Are they worth hauling to the scrap yard.
Are they worth hauling to the scrap yard.
Usually, they will CHARGE YOU for accepting anything with freon. If the freon has been removed, then "Yes", they'll go as "Light Iron" or "Mixed Metal". Before taking it in, cut off the copper tubes and sell them separately. The compressor also contains copper and the compressor itself may go as #1 Iron. There is also some Aluminum that can be sold. I usually cut off the copper but don't bother with the rest.
People may laugh at me, but that's ok. I laugh all the way to the bank.
The main yard I use will not take them at all. Even if it is ripped apart and is obvious there is no freon in it.
Near me they will take refrigerators no problem for mixed metal price. You would be best to call your nearest yard and ask them about their standards.
You need to strip them down first.
They have a fair bit of Ali inside & the outer edges (trim) sometimes are Ali.
Theres copper tube around the motor & a copper 'sausage' thats full of some drier material like silica gell.
You need a magnet as they weld the copper tubing to Ali tubing & steel tubing & its hard to make out where they end & start again.
Theres the wiring made from copper & the thermostats got a copper tubing attached to it too.
Chest freezers have copper tubing (if you are lucky) inside the walls inside & towards the top of the freezer compartment.
The recirculating 'frost free' freezers have a Ali radiator & motors behind a false back in the freezer compartment.
Older fridges & freezers are a great find as some are actually almost made from Copper & brass. Well the lining is anyway.
I got about NZ$40 for the inner lining on a freezer.
You can use the fridge with everything removed as a tool box, some suit use at home & some fit nicely into the back of a truck bed etc.
They make nice Gun safes too. Tall thin ones & you can put the ammo into the freezer part.
The 'Ammonia fridges' are pretty dangerous if you muck it up.
They don't have a motor as such.
Look at the back of it & if its a 'camper fridge' that runs on 12 volt/gas/110volt &/or has a mass of tubing that looks like a metal intestine. Inside they have a finned block the size of a loaf of bread in one corner.
Theres Ali in that finned block, normally a nice chunk- 1Kg or a bit less.
Anyway, they are probably worth more to someone if it works (it takes a day or so to get them to 'cycle' & start working)
Great camping fridges & if you need to, or can, you can build a small fire under the right part & have a working fridge.
You will have to search the web to get that info, I havn't actually did it yet. (no need to).
If you break into it, it will release a big cloud of Ammonia gas.
That ammonia gas is pretty hard to cover up, it travels for ages & if you are in America the Police will be right onto it as they use Ammonia gas to make drugs & its a 'sure thing' theres a meth lab nearby if they smell it.
I walked past that was leaking & hit the cloud of invisable Ammonia gas, instantly my lungs went into convulsions & I was running backwards away from it without even knowing. Eyes watering like sprinklers.
Refrigerators are my second favorite item to scrap (after AC units). They are heavy (each one weighs from 150 lbs to 300 lbs), and hauling several on a 16ft flatbed can pay (in fact I have 8 strapped down on my flatbed ready to take in). I remove all the copper tubing, and even cut open the compressor after removing it from the bottom. I will remove the electric motor inside the compressor, and then remove the windings from the motor. I have filled 2 five gallon buckets full of the windings (it is #2 copper). Some folks do not think it is worth their time, but I normally remove the copper when I am sitting around with nothing else to do. I also remove the shelf bars from inside the doors (aluminum), and any aluminum I find in the freezer compartment.
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