The five real removal paths
When the new dishwasher is on order or the old one finally failed beyond repair, the old unit becomes the problem. A built-in dishwasher weighs 60 to 92 pounds, fits awkwardly through doorways, and cannot legally sit at a curb in most cities without a bulk-pickup tag. There are five practical channels for getting the old unit out of the kitchen and into responsible disposal. Pricing in this page reflects 2026 rates we sampled across ten US metros in April 2026.
| Removal channel | Typical cost | Lead time | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retailer haul-away (Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy) | $0 | Same visit as install | Replacement with new appliance purchase |
| Independent appliance tech | $35-75 | 1-3 days | Already booked for the install |
| Junk-removal service (1-800-Got-Junk, LoadUp, Junk King) | $75-150 | 1-7 days | No new appliance, fast pickup needed |
| Municipal bulk pickup | $0-50 | 7-30 days | Patient homeowner, free option preferred |
| Habitat ReStore donation | $0 + tax receipt | 7-14 days | Working unit under 10 years old |
| Scrap-metal yard self-haul | -$5 to -$15 | Same day | Homeowner has a truck and time |
Pricing sampled April 2026. Independent tech and junk-hauler rates were collected from public quote tools in Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Tampa, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Sacramento. Scrap-metal payout reflects Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries published indices.
Retailer haul-away: free, but only if you buy through them
Home Depot includes free haul-away of the like-for-like old appliance with every dishwasher purchase that includes the $99 install bundle, per the Home Depot dishwasher installation services page sampled April 2026. The crew that installs the new unit hauls the old one out in the same visit, which keeps the kitchen out of upheaval for a single afternoon. If you skip the bundled install and choose delivery-only, haul-away is a $35 add-on at checkout.
Lowe's offers the same free haul-away in most US markets when bundled with a $159 basic install, per the Lowe's dishwasher installation page. Markets without the free haul-away (some Southern California zones, parts of New York City) charge $35 to $50. Always confirm at checkout. Best Buy haul-away through Geek Squad costs $35 to $45 and applies even with a free install promo on premium brands.
For the retailer comparison see our Home Depot dishwasher installation cost, Lowe's dishwasher installation cost, and Best Buy dishwasher installation cost pages.
The catch with retailer haul-away: it is technically a like-for-like swap. You buy a dishwasher, they take the old dishwasher. They will not take an old microwave that has been sitting next to it for years. They will not take the old garbage disposal you also want gone. They will not haul away a second appliance from the basement. If you have multiple appliances to dispose of, retailer haul-away covers only the directly-replaced unit.
Independent appliance tech: cheapest standalone option
If a licensed plumber or appliance technician is already coming to install the new unit, adding the old-unit haul-away to their scope is the cheapest path. Most charge $35 to $75 to disconnect, uncouple, lift out, and take to a local scrap yard or transfer station on their way home. The variability is mostly about whether they have a pickup truck on the job (yes, $35; no, $75 because they have to come back). When booking, mention the old unit explicitly and confirm the haul-away line item before the visit. Verbal agreements at the end of a five-hour install go badly.
Tip the tech $10 to $20 on top of the haul-away fee if the unit is in a basement, second floor, or otherwise awkward to extract. The price assumes a kitchen on the ground floor with normal door clearance. Stairs add real labour.
Junk-removal services: convenient but the most expensive
1-800-Got-Junk, LoadUp, Junk King, and College Hunks Hauling Junk all quote single-appliance removal in the $75 to $150 range as of 2026. Pricing scales by the cubic footage their truck takes. A single dishwasher sitting on the kitchen floor occupies less than 5% of a typical box truck, which is why the per-appliance pricing feels expensive compared to a tech haul-away. The convenience is real: they handle the disconnection (if it is already uncoupled from supply and drain), carry it out, sweep up, and provide proof of EPA-compliant disposal at certified facilities.
LoadUp publishes upfront online pricing per appliance and is usually the cheapest of the national chains for a single unit ($75 to $100 typical). 1-800-Got-Junk quotes on-site, which tends to lift the price to $115 to $150 once the crew arrives. Local independents found through the Angi junk removal directory are often the price floor at $50 to $85 in metros with strong competition.
Booking a junk-removal slot makes sense when the new dishwasher arrived already self-installed or DIY-installed (so the retailer haul-away window is closed), the kitchen is small enough that having the old unit sitting next to the sink for two weeks is unacceptable, and the municipal bulk-pickup window is too far out.
Municipal bulk pickup: free or near-free in most cities
The single most under-used option. Most US municipalities offer scheduled bulk pickup of large appliances at no charge, with a few exceptions. The 2025 National League of Cities solid-waste survey showed 73% of US cities over 50,000 population offer free bulk-appliance pickup at least quarterly, 19% charge a small fee ($15 to $50), and 8% require homeowners to self-haul to a transfer station.
Examples of free or low-cost municipal pickup as of 2026:
- New York City Sanitation: free large-item pickup, scheduled through nyc.gov/dsny, typical lead time 14 days.
- Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation: free bulk pickup including white goods, scheduled through 311, typical lead time 7 to 14 days.
- Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation: three free bulky-item pickups per household per year, scheduled at lacitysan.org.
- Boston Public Works: free white-goods pickup, weekly trash-day collection if scheduled 24 hours ahead.
- Phoenix Public Works: scheduled bulk pickup every 12 weeks, no separate appliance fee.
- Seattle Solid Waste: $30 per appliance fee, scheduled through Seattle Public Utilities, 7 to 21 days lead time.
- Dallas Sanitation: free brush/bulk pickup quarterly per route, appliances accepted.
Coastal-county Florida, hurricane-affected zones in Texas, and parts of New Jersey may have surcharges because of dump-fee variability. Always check the city or county sanitation website rather than assuming. The booking is usually a 5-minute online form.
Habitat ReStore donation: tax receipt instead of cash out
Habitat for Humanity operates over 900 ReStore locations across the United States that resell donated building materials and appliances to fund local Habitat builds, per the Habitat ReStore directory. Most accept working dishwashers under 10 years old. The unit must be clean inside and out, have its data plate intact, and ideally still have the installation manual or a printable PDF. ReStores reject units with rust on the tub interior, missing racks, or visible water damage.
Most ReStores will arrange a free pickup with 7 to 14 days notice through their online donation portal. The donor receives an itemised tax receipt that values the unit at $40 to $150 depending on age, brand, and condition. If you itemise deductions, the receipt is worth real money at tax time (the standard $40 receipt on a 5-year-old Bosch in a household at the 24% federal bracket plus state is worth $11 to $14 in offset).
ReStore is the highest-effort path, but it is the only one that puts the unit back into someone's kitchen instead of into a metal scrapper. For households where the old unit was a perfectly working trade-in (kitchen remodel, panel-ready upgrade), this is the best of the five options.
Scrap-metal yard: small payout for a working truck
A non-working dishwasher contains roughly 30 to 45 pounds of stainless steel (the tub), 4 to 6 pounds of copper (motor windings, power cord), 8 to 12 pounds of aluminium and steel structural parts, and 5 to 10 pounds of plastic. At early-2026 scrap commodity prices (per ScrapMonster regional price reports), a complete unit nets the scrapper $5 to $15 if dropped off uncontaminated. The yard typically takes the whole unit without requiring disassembly, then strips it themselves.
For most households, the scrap math is not worth the truck rental or the dump-run logistics. Where it works: homeowner already has a pickup truck, is already planning to haul other items to the dump or scrap yard the same day, and lives within 15 minutes of a yard that accepts white goods. The yard may also charge a small disposal fee for the refrigerant or insulation if the unit predates 2010, which can wipe out the metal recovery. Call ahead and ask whether they accept dishwashers as-is.
What you have to do before any hauler arrives
- Shut off the hot-water shutoff valve under the sink. Confirm the dishwasher does not refill on the next short cycle.
- Run a short rinse cycle the day before removal to flush food residue and reduce drain odour.
- Unplug the power cord, or shut off the dedicated breaker if the unit is hardwired (the latter is uncommon outside of Miele and some Bosch Benchmark units).
- Disconnect the supply line at the dishwasher inlet using a pair of channel-lock pliers. Catch the small amount of trapped water in a shallow tray.
- Disconnect the drain hose at the disposal or air-gap fitting. Catch the residual water (about half a cup) in the same tray.
- Unscrew the two top-mount brackets that hold the unit to the countertop underside. If the unit is on side-mount brackets, unscrew the four side bolts from the adjacent cabinet walls.
- Tip the unit forward 10 to 15 degrees to drain the sump. Stand it back up. Push it forward an inch on the levelling feet so the rear pulls out of the cabinet bay.
- Wrap the door with painter's tape so it cannot swing open during the carry-out.
A hauler is paid to carry and dispose, not to disconnect appliances. Skipping the prep is the single most common reason a haul-away pickup gets refused or up-charged. If you are not comfortable with any step, see our DIY dishwasher installation guide which covers the disconnection sequence in detail.
What absolutely not to do
Do not put the unit at the curb without a pickup tag. In NYC, Chicago, Boston, and most California cities, curbside dumping of white goods carries a $50 to $250 fine on the homeowner. The sanitation worker logs the address against the unit's data plate, and tickets follow within 7 to 14 days. Do not leave the unit in a public alley or on a vacant lot. Do not drop it at a commercial dumpster behind a strip mall. Do not put it out for the regular trash haul. The collection truck cannot lift it and the cycle gets refused.
Do not pay a cash-only Craigslist scrapper without a receipt. Local scrapper networks sometimes offer free pickup for white goods, which is real, but a cash transaction with no paper trail does not satisfy EPA disposal record-keeping if the local jurisdiction audits. Get an emailed pickup confirmation from a registered hauler or use the municipal pickup.
FAQ
How heavy is an old dishwasher to lift out?
A typical 24-inch built-in dishwasher weighs 60 to 75 pounds for mid-range brands (Whirlpool, GE, Frigidaire), 75 to 92 pounds for premium European brands (Bosch, Miele) thanks to the heavier stainless tub and extra sound insulation. Add 5 to 10 pounds for residual standing water if it has not been drained. Always lift with two people on units over 70 pounds.
What if my old dishwasher is built into custom cabinetry?
Panel-ready units that have a custom cabinet panel attached require removing the panel mounting bolts before extraction. The panel itself stays with the cabinet maker's spec; if the new unit is also panel-ready and the same width, the existing panel often gets reused. If the panel is being scrapped along with the unit, it is usually wood and goes into the household waste stream, not appliance disposal.
Do I need to do anything with the data plate before scrapping?
The data plate (the small sticker or metal plate on the door jamb or interior side wall) carries the serial number. For tax-deductible donations through Habitat ReStore, it must be intact. For scrap, it does not matter. For warranty disposal claims (very rare on a unit you are replacing), photograph the plate before scrapping.
Is asbestos a concern in older dishwashers?
Pre-1980 dishwashers occasionally used asbestos in heat insulation around the heating element. Units built after 1980 do not. If the unit predates 1980 and you are uncertain, hire a junk-removal service rather than scrapping yourself, and disclose the age to the hauler so they can use appropriate handling.
Can I save the racks before scrapping?
Sometimes worth it. Universal-fit dishwasher racks from Bosch, KitchenAid, Whirlpool, and GE sell on eBay and Facebook Marketplace for $25 to $75 in good condition. The third-rack cutlery tray on Bosch 800 Series units alone sells for $40 to $80. If your old unit's racks are clean and rust-free, photograph and list before scrapping.
Does the dishwasher need to be drained for haul-away?
Yes. About a cup of water sits in the sump between cycles. Most haulers will refuse to lift a unit that is not visibly drained because it leaks during the carry-out and stains floors. Run a short rinse the day before, then tip the unit forward to drain through the door seal.
What does proper EPA disposal actually involve?
Dishwashers do not contain refrigerant, so the EPA Clean Air Act Section 608 rules that apply to refrigerators do not apply here. Disposal mostly means making sure the unit reaches a permitted scrap yard or transfer station rather than a landfill, because stainless and copper are economically worth recycling. Registered haulers and municipal pickup both meet the standard.
Related cost pages
- Dishwasher replacement cost: total budget when swapping an existing unit, including haul-away.
- Home Depot dishwasher installation cost: free haul-away terms and what triggers a fee.
- Lowe's dishwasher installation cost: haul-away inclusion by market.
- Best Buy dishwasher installation cost: Geek Squad haul-away pricing.
- DIY dishwasher installation: the disconnection sequence you have to do before any hauler arrives.
- 8 ways to save money on dishwasher installation: bundling haul-away with new purchase saves the most.