Does Lowe's haul away old appliances? Only on delivery day

If you are buying the new one from Lowe's, tick the haul-away box at checkout and stop reading. The crew that carries the new fridge in carries the old fridge out on the same trip, where your store offers it. What the delivery itself costs depends on the store, the item, and whatever promotion is running that week, so trust the checkout screen and not an article.

There is a second free route almost nobody knows about. If the old fridge or freezer still runs, your electric utility may collect it from your house and pay you $30 to $75 for it. Search your utility's name plus refrigerator recycling. These programs are utility-specific and they start and stop without notice, but where one is running the unit has to be plugged in, cooling, and usually between 10 and 30 cubic feet. Take the money. We cannot beat that.

Four things end the free version, and one of them catches almost everybody.

• •Delivery day is the only day. Haul-away happens at the moment the new one arrives. If the new washer went in three weeks ago and the old one is still in the garage, that door is closed.
• •One for one, same type. Buy a fridge and the old dishwasher stays exactly where it is.
• •It has to still work. The utility program needs the unit running. ReStore and the thrift shops generally need it working and clean, and every location sets its own accept list, so call the one nearest you. A dead appliance is worth nothing to any of them.
• •Programs vary and counters say no. Store haul-away rules, city bulk rules and drop-off rules are all local, and they get revised without an announcement. Most sanitation departments cap you at one or two bulk items a year. Many will not take a fridge, freezer or window AC at all unless a technician has recovered the refrigerant and left a tag on it.

That last one matters more than it sounds. If you load 250 pounds into a borrowed truck on the strength of a web page, you can be turned away at the gate with it still in the bed. Check your own city's waste page, or call 311, before you lift anything.

Look at what the free routes actually ask of you. A full size fridge is 200 to 300 pounds. A washer is 150 to 200. To take one anywhere yourself you need a vehicle it fits in, a ramp or a tailgate lift, straps so it does not tip on the drive, and another person, because nobody gets a fridge into a truck bed alone. Then you sit in the scale line at the transfer station and pay by weight.

Moving an appliance and lifting one are different jobs. Moving it is tipping it back and walking it across flat ground, which one person can usually manage. Lifting it is getting 250 pounds up and into a truck. That is the part that needs the ramp, the straps and the help. That part is not yours.

You put it outside. A hauler shows up with the truck and the crew to load it, and everything after that is theirs. No rental, no borrowed pickup, no ramp, no scale line, and nobody has to give up a Saturday morning to stand in your driveway.

These are the whole prices for curbside appliance pickup. Nothing gets added at the curb, and the number cannot change after you book. A washer and dryer together is $168 — the higher item sets the first price and the second one comes in as an add-on.

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Put it at the curb or the end of the driveway. If that spot does not work, a building's bulk area or the side of the house is fine, just say where in the pickup notes when you book. Nobody enters the house, which is why the price stays flat and the visit takes minutes.

You do not have to move it first. Book while the washer is still in the laundry room. The price locks when you book and cannot change once the hauler is there, so you can put it out the morning of the pickup rather than the night before. That matters if you have an HOA or a building manager. It sits outside for hours, not days.

Here is the honest limit. The appliance does have to end up outside. If it is down a flight of basement stairs, or you genuinely cannot get it out the door, book a full service crew that comes inside instead. Different job, different price, and we would rather say so than take your money.

Lowe's delivery crews are delivery crews, not plumbers or electricians. What any given crew is allowed to do varies by store and by the contractor running that route, but the shape of it is consistent. They will roll a freestanding appliance out and unplug a standard cord. They will not cut a built-in wall oven out of cabinetry, and they will not touch a gas line. A gas range or gas dryer needs a licensed plumber to disconnect it first, and that visit is on you.

Two things they expect done before they knock. The fridge is empty and defrosted, which realistically means unplugging it the night before and putting a towel under it. The washer is drained and the hoses are off. Crews have refused units over both, and a refusal on delivery day means the old one stays in your house.

Most cities will take one large appliance and it is genuinely free, though what qualifies and how often you get it is set by your own sanitation department. The part people miss is that it is a date, not a service. You call 311 or book on the city site, you get a slot that is usually two to six weeks out, and the appliance has to be at the curb the night before that date.

So the choice is not really free against $109. It is a fridge on your lawn for a month, on a date somebody else picked, against it being gone today when same-day is running in your area.