How to get rid of appliances in Houston

The short answer

Minimum $75 per visit. Disposal included. No refrigerant fee, no stair charge, no same-day surcharge.

The attic water heater

Houston builds on slab and there are no basements, so the water heater goes where there is space: in the attic, in a hall closet, or in the garage. The attic version is the one that makes this a job rather than an errand.

Getting a tank down a pull-down ladder is awkward on a good day. In July, in a Houston attic that is running far hotter than the house, it is work you should not be doing alone. Drain it the night before if you can — a tank still holding water is dramatically heavier and it will leak all the way down the ladder.

A tank water heater is $131 and a tankless unit is $90, whichever floor or attic it is on.

Laundry rooms and the second-floor problem

Newer subdivision houses out along the Grand Parkway frequently put the laundry upstairs, near the bedrooms. That means a washer full of residual water coming down a carpeted staircase, which is exactly how a hallway wall gets marked.

Disconnect the hoses the night before and let it drain into a bucket. Run the machine's drain cycle if it has one. It is the single most useful thing you can do before a crew arrives, and it saves your stair runner.

Washer $133, dryer $128, stacked combo $189. No charge for the stairs.

What the humidity does to a garage appliance

An appliance in an uninsulated Houston garage lives a harder life than the same unit in a kitchen. Condensation cycles rust the cabinet from the bottom up, control boards fail earlier, and door seals perish. A fifteen-year-old garage freezer here is older, functionally, than its age suggests.

Which is worth knowing before you spend money on a repair call. If the cabinet is rusting through at the base, the repair is not the right decision.

Free routes worth trying first

Scrap. This is a port and refining region with a deep scrap-metal economy, and large white goods are mostly steel. A washer or a range placed visibly at the front of a house in many Houston neighborhoods often goes within a day. Genuinely try this first if you are not in a rush.

Retailer haul-away. If a replacement is on its way, ask whether the delivery crew removes the old unit, and ask before delivery day. Be specific about where the old one is — many crews will swap a kitchen unit but will not go up into an attic or down to a garage.

Municipal bulky collection. Varies entirely by which jurisdiction serves your street, and appliances containing refrigerant are among the most commonly excluded items. Check your own city's current bulky-item page, and remember that unincorporated Harris County addresses may have no municipal collection behind them at all.

Refrigerant, gas and water

Three practical points. Anything with refrigerant — refrigerators, freezers, wine coolers, window units, heat pumps — needs recovery before the metal is scrapped, and that is included in our price rather than added to it.

A gas range or a gas water heater should be disconnected by someone competent before the visit. We move appliances; we do not disconnect gas.

And anything plumbed — dishwasher, washer, water heater — should be isolated and drained beforehand. Tell us if it has not been and the crew will work around it, but a drained unit is a faster and drier job for everyone.

Doing several at once

• Washer and dryer: $133 + $128 = $261
• Kitchen swap — refrigerator, electric range and dishwasher: $164 + $134 + $109 = $407
• Utility clear — tank water heater, furnace and an outdoor AC condenser: $131 + $131 + $115 = $377
• Garage clear — chest freezer and a mini fridge: $146 + $115 = $261

If the list gets longer than that, compare against the truck ladder: quarter $241, three-eighths $338, half $431. We will show both numbers and you take the lower one.

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