Appliance Removal in
the DMV

The appliance, disconnected and gone

When the new refrigerator, washer, or dryer arrives, the old one has to go — and in the DMV it's often down in the row-house basement. We take it from there: we disconnect a standard unit, carry it up the stairs and out of the kitchen, laundry room, or basement, and haul it away at one flat price from a photo. The water heater is a common basement job, and on anything with refrigerant in it the unit goes to certified recovery rather than a transfer station. Schedule us around your delivery and the old unit is gone the same day. (DC adds sales tax; MD and VA don't tax the service.)

How much does appliance removal cost in DC?

Flat per appliance, quoted from a photo. The disconnection, the carry-out, the drive, the disposal and the refrigerant handling are all inside the number — there's no per-flight charge and no "environmental fee" added at the door.

Large appliances

Small & built-in

The ladder is weight and handling, in order: microwave $30 → dishwasher $109 → dryer $128 → washer $133 → chest freezer $146 → refrigerator $164 → large refrigerator $183. The one bundle worth knowing about is the laundry pair — a washer and dryer together is $189 rather than $351 as two separate items, which is why a dead laundry room is almost always booked as a set. $100 minimum, so a lone microwave bills at the minimum. Multiple appliances combine into one flat number on one trip.

For an outside benchmark: HomeGuide's 2026 junk-removal pricing research puts 1-800-GOT-JUNK at roughly a $100–$150 minimum and College HUNKS starting from $150, both priced by truck volume and both confirmed only after an on-site estimate. Our fridge is a published $164 from a photo. DC adds sales tax at checkout; MD and VA don't tax the service.

Does Washington DC pick up appliances?

Some, from some addresses, at the curb, on a scheduled date. DC DPW runs a free Bulk Trash Collection program, requested through 311 or at dpw.dc.gov. Before you plan around it:

• Single-family homes and buildings of three units or fewer only.
• Up to seven items per appointment, on DPW's date rather than yours.
• Condos, co-ops and apartment buildings of four or more units are excluded entirely and must have bulk items removed by a private, licensed hauler.

And then there's the part nobody mentions until the truck is gone: the appliance still has to get from the kitchen or the basement laundry room to the curb, and DPW doesn't do that. A French-door refrigerator through a Capitol Hill row-house doorway, or a water heater up a cellar stair, is the actual work — and it's the piece every free program leaves entirely to you.

There's a second reason the free route is slow for appliances specifically: many DMV jurisdictions treat refrigerant units as a separate special-handling stream, because a fridge, freezer or AC unit can't be crushed or landfilled until its refrigerant has been recovered by a certified technician. That's a different truck, a different facility and a different schedule from ordinary bulk trash. Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County each run their own scheduled or on-call bulk programs with their own item caps and exclusions — confirm your jurisdiction's current rules directly, and expect cooling appliances to be handled apart from the rest.

What happens to your appliance after pickup — and why freon matters

This is the part that separates a licensed hauler from a guy with a pickup truck. Refrigerant appliances — refrigerators, freezers, window and portable AC units, dehumidifiers and wine coolers — require EPA-certified refrigerant recovery before they can be disposed of or scrapped. The refrigerant has to be evacuated by a certified technician into a recovery system; venting it is illegal, and no legitimate scrap yard or transfer station will take a sealed system that hasn't been evacuated. So we don't drop your fridge at a transfer station. It goes to a recovery facility, gets evacuated properly, and only then moves on to metal recycling. That is precisely why your neighbor with a truck can't legally handle your refrigerator, and why "I'll just take it to the dump myself" isn't a plan for a cooling appliance.

Everything else gets sorted the same careful way. Steel and aluminum go to metal scrap — a washer, a dryer, a water heater and a range are mostly recoverable metal, which is the single best environmental outcome available for them. Working, usable appliances are routed toward donation where a partner will take them, rather than being scrapped by default. Control boards, compressors and electronics go to the appropriate recycling stream — DC, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Fairfax County and Arlington all run e-waste and appliance recycling drop-offs. What's genuinely left over is tipped responsibly at the Fairfax I-66 Transfer Station or the I-95 complex, or Montgomery County's Shady Grove facility, where the published Fairfax commercial rate runs about $90 a ton for FY2026. All of it is inside your flat price.

When people call us for appliance removal

• Kitchen renovation — the range, the dishwasher, the wall oven and the old fridge all leave in one trip before the cabinets arrive.
• The appliance died — a dead washer or a fridge that stopped cooling, out today so the replacement can be delivered tomorrow.
• Landlord and condo turnover — a unit being flipped between tenants, in a building that requires a licensed hauler anyway.
• PCS and federal relocation — Permanent Change of Station moves peak in summer across Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax, and the garage fridge and window units don't travel.
• Estate cleanouts — Bethesda, Chevy Chase and McLean homes being cleared, often with a second fridge and a chest freezer nobody knew was still running.
• The basement chest-freezer purge — the one that's been humming since 2009 and costing more in electricity than it holds in food.
• The summer window-AC swap — old units out when central air goes in, or at the end of a rental.

What appliance-removal customers say

Appliance removal across the DMV

Frequently asked questions