Boise Appliance Removal: Is the Old One Worth Scrapping?

A guy over in Meridian sent me a photo of his old dryer parked at the end of his driveway with a free sign taped to the lid. Nine days it had been sitting there. He wasn't sold on paying for appliance removal yet, because he was still hoping the thing would walk off on its own.

Two people stopped to look at it. Neither one loaded it.

That's usually about when somebody starts wondering if they're throwing away money by not running the thing to a scrap yard themselves. Fair question. Steel is worth something.

So here's the math, from somebody who loads these for a living.

What a scrap yard actually pays you

An old top-load washer runs somewhere around 150 to 200 pounds. Sounds like a pile of metal until you find out that a big chunk of that weight is a concrete counterweight bolted inside the cabinet. Nobody pays you for concrete.

Scrap steel prices move around, but for mixed appliance metal we're talking pennies a pound. One washer works out to lunch money. Bring the dryer along and maybe you've covered your gas.

Then subtract what it takes to get there. A truck or a trailer, a couple of ratchet straps, an appliance dolly if you'd rather not gouge your door frame, and almost always a second set of hands. A washer that shifts on a tailgate halfway down Chinden is not a fun afternoon.

The yards in Boise and Nampa are straight with you and they weigh you in honest. It's just that two hours and a favor from your brother-in-law later, you're up ten or fifteen dollars.

Nobody runs that number before they start. They run it on the drive home.

Fridges and freezers play by different rules

This is where the do-it-yourself plan usually comes apart.

Anything with a sealed cooling system has refrigerant in it. Refrigerators, chest freezers, window AC units, dehumidifiers, all of it. Letting that vent into the air is illegal, and the yards know it, so most of them won't touch a fridge unless the refrigerant has already been pulled and tagged by somebody certified to do it.

So you wrestle it into the truck, drive across town, and get turned around at the scale. I've watched it happen.

The Ada County landfill and the Hidden Hollow transfer station have their own handling rules and fees on these. That's another trip and another line on your receipt.

Heads up: Before you list an appliance or call anybody about it, take a photo of the model and serial plate. On a fridge it's inside the door frame, and on a washer it's on the back panel or under the lid. That tells you how old the thing really is in about thirty seconds online, and it's the first question any serious buyer asks you.

When selling it beats paying for appliance removal

I'm not going to pretend I want every appliance in the Treasure Valley. If yours still runs, sell it.

My rough line is eight years. Under that, clean and working, it'll move on its own.

Matching washer and dryer pairs go quick. Stainless anything goes quicker, and plenty of people renting in Nampa and Caldwell are shopping for exactly that.

What doesn't move? A twenty-year-old single unit with rust creeping up the base, a cracked agitator, or that particular shade of almond.

A free listing on one of those mostly buys you tire-kickers and Saturday no-shows in your driveway.

Other rule of thumb: if it doesn't sell in one weekend, it isn't going to sell in a month. I've seen a dryer sit beside a house through a whole hot dry summer and a freezing winter while somebody waited for a bite. By spring cleanup it's a rusted lawn ornament worth even less than it was.

Donation is worth a phone call too. Idaho Youth Ranch and St. Vincent de Paul will sometimes take a working appliance, though it depends on the store and what's already on their floor. Call before you load it.

What appliance removal day actually looks like

Text me a photo of it where it sits and I'll send you a price. Usually it's gone inside 48 hours.

It's me, my maroon F-350 and a dump trailer. No call center, no eight-to-four window, nobody you've never talked to standing in your kitchen.

One appliance sitting in an open garage in Eagle is about the cheapest thing on my list. What moves the price isn't the item, it's the stairs and the distance.

A washer down in a basement laundry room in the North End or up on the Boise Bench is a different job than one already at the curb. Same goes for a second-floor laundry closet in one of the newer Star or Middleton subdivisions, where the hallway turn is tighter than the machine is wide.

After that the metal goes to recycling, same as it would if you hauled it in yourself. Anything still usable gets donated. I'd rather it end up somewhere useful than in a hole in the ground.

Bottom line

Scrapping an old appliance yourself earns you a few bucks and costs you a morning, a truck, and a helper. Still runs? Sell it this weekend instead. And if it's a fridge or a freezer, skip the scrap yard idea and let somebody handle the refrigerant side properly.

Got one in the garage you're tired of walking around? Text a photo to (208) 391-0221 and I'll tell you what it would cost. If selling it makes more sense, I'll say so.