Advice on scrapping old air conditioner/gas furnace (insurance, heat pump)

[librehombre]

I need to dispose of my old 3.5 ton roof mounted air conditioner and Coleman gas furnace. Homeowner insurance granted replacement of the AC unit due to hail damage so I decided to install a heat pump and scrap the ancient gas furnace as well.

I understand these A/C units are valuable for scrap, especially the cooling coils because they contain a high amount of copper. Have no idea what the old gas furnace is worth as scrap.

I heard I could expect around $300 from a metal recycler for the AC. I contacted two scrap dealers that said they provide pickup service ($20) but didn't get into what they pay for scrap, until I find out more about the business.

Are these numbers in line with what others have found? I suppose it goes by weight so I would then be looking for the best offers based on weight. Which, I would not know until the dealer takes it to his yard. At that point, you pretty much have to take their deal or pay them to bring the junk back to your place.

Any advice is appreciated.

[ji603]

300 is way too high. More like 60 bucks. From another forum...

Everything but the steel is worth scrapping.

Unscrew the coil, cut the lines going to it. See if the AC co can evacuate the unit for you, rather than venting the refrigerant...

Pull the coil out, cut the metal ends off leaving the steel and copper U pieces. Scrap the coil as one unit, it'll most likely get scrapped as a "radiator." Roughly 1.60 a lb.

Cut all the copper you can out. Roughly 2.00 a lb.

Cut the motors out. You'll need to cut the shaft to get the fan blades off. Those are worth roughly 1.00 a lb.

Fan blades may be aluminum. Those are only worth 1.00 a lb roughly, but aluminum weighs less so it's not worth much.

Steel is nill but you can still scrap it. Steel is roughly .03 cents a lb

[observer53]

If that's the case, my time is worth more than $60... let the A/C people haul it off when you have it replaced, and they can deal with scrapping it.