How to get rid of a refrigerator in Portland

The short answer

Each price includes the carry, refrigerant recovery, and disposal. Visit minimum $75. No sales tax in Oregon.

Refrigerant: handled, not surcharged

Every one of those units has refrigerant in a sealed system, and it has to be recovered by a certified technician before the shell is scrapped. That is a legal requirement, not an optional extra, and it applies to every hauler in this metro.

There is no refrigerant fee, no EPA fee and no Freon line on our pricing. $164 is $164. Disposal is in there too, so nothing is settled up after the load hits the scale at Metro Central or Metro South.

If a phone quote elsewhere comes in low and then grows at the curb, this is the line that usually grows. Ask about it before the truck is dispatched rather than after.

The second fridge in the basement

This is the most Portland version of this job and it comes up constantly.

Pre-war houses across Sellwood, Woodstock, Montavilla, Cully, St Johns and Irvington nearly all have a full unfinished basement, and a very large share of them have a second refrigerator or a chest freezer down there. Often it predates the current owners. Often nobody is certain whether it still runs. Often it has been unplugged since a power cut two winters ago and nobody has opened it since.

Three pieces of advice:

• Do not open it if it has been off for a long time. There is nothing in there you want to meet.
• Tell us when you book so the crew brings plastic and tape and can seal it before it moves.
• Do not try to get it up the stairs yourself. This is the specific job that hurts people here — a dense appliance, a steep 1915 stair with a quarter-turn at the bottom, and one helper walking backwards who cannot see the treads.

A chest freezer is $146 and an upright is $149, from the basement, with no stair charge.

Getting it out of an old Portland house

The kitchen fridge has its own version of the problem. Kitchens in pre-1930 houses here were not designed around a 36-inch French door refrigerator, and a lot of them were retrofitted — the appliance went in before a pantry wall was rebuilt, or through a back door that has since been replaced with a narrower one.

The constraints are the usual ones: 30-inch original door casings, a back door off a wet rear porch, a raised front porch with a flight of steps down to the sidewalk, and a hallway that is the narrowest point of the whole route.

Doors come off hinges and go back on. Fridge doors come off the cabinet if that is what it takes. All of it is inside the flat price.

Before the crew arrives

• Empty it. Completely, including the door shelves and the freezer drawer.
• Unplug it, ideally the night before. A fridge that has just been running will drip defrost water on your floors and your stair.
• Disconnect the water line if it has an ice maker. Shut the valve, disconnect, and have a towel ready.
• Tape the doors shut once it is empty, or tell us and the crew will.
• Clear the route. In a narrow eastside hallway, one stack of boxes turns a straightforward carry into a problem.

You do not need to move it out of the alcove. Getting it out of a tight kitchen gap is part of the job.

Worked totals

Addition shown:

• Kitchen fridge + basement chest freezer: $164 + $146 = $310
• Side-by-side fridge + upright freezer: $183 + $149 = $332
• Kitchen refit — fridge + electric range + dishwasher + countertop microwave: $164 + $134 + $109 + $30 = $437
• Fridge + mini fridge from the ADU: $164 + $115 = $279
• Fridge + washer + dryer on one visit: $164 + $133 + $128 = $425

If a whole kitchen is coming out — cabinets, countertop, flooring as well as appliances — compare against the volume ladder at $241 for a quarter load or $431 for a half, and take the lower.

The other routes

Retailer haul-away on delivery. Often available when you buy a replacement, sometimes free, terms vary by store and promotion. It happens on the delivery visit only, it covers the one unit being replaced, and delivery drivers are generally not bringing a chest freezer up an old basement stair. Confirm it in writing when you order.

Utility efficiency programs. Rebate schemes for retiring an old but still-running refrigerator or freezer exist in this region and change over time. Ask your utility what is currently running. They want a working unit and they schedule on their own calendar.

Scrap collectors. Not for a fridge. If they cannot tell you what happens to the refrigerant, that is not a disposal route.

Self-haul. Metro Central off Highway 30 or Metro South in Oregon City take appliances, with handling rules for sealed systems. Check the current gate rate and rules — then consider whether getting it up the basement stairs and into a rented truck is a saving worth having.

Selling or donating it

Worth one attempt if it genuinely runs, is under about ten years old, and is at ground level. There is a market here for a working second fridge, particularly in summer when people are furnishing ADUs and garage conversions.

Not worth the attempt if it does not run, if it is the basement unit of unknown vintage, or if the buyer would have to get it up the stairs themselves — which is the point where most such arrangements quietly fall apart. Most donation operations will not take large appliances at all.

Give it a week, not a month, and do not unplug it and leave it standing open in the meantime.

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