How to get rid of an old air conditioner in Richmond

The short answer

Each price includes the carry from any floor, loading, and disposal with certified refrigerant recovery. The visit minimum is $75.

Why an air conditioner is not ordinary junk

Every cooling appliance contains refrigerant, and federal rules require that refrigerant to be recovered by a certified technician before the unit is scrapped. It cannot lawfully be vented to the air. That applies to a window rattler from 1998 as much as to a whole-house condenser.

This is the reason the easy routes so often quietly decline air conditioners. A scrapper working a Northside alley will take a dryer and leave the window unit. A general drop-off may accept a lawn mower and refuse an AC. And most municipal bulk programs handle refrigerant-containing appliances under a separate arrangement from ordinary bulk — check your own jurisdiction's current page, because the City of Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield each set their own.

On our side it is simply part of what the price covers. A small window unit is $87 and a large one is $109, and refrigerant handling is inside that. There is no refrigerant fee, no environmental surcharge, and nothing added at the end.

Richmond runs on window units

More than most cities its size, and the housing stock is why.

A great many Fan, Museum District, Oregon Hill, Church Hill and Jackson Ward houses were built between the 1890s and the 1920s, long before ducting. Plenty were later cut into flats, which makes retrofitting central air harder and more expensive still. The practical result is that upper-floor rentals across the inner city cool themselves with window units, one per room, replaced every few years.

That produces two predictable moments. The first is August, when a unit fails in the middle of a stretch of high-nineties heat index and gets replaced immediately, leaving the dead one in a hallway. The second is the lease turnover in late July and August, when outgoing tenants leave the units behind for the next occupant or for the landlord to deal with.

Henrico and Chesterfield are a different picture — Short Pump, Glen Allen, Midlothian and the post-war ranches mostly have central systems, so what comes out there is the outdoor condenser at $115 when a system is replaced.

Take it out of the window first, carefully

If you can, have the unit out of the window and sitting on the floor before removal day. Not because it costs more otherwise — it does not — but because it is the step most likely to go wrong when rushed.

A large window unit is heavier than it looks and the center of gravity sits outside the sill. Two people: one holding the unit, one handling the sash and the side panels. Never lean out over it. In a Fan or Oregon Hill rowhouse the window may be twenty feet above a narrow sidewalk with people walking underneath, and a dropped air conditioner is the kind of accident that does not have a small version.

Also expect water. A unit that has been running holds condensate in the base pan, and it will find your floor. Tip it outward over a towel before you bring it inside.

If the unit is painted into the frame, or the sash will not lift, leave it and say so when you book. That is a normal thing in a hundred-year-old Richmond house and the crew will deal with it.

Outdoor condensers and heat pumps

An outdoor unit is $115. The important part is what happens before removal.

The refrigerant line set must be professionally disconnected and the refrigerant recovered by a licensed HVAC technician — this is normally done as part of the replacement job, so if a new system is going in, the installer handles it. The electrical disconnect box beside the unit must be pulled. Only then is it a lift-and-carry.

Do not cut the lines yourself. It is illegal to vent refrigerant, it is dangerous, and it turns a $115 pickup into a problem.

Most Richmond condensers sit on a pad at the side of the house, behind a fence or a hedge that has grown around them over fifteen years. Tell us if the gate is narrow or the unit is boxed in by planting — it does not change the price, it changes the tools.

The other routes, briefly

• Retailer haul-away. If a new unit is being delivered, some retailers will take the old one on delivery day. Same rules as any appliance: that visit only, that category only, accessible and disconnected.
• Scrappers. Will often take window units for the metal, but refrigerant recovery is not something they are set up for, and they choose their own schedule.
• Municipal collection. Richmond city, Henrico and Chesterfield each handle refrigerant appliances under their own arrangements. Check your page. Whatever they say, it is curbside — which does not help if the unit is in a third-floor Fan bedroom.
• Booked pickup. Any floor, any unit, on a window you choose, refrigerant handled, $87 to $115 depending on the type.

Worked Richmond totals

• A Fan flat at the end of a lease, three rooms: two large window units at $109 each = $218 + one small window unit $87. The addition: $218 + $87 = $305. A quarter truck is $241 — AC units are bulky, so the ladder often wins here.
• A Church Hill rental, tidy-up: large window AC $109 + dehumidifier $77 + microwave $30. The addition: $109 + $77 + $30 = $216.
• A Midlothian system replacement: AC condenser / heat pump $115 + water heater $131. The addition: $115 + $131 = $246.
• An Oregon Hill student turnover: small window AC $87 + mini fridge $115 + microwave $30 + twin mattress $82. The addition: $87 + $115 + $30 + $82 = $314. A quarter truck is $241.

Timing it

Two things worth knowing about the Richmond calendar. Window units come out in October, when people finally admit the season is over, and that is the easiest time to book. They come out in a panic in August, when one dies mid-heatwave, and that is the busiest.

If you are a landlord with several units near VCU or in the Fan, the sensible move is to clear the dead ones in the spring before the season starts rather than during the August turnover crunch, when everybody wants the same three days.

Either way the price is the same: $87 small, $109 large, $85 portable, $115 condenser, with refrigerant handling and disposal included and no stair charge for a third-floor carry.

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