Appliance Removal

An old fridge in the garage that’s been humming for six years past its prime. A washer that finally quit mid-cycle and flooded the laundry room. A gas stove sitting in the driveway because the delivery crew from the big-box store refused to take the old one on their way out. Appliances are heavy, awkward, and usually plugged into something that has to be turned off before anyone touches them.

Aurora’s regular bulk pickup won’t just roll up and grab a refrigerator off the curb. Freon has to be recovered by someone qualified. Gas lines have to be shut off. Water hookups have to be capped. That’s the whole reason this service exists as its own thing, separate from a general junk pickup. A call to (630) 492-1490 gets you a same-day quote most weekdays, and the number we say on the phone is the number you pay when we’re loading it up.

What Counts as Appliance Removal

If it plugs in, hooks up to a water line, or vents through the roof, it probably fits here. We haul:

• Refrigerators, freezers, chest freezers, mini fridges, and wine coolers
• Washers and dryers (electric or gas)
• Dishwashers, including hardwired units
• Ovens, stoves, and ranges (gas or electric)
• Microwaves, including old countertop units with capacitors
• Water heaters (electric, gas, tankless)
• Dehumidifiers and portable AC units
• Window AC units and through-wall units
• Trash compactors and garbage disposals

What we don’t do: commercial walk-in coolers, restaurant-grade equipment on a rooftop, or anything that needs a lift-gate truck we don’t own. If you describe it on the phone, we’ll tell you straight whether we’re the right crew or whether you need a specialist.

What Actually Drives the Price

Three things move the number up or down. First is where the appliance sits. A dryer in the garage next to an open door is faster to move than a chest freezer in a finished basement with a tight stairwell turn. Second is what has to be disconnected. A plug-and-play fridge is quick. A hardwired dishwasher, a gas stove with a live line, or a water heater on a strapped stand takes tools and time. Third is how many units. One appliance out at the curb is a different job than three in three different rooms.

The cheapest scenario is a single appliance at the curb, unhooked, and ready to load. That’s a flat $89 curbside pickup. Anything past that (in-home removal, multiple units, gas or water disconnects) gets a quote on the phone before we roll. Upfront pricing means the number doesn’t move at the door.

How Aurora’s Bulk Pickup Actually Works, And When It Doesn’t

Aurora’s residential trash contractor is Groot, and appliances are not part of your normal weekly pickup. Groot requires a call-ahead for any “white goods” (fridges, washers, dryers, dishwashers, ovens) and charges a separate fee per item. You have to book it in advance at (630) 892-9294, drain water lines yourself, and set the appliance in a specific spot on your driveway apron. Refrigerators and freezers need proof of freon recovery or Groot won’t take them, which usually means paying an HVAC tech first anyway.

For anything past the curb, or anything that still has freon, water, or gas hooked up, Groot isn’t the answer. That’s the gap we fill. More on the local rules in our Fox Valley disposal guides.

How This Compares to Your Other Options

You have four choices with an old appliance. The retailer’s haul-away service is the easiest if you’re buying a replacement, but only if you scheduled it when you ordered and the delivery crew is willing to disconnect the old unit (many won’t touch gas or hardwiring). Selling on Facebook Marketplace works for a newer appliance in working condition and doesn’t work at all for a broken one. Renting a truck and doing it yourself pencils out if you own a dolly, have a strong helper, and know which recycler in Aurora will actually take a fridge with freon.

Hiring us is the fourth option. You don’t schedule around a delivery window, you don’t lift 300 pounds of steel down a stairwell, and you don’t drive to a scrap yard with a leaking water heater in the back of your Subaru.

Where the Appliances Actually Go

Most appliances are steel, copper, and aluminum, which means scrap metal recycling. We take metal appliances to All American Recycling on Mitchell Road and S&S Metal Recyclers on Sullivan Road, both in Aurora. Copper wiring, aluminum coils, and steel shells all get recovered instead of buried in a landfill.

Refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers, and AC units all contain refrigerant. EPA rules require that refrigerant is recovered by a certified technician before the unit is scrapped or landfilled. That step happens before the metal goes to the yard, not after. Working appliances in decent condition can sometimes go to a reuse program instead of scrap. For Aurora residents, the Naperville HHW facility at 156 Fort Hill Drive accepts some appliance-related items directly if you’d rather drop off yourself, though the wait can be long on Saturdays.

How We’re Different

Locally owned, licensed, and insured. When you call (630) 492-1490, a real person picks up. No AI voice, no offshore call center, no ticket that gets routed to someone in another state who’s never heard of Aurora. The person who quotes your job on the phone is the same person who could be knocking on your door a few hours later.

Bait-and-switch pricing is the number one complaint about national junk franchises. We quote on the phone, and the quote holds unless you add something after we arrive. Same-day scheduling is available most weekdays if you catch us before the truck is full.

What Happens the Day of Your Appliance Removal

1. We call or text when we’re on the way, usually a 30 to 45 minute heads-up.
2. We walk the appliance with you and confirm the quote before we touch anything.
3. We handle the disconnect: unplugging, shutting off water valves, capping supply lines, or shutting off the gas at the appliance if it’s a straightforward flexible connector. Hardwired units and permanent gas lines that need a licensed plumber or electrician get flagged, not forced.
4. We protect floors and door frames on the way out with pads and a stair dolly.
5. We load, sweep the spot where it sat, and get you a receipt.
6. The appliance goes to the right destination: scrap yard for metal, freon recovery for anything refrigerated, HHW for anything that qualifies.

How to Prep for a Faster, Cheaper Appliance Removal

You don’t have to prep anything for us to take the job, but a little prep drops the price. Unplug the appliance the night before so it isn’t warm and dripping. For a fridge or freezer, empty the food and prop the door open for a few hours so it isn’t full of condensation. For a washer, disconnect the hoses and let them drain into a bucket. For a dryer, unhook the vent hose. For anything gas, the valve at the wall should be off before we arrive. If you can’t do any of that, we still handle it, but the more you prep, the faster the job.

Moving the appliance to a garage or driveway before the appointment turns an in-home job into a curbside job, and curbside is always cheaper.

Appliance Removal Across the Fox Valley

We cover Aurora and North Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, Oswego, and Montgomery. Appliance jobs come from every one of these towns, usually tied to a kitchen remodel, a laundry-room upgrade, a landlord turnover, or an estate cleanout. Same-day availability depends on where the truck is when you call, but most weekdays we can be at your door within a few hours.

The most common Fox Valley appliance job is the replacement-and-haul-away combo. You bought a new fridge from a big-box store, they’ll only take the old one if it’s already disconnected and sitting in the driveway, and even then only if the delivery window works. Half the time it doesn’t. That’s when we come in as the second visit: the delivery crew drops the new one, we haul the old one, and your kitchen isn’t a two-fridge staging area for the weekend.

Second most common is the water heater failure. Old tank rusts through, floor is wet, plumber is coming to swap it, and someone has to move 150 pounds of dripping steel out of the utility closet. We do that in coordination with the plumber if the timing lines up, or on our own if the plumber has already done the disconnect. Either way, no water heater sits in your driveway for a week waiting for bulk day.

Third is the appliance-graveyard garage: the fridge that got demoted to beer duty and finally died, the mini-freezer nobody has opened since 2020, the countertop microwave with a bulging door. One trip, sorted at the scrap yard, done.

Call (630) 492-1490 and a real person answers, quotes on the phone, and books you same-day when the schedule allows.