Who picks up old appliances in Washington DC

The short answer

Four options, in the order most DC households should consider them:

• The delivery crew that is bringing the new one. Free or cheap if the old unit is disconnected, accessible and on the same floor as the door. Often refused in rowhouses and English basements.
• Your jurisdiction's bulky collection. Request-based, limited, and the rules differ between DC, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax. Check your own address's current page.
• Scrap collectors. They want metal and they want it at the curb. They do not come inside.
• A booked removal. Published price, a date you choose, carried from any floor. Refrigerator $164, washer $133, dryer $128, stacked washer/dryer $189, dishwasher $109, electric range $134, gas range $137.

Why the delivery-crew route fails here so often

Appliance haul-away is written for a suburban house: garage, ground floor, wide door, driveway. That is Bethesda and Falls Church, and it works fine there.

It is not a Capitol Hill rowhouse. There the kitchen is at the back of a narrow house, the front door is 30 to 34 inches, the stoop is eight to twelve steps down to the sidewalk, and the truck is parked wherever it could fit on a permit block. It is not an English basement either, where the only way out is a tight exterior stair under the stoop that turns at the bottom.

Delivery crews are on a route with a schedule. When the old unit is not where their paperwork says it should be, they leave it. That is when people call us -- with a new refrigerator in the hall and the old one still plumbed in.

The jurisdictional patchwork

Appliance collection is not one program in this metro. The District runs its own. Montgomery County and Prince George's County run theirs, and incorporated municipalities inside them -- Takoma Park, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Hyattsville, College Park, Greenbelt -- run their own on top. Arlington County, the City of Alexandria and the City of Falls Church are each separate. Much of Fairfax County is served by private subscription haulers, so your rules are your hauler's contract.

What changes across those lines: whether appliances are accepted at all, how many per request, whether refrigerant-bearing units are handled differently, where the item goes -- alley, front curb, or a designated spot -- and how far in advance you must request.

Look it up at your actual address, and look it up again when you move. This is a metro where people cross a jurisdiction boundary every two or three years without noticing.

The refrigerant units

Refrigerators, freezers, window and portable air conditioners and dehumidifiers contain refrigerant and are handled as a separate stream everywhere in this region. That is why they are the appliances most often refused by a scrap collector, a delivery crew and a municipal truck alike.

Published prices for the whole group:

There is no refrigerant fee added on top. The published price is the price.

The built-in problem in DC kitchens

A lot of upper Northwest, Kalorama, Georgetown and Bethesda kitchens have built-in refrigeration -- panelled, cabinet-depth, fitted into a surround. That is $238, and it is a different removal from a freestanding unit: the panels come off, the surround stays, and the unit is heavier than it looks because the cabinet-depth cases carry more steel.

The other built-in trap is the dishwasher at $109. It is plumbed and wired in. Have it disconnected before the crew arrives or the visit stalls at the counter edge.

Laundry in a rowhouse

Washers and dryers in DC rowhouses live in one of three places, and each one changes the day.

• The cellar. Down a narrow stair, often with a turn, often with low headroom. Washer $133, dryer $128, and there is no below-grade charge.
• A closet on an upper floor. Usually a stacked unit, $189, wedged into a closet that was sized for it exactly. Comes out in two pieces.
• The English basement unit. Its own exterior stair. Same prices.

Washers hold water. Disconnect and let them drain the day before, or the carry gets messy on someone's stair runner.

What the booked version looks like

Pick the appliance, see the price, choose a window. The crew disconnects nothing electrical or gas -- have a plumber or electrician handle gas ranges and hardwired units beforehand -- but the carry, the stair, the stoop and the disposal are all included.

Common DC combinations:

• Kitchen refresh, Silver Spring. Standard refrigerator and an electric range: $164 + $134 = $298.
• Laundry swap, Petworth rowhouse cellar. Washer and dryer: $133 + $128 = $261.
• End of summer, Adams Morgan walk-up. Two large window units: $109 + $109 = $218.
• Georgetown kitchen, built-in out. Built-in refrigerator and a dishwasher: $238 + $109 = $347.

The minimum visit is $75, which only matters for the smallest items -- a countertop microwave at $30 on its own, for instance.

How to choose between the four routes

Take the delivery haul-away if your appliance is on the ground floor, disconnected, and the truck can get close. That is most of Fairfax, Montgomery and Arlington's detached stock.

Take your jurisdiction's program if you are flexible on timing, the item is within your allotment, and you can get it to the collection point yourself. That last clause is the one that rules it out for basement laundry and second-floor units.

Book a removal when the appliance is not on the ground floor, when the kitchen is at the back of a rowhouse, when you have a date to hit, or when it is a refrigerant unit that the other routes keep refusing.

Frequently asked questions