How to get rid of an old air conditioner in Salt Lake City

The short answer

Two window units in one visit is $87 + $87 = $174. A window unit plus the outdoor condenser left over from a system upgrade is $109 + $115 = $224. The minimum visit is $75, so a single small unit at $87 is already above it.

Why this is a big job in this valley specifically

Salt Lake has a long history with evaporative cooling. The air here is dry enough that swamp coolers work genuinely well, and for decades they were the default in this valley — mounted on the roof or in a side window, a water line, a pad, done. A great many homes across Rose Park, Glendale, Poplar Grove, Murray and the older parts of the east bench ran one for thirty or forty years.

Those systems are being retired. Households upgrade to central air, or to a heat pump, and the changeover leaves hardware behind: the old outdoor unit, sometimes the window units that were filling the gaps, and often a dehumidifier bought when the new system changed how the basement felt. That is why a lot of our summer appliance calls in this market are cooling equipment rather than kitchen appliances.

The other pile: window units in houses with no ducts

The pre-war stock in the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Central City and Yalecrest largely has no ductwork for cooling, because it was built with radiators and, later, evaporative cooling. So those houses run window units — one in the bedroom, one in the front room, and one in the upstairs room that gets the afternoon sun.

They live in the basement or the garage for nine months of the year and come out in June. After five or six cycles of that, plus a winter or two where one got left in the frame and took snowmelt into the housing, you end up with three dead units stacked in a corner. All three price individually and all three come out in one visit.

Refrigerant: handled, and never a surcharge

Window units, portable units, condensers and heat pumps all contain refrigerant. It has to be recovered by someone certified before the metal can be scrapped. That is a federal requirement and it is the reason a bin service will not take an air conditioner and a scrapper should not just cut the lines in your driveway.

We handle recovery as part of the removal. There is no refrigerant fee, no reclamation charge and no environmental surcharge on any of these prices. A large window unit is $109 and that is the entire number. If a quote comes with a separate freon line added afterwards, that is a pricing decision on their side, not a legal requirement on yours.

Getting a window unit out safely

This is the single most common way people get hurt doing their own disposal, and in this city the geometry makes it worse. A large window unit is heavier than it looks, it sits at chest height, and in an Avenues or Capitol Hill house the window it is in may be on the second floor above a concrete staircase and a retaining wall.

• Unplug it and let it sit a few hours if it has been running, so condensate drains.
• Two people, always. One takes the weight from inside while the other releases the brackets.
• Never lean out over the sill to lift. Slide it inward onto a chair or table first.
• Do not push it out and down. People do, and it is how a unit ends up through a porch roof or on somebody's car.

If it is above the ground floor and you are not sure, leave it in place and tell us when you book. The carry down is included and there is no stair charge.

Outdoor condensers and system changeovers

If you are having a new system installed, ask the installer whether removal of the old outdoor unit is in their scope. Often it is, and that is the cheapest route. Often it is not, particularly on a partial upgrade or where the homeowner bought the equipment separately, and then the old condenser sits on its pad at the side of the house for a year.

Where we take it, the line set should be disconnected and the electrical isolated by the installer before we arrive. An outdoor condenser or heat pump is $115, including the refrigerant recovery. If the old pad and a pile of stripped ductwork are going too, that prices as construction debris at $120 or as a junk pile — small $82, medium $129, large $208 — whichever matches the volume.

Timing and what else to send with it

The cooling changeover season here runs roughly from the first warm week in May through September, and the busiest stretch is the first genuinely hot spell, when a lot of old units fail at once. If you already know a unit is dead, book in spring rather than in the middle of a July heat wave.

Since you are paying the minimum once, walk the basement and the garage while you are at it. A very typical combined booking: large window unit $109 + small window unit $87 + dehumidifier $77 + mini fridge $115. $109 + $87 = $196. $196 + $77 = $273. $273 + $115 = $388. One visit, one crew, one approved total.

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