How to get rid of a refrigerator in Milwaukee

The short answer

Flat, published prices. They include carrying it out from wherever it stands, hauling, refrigerant recovery and disposal. Minimum per visit is $75, and no fridge price is below that, so a single refrigerator is an ordinary job.

No stair charge. No refrigerant fee. No environmental surcharge.

The second fridge, which is practically standard equipment here

Ask anyone outside Wisconsin what is in a Milwaukee basement and they will guess wrong. Ask anyone in Milwaukee and they will say: the second refrigerator, and next to it the chest freezer.

It is close to universal in the older housing stock. The kitchen fridge gets replaced, the old one goes downstairs or out to the detached garage rather than being thrown away — it still works, after all — and it becomes the beer fridge, the overflow for holidays, the place the brats and the tailgating supplies live. Beside it sits a chest freezer holding venison from a season or two back, fish from up north, and a quantity of frozen custard nobody has audited.

Then the second fridge finally dies, and it stays exactly where it is. It is too heavy to carry up alone, it is not worth a special trip, and it is out of sight in the basement. The record in our experience is measured in decades.

So the typical Milwaukee refrigerator call is not the kitchen unit. It is the dead one in the basement, plus the chest freezer that stopped holding temperature, plus in many cases a third unit in the garage.

Refrigerant is handled and it is not a surcharge

Refrigerators and freezers contain refrigerant, and federal rules require it to be recovered by trained technicians before the unit is processed rather than vented. It is not something to attempt yourself — the system is sealed and under pressure.

• We handle it. You do not need to arrange a technician or produce any documentation. Unplug the unit; that is your side of it.
• It is inside the price. $164 for a standard fridge is the whole number. There is no refrigerant fee, no EPA fee and no environmental surcharge added at the curb.

It is also why a refrigerator is not an ordinary alley item. Refrigerant appliances are handled separately from general household waste across the metro, so check your own municipality's collection page for what it accepts and under what conditions.

Defrost it, and take the doors seriously

Two pieces of preparation, and the second one is not a formality.

Defrosting. Empty it completely, unplug it at least a day ahead, and prop the doors open. A chest freezer that has been running for fifteen years in a damp Milwaukee basement can have a couple of inches of ice built up in the bottom, and that ice is both weight and, shortly, water. Put towels down and point it at the floor drain. Attacking the ice with a screwdriver is how people puncture the liner — and puncturing the liner on a sealed system is exactly what you are trying to avoid.

Doors. An empty refrigerator or chest freezer standing unattended with a working latch or seal is a genuine hazard to children. If the unit is going to sit for a day or two while it defrosts, remove the doors or lid, or tape them so they cannot close and latch. This matters most where the fridge is in a detached alley garage that children can get into — which in this city is common.

Also: disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker, and shut the valve at the wall.

Getting it up the Milwaukee basement stairs

This is what you are actually paying for, and it is worth being specific about why it is hard here.

• The stairs in a 1920s bungalow or a two-flat are steep, narrow, enclosed on both sides, and finished with a header low enough to catch a tall person's shoulder on the way up.
• There is frequently a turn at the bottom into the laundry area, with a foundation wall and a floor drain leaving no room to pivot something the size of a chest freezer.
• Older basements have lower ceilings than people remember, and a side-by-side refrigerator on a hand truck is taller than it looks once it is tilted.
• The bulkhead — the angled exterior cellar doors — is often the better route for an appliance. Six concrete steps straight up to the alley beats twelve narrow ones and a turn. Check whether yours opens before we come: they freeze shut between December and March, and in summer they are commonly painted shut or blocked from inside by the very things you want removed.

Either route is the same price. Tell us at booking which one is viable and we will bring the right approach.

Worked totals

The classic Wisconsin basement pair: the dead beer fridge $164 and the chest freezer $146, which is $164 + $146 = $310.

A kitchen remodel in Wauwatosa: a side-by-side refrigerator $183, an electric range $134, a dishwasher $109 and a countertop microwave $30, which is $183 + $134 + $109 + $30 = $456.

The full sweep — kitchen, basement and garage:

• Refrigerator (side-by-side / French door) — $183
• Refrigerator (standard, the basement one) — $164
• Freezer (chest) — $146
• Mini fridge (the garage one) — $115

$183 + $164 + $146 + $115 = $608.

If the fridges are part of a wider basement or garage clear-out, compare against volume — a half truck is $431, three-quarters is $587, a full truck is $732. The online quote runs both comparisons when you enter the whole list.

The free routes, honestly

• Retailer haul-away. The best deal available, and it only happens on delivery day. Arrange it when you order the replacement. Ask explicitly about basement removal — many delivery crews will not bring an appliance up a basement stair, and it is usually a like-for-like swap, so the second fridge downstairs is not included.
• Utility recycling programs. Programs that collect working second refrigerators and freezers operate in the region from time to time, with their own conditions and limits. Terms change, so check what is currently running. They generally want the unit to be working, which rules out the dead one.
• The alley scrapper. A fridge put out by the garage may well disappear, since there is metal in it. It is not something you can schedule, and a refrigerant appliance sitting in an alley outside your municipality's rules is a violation against your address in the meantime.
• Give away a working unit. A functioning fridge moves fast on neighborhood groups — but remember the buyer will not be carrying it up your basement stairs.

Booking

Pick the fridge type in the online quote, add the chest freezer and anything else going, and the flat total appears before you commit. Defrost for a day, unplug, secure or remove the doors, shut the water valve.

Tell us two things at booking: which floor it is on, and whether the bulkhead opens. Same-day and next-day slots are usually available, including in winter — there is no seasonal surcharge.

Frequently asked questions