What Has to Come Out of an Old Appliance First

Why this matters

An old refrigerator, freezer, window unit or dehumidifier is mostly steel, copper and plastic, and a scrap yard will take it gladly once four things are out of it: the refrigerant, any mercury switch, any capacitor that might hold PCBs, and the compressor oil (plus any battery, on newer units). Leave any of the four in and the yard refuses the load, or takes it and the shop has handed its own regulated waste to someone else with its name on the ticket. Scrap yards have tightened over the last decade because the federal refrigerant rule puts the final step in the disposal chain on the hook, so the paperwork you bring is now part of the job.

The rule that makes the yard ask

Under the Clean Air Act refrigerant program, the safe disposal rule at 40 CFR 82.155 covers small appliances: products fully manufactured, charged and hermetically sealed at the factory with 5 lb or less of refrigerant. Refrigerators, freezers, window and through-the-wall units, dehumidifiers, water coolers and vending machines mostly fall here. The rule places a duty on the final processor, the last person in the chain, usually the scrap recycler or the landfill: it must either recover any remaining refrigerant itself, or verify that refrigerant was properly recovered earlier, using a signed statement from the person who delivered the appliance that gives the name and address of whoever recovered it and the date. It keeps those statements for three years.

That is why the yard wants a signature from you. If you cannot give one honestly, the yard either recovers it (and charges for it, or refuses small loads) or turns the unit away.

Split systems and other equipment holding more than 5 lb fall under the evacuation requirements at 40 CFR 82.156 instead, and the shop's refrigerant recovery procedure governs how recovery is done for either class: equipment, certification and evacuation levels. This article does not re-teach it. See related: Refrigerant Recovery Procedures Reference.

States add their own layer. Minnesota, for example, bans major appliances from the trash and requires their hazardous components removed before scrapping, and several states have their own mercury-switch removal laws. Check your state's appliance or "white goods" rules before setting a shop policy.

The steps

1. Unplug it, keep the plug in view, and discharge every capacitor

Pull the cord and lay the plug where you can see it, so nobody plugs it back in while you are inside the cabinet. Then find every capacitor (the run capacitor on a window unit or dehumidifier, any start capacitor on the compressor) and discharge it with a resistor discharge tool across the terminals, then confirm zero volts with a meter you have just proved on a known live source. A capacitor holds its charge with the cord pulled, sometimes for days.

What breaks if you skip it: the capacitor discharges through your hand when you reach in to cut its leads in step 4. Wear safety glasses here; a shorted capacitor can spit metal.

2. Get the refrigerant out before anything is cut or bent

Recover the refrigerant to the shop's procedure, with the shop's recovery equipment, by the shop's certified technician, and record the refrigerant type and the date on the unit's tag. Do this before any other step that cuts tubing, because a cut line releases the charge to the air, which is the venting the federal rule prohibits, and you cannot recover what has already gone.

If the shop did not recover it (the customer's unit arrived already open, or someone else recovered it), you need that someone's name, address and date in writing, or the yard is entitled to refuse your statement. "It was already empty" is not a statement the rule recognizes; a cut line on an intact-looking unit is how yards spot a vented one.

Hazard at this step: liquid refrigerant at the access point causes frostbite on skin and eyes in a second, so gloves and glasses stay on, and in a closed room a large release displaces oxygen, so recover with a door open. An older unit may hold an obsolete refrigerant; label it correctly so it is reclaimed, not mixed.

3. Find and remove every mercury switch, intact

Mercury tilt switches look like a small glass or metal capsule on a bracket, often with two wires, mounted where something tips: the lid-light switch on many older chest freezers, some older washer lid switches, and the float switch on older sump pumps that ride along in a basement cleanout. Some older gas ranges and ovens used mercury in their flame-safety or thermostat sensing bulbs; check the model's age and the manufacturer's data before cutting a capillary bulb you cannot identify.

Unscrew the bracket rather than cutting the capsule out, keep the switch upright, and seal it in a rigid labeled container. Federally, mercury-containing equipment can be managed as universal waste under 40 CFR Part 273; the full treatment is in its own card. See related: Mercury Thermostats, Switches and Gauges.

What breaks if you skip it: the shredder at the yard breaks the capsule and the mercury goes into the scrap stream, which is exactly why yards inspect lids. If a capsule breaks on you, stop, keep people and pets out of the area, ventilate, and follow the small mercury spill procedure; do not vacuum it, which vaporizes it. See related: The Small Mercury Spill SOP.

4. Pull any capacitor that might contain PCBs

Capacitors and fluorescent ballasts made before 1979 may contain PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), a regulated toxic oil. Look for a "No PCBs" marking on the capacitor. If the appliance predates 1979, or the date is unknown, and the capacitor carries no such marking, treat it as containing PCBs: cut its leads (already discharged in step 1), lift it out without puncturing it, and bag it. A leaking one is a different job with its own handling. See related: PCB Capacitors and Ballasts in Older Equipment.

Hazard: PCB oil absorbs through skin, so nitrile gloves, not cotton, and never apply heat to an old capacitor; burning PCBs forms far more toxic compounds.

Many yards now ask for every capacitor out regardless of date, because they cannot tell either. Pulling them all is the cheaper policy.

5. Drain the compressor oil, after recovery, into the used oil drum

Some yards require the compressor oil drained; most at least want no oil weeping from the unit. Drain only after step 2 is complete, because refrigeration oil holds dissolved refrigerant that bubbles out as pressure drops. Collect it in the used oil container. Used oil rules sit at 40 CFR Part 279, which has a specific provision at 279.10(b) for refrigeration compressor oil whose CFC refrigerant is being reclaimed. Keep solvent and anything else out of that drum. See related: Used Oil, Oil Filters and Lubricants.

Hazard: oil from a compressor that burned out is acidic and irritates skin and eyes; gloves and glasses, and wash before eating.

6. Pull batteries and anything electronic the yard will not take

Newer appliances carry control boards, and some carry lithium coin cells or small packs. Batteries come out and go to battery recycling; boards go to e-waste if the yard does not accept them. See related: E-Waste From the Trades.

7. Tag the unit and write the statement

Each unit gets a tag listing what came out: refrigerant type and the date recovered, mercury switch removed (yes or none found), capacitors removed, oil drained. The yard gets one signed statement covering the load, and the shop keeps a copy against the job.

Worked example: three units, one trip to the yard

A shop doing an estate cleanout for a property manager hauls away three appliances: a 1975 chest freezer, a window air conditioner of unknown age (the nameplate is painted over), and a 2009 dehumidifier.

The chest freezer. Capacitors: none; it starts on a relay. Refrigerant recovered by the shop's certified tech. The lid light rides on a mercury tilt switch, removed on its bracket and sealed. Oil drained after recovery.

The window unit. One run capacitor, no "No PCBs" marking anywhere, and no readable date. Unknown date plus no marking means it is treated as PCB-containing: discharged, removed intact, bagged and held for the PCB route. Refrigerant recovered. No mercury.

The dehumidifier. 2009, so its capacitor is not a PCB question, but the yard wants every capacitor out, so it comes out and goes to scrap as ordinary metal. Refrigerant recovered. No mercury, no battery.

The tally: 3 refrigerant recoveries, 1 mercury switch, 1 suspect PCB capacitor held, 1 ordinary capacitor, oil from 3 compressors. The statement the yard receives:

REFRIGERANT RECOVERY STATEMENT - SMALL APPLIANCES
Delivered by: (shop name, address)
Load date: 06/14            Units: 3

Unit          Refrigerant recovered by     Date
Chest frzr    (tech name), (shop address)  06/12
Window AC     (tech name), (shop address)  06/12
Dehumidifier  (tech name), (shop address)  06/13

Also removed: mercury switch (1), capacitors (2), oil
I certify the refrigerant in each unit above was
recovered as stated.
Signed: ______________   Title: Owner

The yard copies the statement and keeps it, which is its own three-year obligation. The shop files its copy with the job record, along with the recovery entries.

The reasoning on the window unit. The tempting shortcut is "it looks newer than 1979". Looking newer does not date a capacitor, and a painted nameplate is a reason for more caution, not less. Holding one capacitor as PCB-suspect costs a bag and a later trip; sending a PCB capacitor to a shredder is the shop's liability for as long as anyone can trace it.

What would have changed the answer. If the property manager had told the shop the units had been "serviced and emptied" by another company, the shop would need that company's name, address and recovery date to sign anything, and without it the shop recovers whatever remains itself before the units leave. A split system in the same cleanout would have been an 82.156 evacuation, not a small-appliance statement. In Minnesota the components removed here are a state requirement rather than a yard's preference.

How to verify you got this right

Before the truck leaves, walk each unit: an access point showing it was recovered (not a cut line), no capsule on the lid bracket, no capacitor in the cabinet, no oil at the base, and a tag listing all four. Then check the paperwork: one statement whose unit count matches the trailer, with a recovery date for every unit that held refrigerant, and a copy in the job record.

References

• 40 CFR 82.155, safe disposal of small appliances; 40 CFR 82.156, evacuation requirements
• 40 CFR Part 279, used oil, including 279.10(b)
• 40 CFR Part 273, universal waste mercury-containing equipment
• See related: Refrigerant Recovery Procedures Reference
• See related: PCB Capacitors and Ballasts in Older Equipment