Imagine you’ve just finished replacing your old fridge with a shiny new one, and now you need to get rid of the old one. Where do you start? There are dozens of options for dealing with an old fridge, but none are necessarily ideal.
1. Disconnect the power cord and water line if they are connected to your old fridge.
2. Remove the doors, shelves, and drawers from the interior of your old fridge. If you don’t want to keep them, find a new home for them or throw them away.
3. Use screwdrivers and other heavy tools to pry off panels over the exterior hinges on both sides of your old fridge – one set at waist level and one under the toe kick (the part of the baseboard underneath that helps seal in cold air). Try to pry these off without causing any cosmetic damage that might make it look like you didn’t know what you were doing!
4 . Some models may have an additional access panel underneath near where the water line connects with the refrigerator. Pry this open to mark the water line – you might want to use a sharpie.
5. Now let’s go inside! Carefully remove the cold air return duct, covering your face and mouth in case it contains asbestos (most models built before 1975 do). The duct will just hang from its clips, but make sure you don’t drop or lose it. Toss these clips into a plastic bag for safekeeping.
6 . Next remove the copper tubing that connects to your hot water heater and leads back to your old fridge, again being careful not to shift things around too much or break anything while doing so. Make sure you clean up any dripped water as quickly as possible because the tubing is disconnected from the water heater and left unattended for too long, your home could be susceptible to a potentially dangerous gas leak.
7 . Lastly remove the copper tubing that leads from your refrigerator’s condenser to the drain at the back of it – again being careful not to break anything. Clean up any dripped water as quickly as possible!
8 . You should now have all of the components needed to properly dispose of your old fridge. You can keep these parts in a plastic bag if you want (in case you ever decide to install a new fridge), but ensure that none of it leaks out into your garage or basement. The best way is to take this bag outside right away and seal the bag inside another garbage bag before tossing it into your garage or basement.
9. Once you have removed all required parts and ensured that nothing is leaking out into your home, you’ll need to dispose of the rest of your old fridge at one of several local recycling centers that accept them. Call ahead to ensure they take large appliances! You also might want to call to ask if they charge for this service – some do!
10. Congratulations! You have now properly disposed of your old fridge, and you are welcome to do whatever you like with the remaining space in your garage or basement that it once occupied!
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of disposing of your old fridge yourself, there are companies, like ours – Junk Removal Guys, that offer services for this.