Who actually picks up old appliances in Baltimore

The short answer

Your realistic options are the retailer delivering the replacement, a scrap hauler, the city's bulk collection, a reuse charity, or a paid removal service.

Our prices, so you have a benchmark to compare the others against:

Visit minimum $75. Disposal included. No stair charge, which matters a great deal in a city where the washer lives at the bottom of a cellar staircase.

1. The retailer delivering the new one

Best option when it applies, because it is often free or close to it. The catch is that it only works on delivery day. If the new fridge arrived three weeks ago and the old one is sitting in the dining room, that window closed.

Three things to confirm when you order, not after:

• Does haul-away include carrying the old unit up from a basement, or only removing one that is already on the delivery floor? In a Baltimore rowhouse, the washer is almost always in the cellar.
• Will they disconnect it, or does it need to be disconnected and pulled out before they arrive?
• Can the delivery truck actually reach your block? On a narrow permit-parking street in Federal Hill this is not always a yes.

2. The scrap hauler

Anyone who has lived on a Baltimore rowhouse block knows the pickup trucks that work the alleys looking for metal. If you put a washer or a dryer out on a parking pad, there is a reasonable chance it is gone before the city gets to it.

That is free, and for a steel appliance with no refrigerant it is a genuinely fine outcome. Two honest cautions. It is not a schedule, so you cannot plan a settlement date around it. And it only solves the problem once the appliance is already outside, which means you have already done the part that was hard: getting a 200-pound washer up a narrow cellar stair and out through the back door.

Refrigerators and freezers are a different matter. Those have refrigerant in them that has to be recovered properly by someone equipped to do it, and an informally scrapped fridge frequently does not get that treatment.

3. Municipal bulk collection

Baltimore City runs a bulk collection service for residents, and appliances are commonly handled under specific rules separate from general bulk items, particularly anything containing refrigerant. The current rules, limits and scheduling are on the city's bulk-trash page, and they are worth reading before you plan around them.

If you live in Baltimore County, in Towson, Catonsville, Pikesville or Dundalk, the county's program is a different one with different rules. Check the one that covers your address, not the one your cousin across the line uses.

Either way it is curbside. Nobody comes into your house, and in a rowhouse that is the whole job.

4. A reuse charity

Worth a phone call if, and only if, the appliance works. Reuse organizations across the Baltimore region take functioning appliances in good condition, and some will collect.

The realistic filters: it has to actually run, it usually has to be under a certain age, and it cannot be the one you are replacing because it broke. Which describes most of them. Do not leave an appliance in your kitchen for two weeks waiting on a maybe.

5. Paid removal

The version where somebody else does the carry. That is the part you are paying for, and in Baltimore it is a larger part than it sounds.

A washer and dryer out of a Canton cellar: $133 + $128 = $261. A full kitchen swap in Hampden with fridge, electric range and dishwasher: $164 + $134 + $109 = $407. A basement utility clear in Locust Point with water heater, washer and dryer: $131 + $133 + $128 = $392.

Those prices include the stairs. They include the fact that your cellar has six-and-a-half feet of headroom and a turn at the bottom. They include disposal and refrigerant handling. Nothing is added on site.

Why the Baltimore cellar is the whole story

In most of this city's rowhouse stock the laundry is in the basement, and that basement was not designed as living space. Many have been dug out over the years to gain headroom, leaving a steep, narrow run of stairs, low pipes overhead, and a floor that is a step down from the last stair.

Carrying a washer up that is a two-person job with straps, and it is the reason most DIY appliance plans in Canton, Federal Hill and Highlandtown end with a text message asking for help.

Some rowhomes have a hatch or bulkhead to the back yard instead, which is better if the appliance fits through it. Tell us which you have.

How to choose in thirty seconds

• Buying a replacement with delivery? Ask about haul-away now, and ask specifically about the basement.
• Steel appliance already outside on a pad? The alley will probably handle it.
• Works fine and you have time? Call a reuse charity.
• It is in the cellar, or it has refrigerant, or you are on a deadline? Book the removal.

Frequently asked questions