Free pickup is real, and almost all of it is gated on one word. Working. Your electric utility takes a fridge or freezer that still runs. A charity takes what it can resell. The retailer delivering your new appliance takes the old one off that same order. If yours is dead, your city's bulk day is the last free route. Curbside pickup is $109 for a refrigerator, and if you book by 2 PM it goes out today wherever same-day is running.
The free routes, in the order to try them
Start with the delivery. If your new appliance has not shown up yet, add haul-away to that order and stop reading here. The crew takes the old unit on the same trip. Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy and Costco all offer it. Whether it is included or costs extra depends on the retailer and your market, so read the checkout page instead of assuming.
If it is a refrigerator or a freezer and it still runs, call your electric utility next. Many large utilities run a recycling program. A crew comes to the house and takes the unit, and some utilities pay a rebate, commonly $30 to $75 where the program still runs. It has to be plugged in and cold when they get there.
If the appliance works and looks presentable, a local charity may take it. Habitat ReStore is the usual one. Every ReStore is a separate affiliate, so whether they pick up, and what they accept, is set store by store. Call the one nearest you before you plan a weekend around it.
If it is a washer, dryer or stove and you are allowed to use your curb, put it out with a free sign. Metal still carries value at recent scrap prices. In most neighborhoods it is gone in a day or two.
Every free route is gated on the same word
Working.
Utility programs need the fridge plugged in and cold when the crew arrives. Yours died, which is why you are replacing it. Charities need it working, clean, and recent enough to sell. Scrappers will happily take a washer or a dryer and skip a fridge, because the refrigerant has to be recovered before the metal can be cut up.
Delivery crews have a different rule, and it is not about condition. They take the one unit that is on the order. It has to be disconnected and reachable. They will not pull a hardwired range, a gas dryer, or a fridge with the water line still attached. The spare in the garage is not on the order either.
None of this is published anywhere you can rely on. Store policies, charity accept lists and city rules vary by location, change without notice, and cap by size and by quantity. The call gets made on the day, at your door, by the person standing in front of your appliance. You can clear a whole Saturday for a free route and still be told no.
And two of those free routes ask the same thing of you: leave a dead appliance outside for days. In an apartment, a condo, or anywhere with an HOA, that is the part that gets you a letter.
The appliance nobody will take for free, gone from your curb today. A refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer or stove is $109, each extra $59. A dishwasher is $109, each extra $35. A water heater is $129, each extra $59. A microwave or mini fridge is $79, each extra $19, and a window AC unit is $79, each extra $29. A washer and dryer together is $168. Working or dead, it is the same price. That price is the whole price, it is locked when you book, and nothing gets added at the curb. Book by 2 PM and a local hauler comes today wherever same-day is running, seven days a week, in all fifty states. Haulers head out between 8 and 10 in the morning, almost half of pickups are done by noon, and three in four are done by 2 PM. You get a text with the live ETA before the hauler arrives, and before and after photos once it is gone. Nobody comes inside. Book first, then put it out on pickup morning. It does not have to be at the curb before you book.
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City bulk pickup takes a dead appliance. It just takes a while.
This is the one free route that does not care whether the thing works. Most cities will collect a large appliance off the curb, often for nothing, though whether appliances are on the accepted list is set city by city. The cost is the calendar.
Bulk collection runs on the city's schedule, not yours. Houston's published cycle alternates heavy trash between tree waste months and junk waste months, and in that setup an appliance only goes out in a junk waste month. Phoenix publishes a quarterly bulk window by zone, which is four dates a year. Both of those are examples rather than promises, because a city can rewrite its calendar at any time. Many cities also want a separate appointment for anything holding refrigerant, which covers a fridge, a freezer and a window AC unit.
Check your city's sanitation page for two things. Whether appliances are on the accepted list, and how far out the next date is. If the answer is three weeks, decide now where the fridge lives for three weeks. A garage is fine. A driveway under an HOA is not.
Getting a dead fridge or washer out to the curb
Nobody writes about this part, and it is the actual reason the old washer is still in the laundry room.
An appliance dolly is the whole trick. Hardware stores and truck rental counters rent one by the day, usually $10 to $20, though the rate is set by the counter you walk into. It has a strap and stair skids. Without one you are moving 200 to 300 pounds with your fingertips. With one, a strong person walks a fridge out and a second person steadies it.
Unplug it the night before and prop the door open so it dries out. Shut the water valve behind a fridge with an ice maker and disconnect the line. Shut the gas valve behind a range or a gas dryer, and have a pro cap it if you are not sure. Take the doors off any fridge that is going to sit outside where a child could climb in.
Our haulers never come inside, so the appliance needs to be outside on pickup morning. It does not need to be out there when you book.