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Something odd about appliances

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    CanIScrapIt started this thread.
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    Something odd about appliances

    Here are a few odd statistics that I've been able to come up with from my past experiences of scrapping:

    -Most of the appliances that I find being tossed out are NOT found on the day before garbage pickup, I find them randomly on someone's curb just passing through the neighborhood.
    -I have found more fridges than I have found any other appliance, all combined.
    -I have yet to find a hot water heater.
    -I have yet to find a furnace or boiler.
    -Only ONCE did I find anything OTHER than a fridge on the day before pickup...it was a washer.

    If I had to estimate the amount of large appliances found, both on the night before pickup and also on a random day, here's what I would come up with.

    (garbage night, any other day)
    Fridges: 7, 4
    Ovens: 0, 3
    Washers: 1, 2
    Hot water tanks: 0, 0
    Furnace/boiler: 0,0
    Dryer: 0, 3




    Any reason why there are so many fridges..? Something that breaks more often? I'm assuming that I find more appliances on off days because people put them out when they get replaced, and since there are minimal scrappers out on off days, I am more likely to come across them. Can anyone make sense of this? Haha


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  2. #2
    Hypoman's Avatar
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    People hate cleaning out fridges and then they start to smell so they get a new one. Increase in fridge finds=laziness.
    Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
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    Think about it. Out of that list of appliances which one runs 24/7?

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    I get more washers/dryers than anything else.

    I'd say you're spot on about the theory of scrappers only being out the night before/day of trash pickup.

    Maybe the hot water heaters are being hauled away by the repairman? They aren't hard to replace but people are lazy so in comes the repairman.

  6. #5
    CanIScrapIt started this thread.
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    Ahhhh there's the money. I knew they must have broken more often but I didn't really realize why. I feel dumb lol. And yeah, lazieness may be a major part of it. But still, this leaves the question of why am I finding so many fridges on trash day, but next to never anything else?

    EDIT: Interesting. So maybe it is different city to city, or just a coincidence. Also yeah, about the hot water tanks being hauled off, I was just thinking of that right before I read your post. :P

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    Im lucky that my area has a trash day that circles 20 miles around me 5 days a week, As for appliances being out, im gonna be of no help there. You leave a washer,heater,fridge at ur curb for more then a hour here and its gone and hauled away. I swear we have to got at least 3-5 thousand scrappers actively working this city alone and everyone's getting paid.

    If you want to get into it around here you just have to go out on patrol and catch the people taking it to the curb/ find tight streets where trailers cant get down. I use to do 40-50$ days just going around in my civic trolling the streets day before trash night. Now that i do the trash morning Blitz, im easily hitting 70-120$ in a 3 hour day and works like clock work, sun comes out good trash comes too.

    Has any other small car scrappers on here been able o beat a 750lb steel load in there car (no hatch back) Id love to see picks on how ur getting it in there.

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    Why are you finding mostly refrigerators? Either because it's the hardest appliance to load by yourself or your scrapyards require them to be certified as evacuated before they will take them.

  9. #8
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    If I find any appliances , its mostly dryers, second water heaters, 3rd washers, then stoves. Only found a deep freezer once. still no fridges on the curb. only ones given to me. I think people put em out early cause they know someone will take them and they can get rid of them.

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    3 Fridges, 2 washers, 2 dryers + steel in 3.5 hours today....council collection tomorrow but got most of the big appliances early in the am...go figure?

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    Most every company that replaces water heaters and HVAC systems haul off the old one. Especially if it is being replaced under the Mfr's warranty as they will want the old one back most of the time. When I worked at home depot we had at least 25-30 come back a week as people would fake a leak to get them swapped out before the warranty expired. Tons of people also came along at night and would dump old appliances in our parking lot. Local scrappers were pretty good about cleaning up the parking lot by 6am.
    For a few months we even had a scrapper who would chain a trailer to a lightpole way out in the lot and had a sign on it saying free appliance disposal. It worked great for him until a shady roofing contractor filled his trailer full with old shingles 2 weeks in a row. He removed the trailer after that....


    We had a "white goods" hauler that would come and get all the returned appliances and the old ones that we took in when installing new ones. I dont know what they did with all of them but im assuming the white goods guys took them straight to the scrappers as they would get all pissy if there were a lot of vanity cabinets or plastic bathtubs in the load.
    If there was nobody there to supervise them as they loaded the truck they would usually only take appliaces and we would have to call their company and make them come back for the non scrappable items.

  12. #11
    Ticonderoga's Avatar
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    I don't see any washer/dryers for the most part due to the delivery company hauling the old ones away. I've always replaced / delivered my own appliances so not sure if fridges are the same way as washer/dryers.

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    Around here it seems like washers and fridges are what I get called most to pick up.....bad thing is that most of the time they are still in the basement and the owner cant help get them out. Nice going up a flight or 2 of stairs all the time. The "garbage day" runs stopped for me. Too much gas, not enough junk around. I just wait for the calls

  14. #13
    Mechanic688's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by demozast View Post
    Around here it seems like washers and fridges are what I get called most to pick up.....bad thing is that most of the time they are still in the basement and the owner cant help get them out. Nice going up a flight or 2 of stairs all the time. The "garbage day" runs stopped for me. Too much gas, not enough junk around. I just wait for the calls
    If your doing quite a few appliances you might want to get one of those appliance dollies with the strap, with or without stairclimber.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=stairclimber%20dolly&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&source=hp&channel=np
    P & M Recycling - Specializing in E-Waste Recycling.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dunemaul View Post
    Im lucky that my area has a trash day that circles 20 miles around me 5 days a week, As for appliances being out, im gonna be of no help there. You leave a washer,heater,fridge at ur curb for more then a hour here and its gone and hauled away. I swear we have to got at least 3-5 thousand scrappers actively working this city alone and everyone's getting paid.

    If you want to get into it around here you just have to go out on patrol and catch the people taking it to the curb/ find tight streets where trailers cant get down. I use to do 40-50$ days just going around in my civic trolling the streets day before trash night. Now that i do the trash morning Blitz, im easily hitting 70-120$ in a 3 hour day and works like clock work, sun comes out good trash comes too.

    Has any other small car scrappers on here been able o beat a 750lb steel load in there car (no hatch back) Id love to see picks on how ur getting it in there.
    I have had 700some pounds in my wrangler but it does have a hatch back sorta and easily removable seats.

  17. #15
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    im just jellly myself cause i do not have a truck yet to be able to get larger things but here in my town there is only a few people scrapping that way and do not want to work with me i even offered as low as 50 cents a find to call them but thats also good to because when i do soon its game on and as for electronics i almost have no compition unless you count best buy lol

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    I work by my self and out of all the appliances I have fond a frig. is the easyest to load, just lean it over on the tailgate and push it in. Then washers and driers, they are shorter and you have lift more strait up than the frig. Hot water heaters are the hardest to load. The yards I use do not require certified evacuation of frigs. tey require no freon. I used to find alkinds of appliances out at the curb before the econemy went bad.

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    I have the same thing going on here. I find mostly refrigerators, then washers, stoves, then dryers. i don't even mess with the water heaters. i'm guessing though, that the reason for so many fridges is because of scrappers like me that don't want to mess with them due to the large amount of space they take, the freon, and just overall how much it takes to get every cent out of it. sure, i love doing me some compressors, but when i have a choice between loading up 2 washers or loading up 1 fridge, i take the washers. i can do multiple washers in the time it takes me to take my guy the fridge, get the freon removed, cut the tubing, slice open the compressor, and punch out the windings. and if washers are lacking, i can do something with higher pay in less time than the fridge. fridges are for slow times and desperation. also, the huge heavy ones make good workbenches. if you get it laid right, theres no wobble as with the wooden one in my shop. oh, and i'm right there with the furnace thing. i've never found one. here, we don't have a bulk trash day, the bulk trucks(one for shrubbery/wood, one for metal) come when people get tired of wood or metal piles and call the city.

    Sincerely,
    Throwstuff

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    bluemeate's Avatar
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    1. microwaves ~ 30
    2. washer/fryer ~ 15ea
    3. hot water heaters ~ 7
    4. ovens ~7
    5. frdges ~5
    6 ac units ~ 5

    out here people will occasionally leave stuff curbside but not for the garbagemen, they dont grab anything outside the supplied bins
    collecting san joses scrap

  22. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by throwstuff View Post
    i don't even mess with the water heaters.


    Why?

    They're easy money. The brass and any copper are all on the outside, knock them off and you're good to go.

  23. #20
    rca987's Avatar
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    Fridges are common because they are always plugged in, and alot of people have multiples of them. Beverage fridge in the garage, one in the house, maybe a back porch fridge, etc.. I mean, who wants to do laundry in a variety of places, thus needing several washers and dryers?
    Garbage keyboards > spɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʎɐqǝ


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