How to get rid of a refrigerator in Minneapolis

The short answer

Every figure includes the carry-out from any floor, the load, the drive, the disposal and the refrigerant recovery. There is no environmental fee and no stair charge. Minimum $75 per visit, which a fridge clears comfortably.

Two units on one visit: standard refrigerator $164 + chest freezer $146 = $310.

Why a fridge cannot just go out

A refrigerator contains refrigerant in a sealed system, and federal rules require that refrigerant to be recovered by a certified technician before the unit is scrapped. It also contains compressor oil, and older units can contain other regulated materials in the insulation.

That is why your regular collection will not take one off the alley apron, and why a scrapper cruising the alley cannot legally take it as it sits even though it is mostly steel.

Most municipal bulky programs handle refrigerant-containing appliances separately from furniture, often at a different charge and with a different lead time. Check your city's bulky-item page for the current terms — and check the right city, because Minneapolis proper, Richfield, St. Louis Park and Edina all run their own arrangements.

Hennepin County drop-off sites accept appliances too. Check current rates before driving one out there.

The second fridge, which is practically a Minneapolis institution

A very large share of these calls are not about the kitchen fridge. They are about the other one.

The overflow fridge lives in the basement of a bungalow or, more often, in the detached alley garage. It holds beverages, the turkey in November, and whatever does not fit upstairs. It is usually between fifteen and thirty years old and it has never been replaced because it has never quite died.

Then it dies, and it almost always dies in winter. An unheated Minneapolis garage puts an appliance through months of sub-zero temperatures and then a humid spring, year after year. Compressors and start relays do not love that, and a fridge running in a garage at minus fifteen is working against physics its thermostat was never designed for.

So the January call is standard: the garage fridge quit, everything in it froze and then thawed, and it needs to go. $164 standard, $115 for a mini, and the crew comes to the alley.

Prep, in the right order

About a day of lead time, thirty minutes of actual work.

• Empty it completely. Including the door shelves and the freezer drawer.
• Unplug it and prop the doors open. Give it a full day if there is frost build-up. A chest or upright freezer that has run for two decades holds a startling amount of ice.
• Put towels down. Defrost water goes somewhere, and on a basement floor with a drain that is fine, on a kitchen floor it is not.
• Disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker. Shut the valve, disconnect, catch the residual.
• Pull the doors off only if we ask. Usually not needed. If it has to come through a tight 1920s doorway or up a turned staircase, the crew handles it.

In winter, note that a garage fridge may be frozen to the floor if there has been melt around it. Worth checking before the day.

Getting it up a Minneapolis basement staircase

This is the part that stops most people, and it is why the free routes usually are not actually available.

A basement staircase in a pre-war Minneapolis house is narrow, steep, and very often has a ninety-degree turn at the bottom against block or limestone wall. The door at the top opens inward onto a small landing. Ductwork and the main drain stack frequently run under seven feet at the foot of the stairs.

A standard refrigerator on an appliance dolly through that is a controlled two-person job with straps and stair protection. It is normal work and it is included in the $164 — no stair charge, no per-floor fee.

What it is not is a thing to attempt with one friend and a hand truck from the hardware store. Appliances going up basement stairs are the most common source of both back injuries and destroyed plaster on a stairwell corner.

The cheaper routes, and when they actually work

• Retailer haul-away on delivery. The best deal available. Arrange it at checkout, have the old unit emptied, defrosted and pulled out ready. Delivery day only, one for one, and many crews will not go into a basement — which is where most second fridges in this city live.
• Utility appliance recycling programs. Some energy utilities run programs that collect old working refrigerators and freezers, sometimes with an incentive, because a thirty-year-old garage fridge is a genuine energy drain. Check what is currently offered where you are; terms and eligibility change.
• City bulky pickup. A per-item charge, scheduled. Check your city's page.
• County drop-off. Cheap if you own a truck and the unit is at ground level.

All four assume the fridge is outside or can be got outside. That is the whole decision.

What happens to it afterwards

Refrigerant is recovered first. Then the unit is separated for material recovery: the compressor, the copper tubing, the steel shell, the aluminum and the plastics. A refrigerator is mostly recoverable material, which is why it is worth handling properly rather than burying.

A unit that still runs well and was replaced for cosmetic reasons gets offered for reuse where there is a taker. That happens more often than people expect with kitchen remodels in the southwest neighborhoods — nothing wrong with the appliance, it just did not match the new cabinets.

Your price is the same either way. $164 for a standard fridge whether it works perfectly or died in a Camden alley garage in February.

Common combinations: standard fridge $164 + electric range $134 + dishwasher $109 = $407. Or garage clear-out at a half truck $431 + standard fridge $164 = $595.

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