Every year a lot of perfectly good scrap leaves Adelaide homes as a removal fee instead of a payment. Usually because nobody mentioned what was inside it.
Here is what is actually in the big items, in order of what they tend to be worth.
Air conditioner outdoor unit
The best single item a normal house produces. Inside there is a copper coil, a compressor, an electric fan motor and aluminium fins. All four are worth something and the copper is worth a lot.
One thing matters here, and it is not optional. The refrigerant has to be recovered by someone holding an ARC refrigerant handling licence. Venting it to atmosphere is an offence under the federal ozone protection and synthetic greenhouse gas rules, and the penalties are serious. Do not cut the lines to get at the copper. Leave the unit whole and let us deal with it.
Hot water system
Depends on the age. Older cylinders have a copper inner tank inside a steel jacket, and that copper lifts the whole unit well above scrap steel value. Newer ones are often stainless or vitreous enamel steel, which is worth less but still worth collecting.
You cannot tell from the outside, and cutting one open is a genuinely bad idea. Bring it as it is.
Pool pumps, power tools and anything with a motor
An electric motor is copper wire wound around steel. Pool pumps, dead power tools, washing machine motors, workshop fans and extraction units all count. People put these in hard rubbish constantly.
The rest of the list
- Old switchboards. Copper bus bar and plenty of cable.
- Car and solar batteries. Lead, heavy, and they must not go in a kerbside bin.
- Alloy wheels. Clean aluminium at a useful weight each, tyres off.
- Copper or brass radiators. One of the better paying items by weight.
- Stainless benches and sinks. From a kitchen reno, worth collecting.
- Roof sheeting and guttering. Steel or aluminium depending on age, and it adds up fast on a reroof.
Current rates on the parts
Indicative rates, the same ones on the home page. Metal markets move every week, so ring 0435 805 124 for the exact figure before you load up.
If a tradie is doing the removal
Plenty of plumbers and air con installers already take the old unit away, and the scrap value is part of how they price the job. That is fair enough and there is nothing dodgy about it.
Worth knowing anyway: if it is a swap-out of multiple units, or a commercial job with a few systems coming off, the metal is worth enough to be part of the conversation. Ask what is happening to it.
Getting it gone
Leave it accessible, ring us with your suburb, and we will collect it. Free pickup across Adelaide's north-east, weighed in front of you, paid on the spot.