How to get rid of a refrigerator in Chicago

The short answer

There is no refrigerant fee, no environmental fee and no disposal surcharge. The visit minimum is $75, which any of these clears on its own.

Chicago has a second refrigerator problem

More households here run two refrigerators than in most cities, and the second one is almost always in a place that makes it hard to remove.

It is in the basement of the bungalow, down narrow stairs with a turn at the bottom. Or it is in the detached garage off the alley, where it has been the beer fridge since 2009 and where it has spent every winter since sitting in an unheated building at fifteen degrees. Or it is in the back of a two-flat's rear entry, half blocking the door to the porch.

When the second one dies, it usually does not leave. It becomes a cabinet. That is the single most common refrigerator we collect in this city, and it is $164 whether it is running or not.

The delivery that did not take the old one

The other classic route to this page. A new refrigerator gets delivered and the haul-away does not happen, because haul-away is conditional and at least one condition failed.

The usual failures in Chicago housing: the old unit was still full, the old unit was not disconnected, the old unit was in the basement rather than on the entry floor, or the delivery crew looked at a rear wooden staircase with a turn at each landing and decided that was not what they signed up for that morning.

So the old fridge goes to the back porch or the garage and stays. If that is you, the fix is a single stop at $164, or $183 if it is a French door. If the new one's packaging is still sitting there too, send that at the same time.

What to do before the crew arrives

• Empty it. Everything out, including the ice bin and the door shelves. A full refrigerator is not a removable object.
• Defrost the freezer. A day ahead, with towels underneath. Otherwise there is meltwater draining down the back stairs the whole way.
• Unplug it, and disconnect the water line. Ice makers and door dispensers run off a small copper or plastic line with a saddle valve behind the unit. Close it and disconnect it before the day, and check it is not dripping.
• Leave the doors on. The crew removes them for the carry. If there are children around before then, tape them shut rather than pulling them off early.
• Clear the route. The back porch landing, the basement stairs, the alley gate. And move the car off the pad behind the garage if the truck is coming down the alley.

Getting it out of a Chicago building

In a three-flat, the kitchen is at the back and the fridge leaves through the rear door onto the wooden porch, then down. Those stair runs are steep, the landings are short, and the turn is tight enough that the doors have to come off before the unit starts moving. A side-by-side is wide enough that this is not optional.

In a bungalow or a graystone with a basement unit, the problem is the opposite: a low header over the stairs, a turn at the bottom, and a door at the top that opens into the stairwell. The fridge goes up on a strap with somebody above and somebody below.

In a courtyard building in Rogers Park or Edgewater, the carry is long rather than steep: unit to interior hallway to gangway to street.

None of it is an extra charge. No stair charge, no basement fee, no long-carry fee. A standard refrigerator is $164 in every one of those buildings.

Refrigerant, and why nobody should be cutting lines

Every refrigerator and freezer contains refrigerant in a sealed circuit, and older units may also have blowing agents in the insulating foam. The reason this matters is that the units have to be processed by someone set up to recover those materials rather than crushed with the circuit intact.

That handling is inside the price. It is not a line item, it is not a fee added at the end, and it is not something you should be arranging separately. What you should not do is let anyone cut the lines in your alley to strip the compressor for scrap. That happens around here, and it is both illegal and exactly the outcome the recovery rules exist to prevent.

Is it worth selling instead?

Occasionally. A working French door unit that is five years old has a genuine secondhand market in Chicago, especially in the weeks around May 1 and October 1 when people are furnishing apartments quickly.

Two obstacles. First, buyers need a vehicle and two people, and a surprising number turn up with neither. Second, your basement stairs are going to be the reason half of them change their minds on the doorstep. Be honest in the listing about which floor it is on and whether there is alley access, and you will waste much less time.

If the compressor is gone, the sealed system is leaking, or it is the garage unit that has been running at half efficiency for three winters, there is no sale to make. You are deciding how it leaves, and the useful thing is that the number is published: $164.

High-rises, and doing it in one stop

If you are in a tower in River North, Streeterville, the South Loop or along the lake in Lakeview, the building needs a certificate of insurance naming the association and the management company, and the freight elevator reserved for a window. Those windows are weekday business hours and they fill up, so reserve first and schedule the pickup into it. The refrigerator is still $164.

And combine where you can, because you are paying for the truck to reach your address:

Jefferson Park garage clear-out. The garage refrigerator at $164 and a chest freezer at $146: $164 + $146 = $310.

Kitchen renovation in a Logan Square graystone. Standard refrigerator at $164, gas range at $137, dishwasher at $109: $164 + $137 + $109 = $410.

Basement clear in an Avondale two-flat. Old refrigerator at $164, upright freezer at $149, medium junk pile at $129: $164 + $149 + $129 = $442.

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