most fridge removals here happen alongside something else. A kitchen swap — fridge, electric range and dishwasher — is $164 + $134 + $109 = $407. A garage clear-out of a chest freezer and the old laundry pair is $146 + $133 + $128 = $407 as well, which at that point is worth comparing against a half truck at $431 if the rest of the garage is going too.

The $75 minimum applies once per visit, so putting everything on one booking is always cheaper than calling three times.

Frequently asked questions