How to get rid of appliances in Milwaukee

The price list

Minimum per visit is $75. Every price includes carrying it out from wherever it is, hauling and disposal. No stair charge.

Refrigerant is handled, and it is not a surcharge

Refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, dehumidifiers and heat pumps contain refrigerant, and federal rules require that it be recovered by trained technicians before the unit is processed rather than simply released. That is not optional and it is not something you should try to deal with yourself — venting refrigerant is both illegal and genuinely dangerous.

Two things follow from that, and they are the two things people ask about most:

• We handle it. Units that contain refrigerant go through the proper recovery route. You do not need to arrange anything, certify anything, or find a technician.
• There is no extra charge for it. A standard refrigerator is $164 and a side-by-side is $183, and that is the whole number. There is no refrigerant fee, no EPA fee, no environmental surcharge. If a hauler quotes you a price for a fridge and then adds one at the curb, that is a pricing model, not a regulation.

Retailer haul-away: free, but only on delivery day

If you are replacing the appliance, this is the cheapest route available and it has one hard condition attached: it happens on delivery day or it does not happen. Arrange removal of the old unit when you place the order, not afterwards. Once the new machine is installed and the truck has left, that option is gone.

Three Milwaukee-specific warnings:

• Ask about basement access explicitly. Many delivery crews will not bring an appliance up a basement stair. In this city the washer, the dryer and the second refrigerator are always in the basement, down a steep, narrow flight with a low header at the top. A driver who will happily wheel a machine off a garage floor will look at that staircase and decline.
• It is usually like-for-like. One in, one out. The dead chest freezer standing next to it is not included.
• It does not cover what you are not replacing. The beer fridge, the second dryer, the old water heater in the corner.

What to do before we arrive

Ten minutes of prep, and most of it is about not flooding your basement.

Refrigerators and freezers

• Empty it. All of it, including the freezer drawer nobody has opened since the last deer season.
• Unplug it at least a day ahead and leave the doors propped open so it defrosts. A chest freezer with two inches of ice in the bottom is heavy, and the melt has to go somewhere.
• Put a towel down. A defrosting freezer on a basement floor finds the floor drain or it does not.
• Disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker, and shut the valve.

Washers and dryers

• Shut the hot and cold valves, disconnect the hoses, and drain them into a bucket. They hold more water than you expect.
• Disconnect the dryer vent. If it is a gas dryer, the gas line must be shut off and disconnected properly — that is a plumber's or a gas fitter's job if you are not confident.

Ranges and water heaters

• A gas range needs the supply shut off and the line capped. Have that done before we come.
• A water heater must be drained before it moves. A full tank is far heavier than it looks, and there is no realistic way to carry one up a Milwaukee basement stair with the water still in it. Shut the supply, connect a hose to the drain valve, run it to the floor drain, and give it time.

The Milwaukee basement, which is the whole job

Almost every appliance call we take in this city is a basement call, and the staircase is the reason people pay rather than borrowing a pickup.

• 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.
• There is often a turn at the bottom into the laundry area, with a foundation wall and a floor drain leaving no room to pivot a chest freezer.
• The bulkhead — the angled exterior cellar doors — is frequently the better route for an appliance. Check whether yours opens before we come. Between December and March they freeze shut regularly, and in summer they are often painted shut or blocked from inside.
• Either route costs the same. There is no stair charge and no charge for using the bulkhead.

Worked totals

Replacing a basement laundry pair: washer $133 and dryer $128, which is $133 + $128 = $261.

Clearing a kitchen during a remodel: refrigerator $164, electric range $134, dishwasher $109 and a countertop microwave $30, which is $164 + $134 + $109 + $30 = $437.

The full Wisconsin basement: the beer fridge $164, the dead chest freezer $146, washer $133, dryer $128 and a dehumidifier $77, which is $164 + $146 + $133 + $128 + $77 = $648.

If appliances are part of a wider basement 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 for you.

Where the appliance actually goes

Not straight into a hole in the ground. Appliances are among the most recoverable things we collect.

• Refrigerant is recovered first from anything that contains it.
• Metal is separated and recycled. Steel cabinets, motors, compressors, copper tubing. There is real material in a washer.
• Working units in good condition are routed for reuse where that is possible rather than scrapped.
• Only what is genuinely left over goes to disposal.

That handling is inside the flat price, which is the point of publishing one number rather than a base rate plus fees.

Booking

Pick your appliances in the online quote and you get the flat total on screen before you commit. Tell us two things at booking: that it is coming from the basement, and whether the bulkhead doors open. Same-day and next-day slots are usually available, including through the winter — there is no seasonal surcharge in a city where winter is half the year.

Frequently asked questions