How to get rid of a refrigerator in Baltimore

The short answer

Visit minimum $75. The price includes the carry-out from any floor, refrigerant handling and disposal. There is no EPA fee, no environmental surcharge and no stair charge.

The kitchen fridge and the basement beer fridge together: $164 + $115 = $279. Kitchen fridge plus a chest freezer: $164 + $146 = $310.

Three days out: defrost it

This is the preparation that matters and the one people skip.

• Empty it completely. Including the door shelves and the thing at the back of the freezer you have been ignoring.
• Unplug it and leave the doors open for at least a day, with towels down. A freezer compartment full of ice turns into a puddle, and in a rowhouse kitchen that puddle finds the one low spot in a hundred-year-old floor.
• Shut off and disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker or dispenser. Shut the valve first, then disconnect, and expect water in the line.
• Let it dry. A dry, empty fridge is a ten-minute job. A wet one full of meltwater is not.

In August, when Baltimore humidity is doing its thing, give it the extra day. A fridge that has been closed and off for two days in this climate develops a smell that will outlive the appliance.

The Baltimore kitchen-door problem

Rowhouse kitchens in Canton, Highlandtown, Pigtown and Federal Hill are frequently at the back of the house, at the end of a narrow hallway, through a doorway that was framed long before a 36-inch french-door refrigerator existed.

The way a fridge got in there is usually one of three: the doors came off, the handles came off, or it went in before a renovation narrowed something. All three are recoverable on the way out.

What the crew does:

• Takes the fridge doors off. Hinges at the top, and it buys several inches of depth immediately.
• Takes the house door off its pins. Another three inches.
• Removes handles. On some models this is the difference on its own.
• Straps it to a dolly and walks it. Down the hall, through the vestibule, over the marble steps with blankets down, or out through the yard to the alley.

All of that is method, not billing. It is $164 either way.

Refrigerant, and why it is not a surcharge

Every refrigerator and freezer contains refrigerant in a sealed circuit, and federal rules require it to be recovered by someone qualified rather than released when the unit is crushed. Older units may also have insulating foam with blowing agents that need handling.

That is why a fridge cannot be treated like a steel cabinet, and why the scrap trucks that work Baltimore's alleys are not the right answer for one. A dryer is steel. A refrigerator is a sealed system.

We route them so the refrigerant is recovered properly and the metal recycled afterwards. You arrange nothing, and nothing is added to the $164.

The second fridge in the cellar

Extremely common in this city. A rowhouse cellar in Locust Point, Brewers Hill or Hamilton with the old fridge from the last kitchen, still running, holding drinks and not much else.

Two practical points. Those cellars are frequently dug out, with low headroom, a narrow stair and a turn at the bottom, so bringing a full-size refrigerator up is a two-person job with straps. And some rowhomes have a rear hatch or bulkhead to the yard, which is the better exit if the unit fits through it.

The price does not move for either. A standard fridge is $164 from a cellar, a kitchen or a third-floor apartment.

Retailer haul-away and donation

Retailer haul-away is the cheapest route when it applies, and it applies only on the day the new one is delivered. Ask two things when you order: whether the crew will bring the old unit up from a cellar, and whether it must be disconnected and pulled out before they arrive. In a Baltimore rowhouse those answers matter more than the price does.

Donation works when the fridge runs well and is not ancient. Reuse organizations in the region take working appliances subject to their own condition and age rules. The fridge you are replacing because it stopped cooling is not a donation candidate, which covers most of them.

Be realistic about the timeline on both. A fridge sitting in the dining room for three weeks while you wait on a maybe is a cost too.

Getting it to the truck

Front or back, and on a rowhouse block it is worth deciding in advance.

The alley is usually the better route for an appliance, because a fridge on a dolly never touches your marble front steps that way. Whether it works depends on the block: many Baltimore alleys are one vehicle wide, with parking pads, poles and cans narrowing them, and some are effectively closed by parked cars in the evening.

Tell us whether there is a rear gate and whether the alley is passable. If nothing can get behind the house, the crew carries to the nearest legal stop and covers the marble steps on the way. No long-carry fee, no access fee.

Booking it

Pick the unit type, see the total, pick a window. Say which floor, whether it is defrosted, and whether there is rear access. A morning window is generally easier on dense rowhouse blocks.

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