How To Disconnect, Remove And Dispose Of A Washing Machine For Free

When a washing machine breaks down you know that replacing it is going to be expensive. Not only do you have to spend several hundreds on a new machine and installation but if you lack confidence with plumbing you may also have to pay for someone to disconnect your existing broken machine and dispose of it.

As some of my previous posts have shown, jobs can seem quite intimidating until you break them down and realize they are actually quite simple. No-one likes spending money unnecessarily so here is a step-by-step guide to disconnecting your washing machine and disposing of it for free.

How to disconnect a washing machine

1. Disconnect the power supply - The first step is an easy one just unplug the washing machine from the mains power.

2. Stop the water supply to the washing machine - Your washing machine will be fed cold water from your house's main water supply. If your plumbing is installed correctly there will be an isolation valve located inbetween the water inlet pipe from your machine and the mains (See image to the right). The purpose of this isolation valve is that you can stop the flow of water to an appliance without having to shut off your house's main water supply at the stop cock.

Turn the handle on the isolation value to the 'Off' position as shown in the image.


3. Drain/empty the washing machine of water manually - Hopefully your washing broke down after it was empty of water, however, if this was not the case empty the machine at this point. If you are unsure how to do this, you can find all the instructions in my post entitled (How to drain a washing machine manually that is full of water)

4.  Disconnect the washing machine waste hosepipe - Your washing machine will have a waste pipe that originates at the back of the machine and fixes to a section of pipework that connects to your main waste drain. In my case this was under my sink and is shown in the picture to the right.

The pipe will be fastened with a hosepipe clamp ring. To remove the hose you will need to loosen the clamp with a screw driver. When the clamp is no longer holding the pipe, pull the pipe (in my case off to the right) to disconnect it from the sink's U-bend pipework.

Removing this pipe is actually the most difficult part of the whole process as it naturally attaches to the U-Bend pipework very snuggly which means that quite abit of force is required to get it to move. Not only that, there was very little room to maneuver under the sink and I had to sit in quite an uncomfortable position to get any leverage.

Hopefully this will be easier for you but I just wanted to give you a warning.

If all goes well, your perseverance will pay off with a disconnected washing machine drainage hosepipe as shown here on the right.

**Always have a container handy to capture any excess water which may be contained within the hosepipe after removal**

5. Disconnect the cold water hosepipe from the isolation valve - This hosepipe has a threaded seal so all you need to do is unscrew it from the isolation valve (which should still be in the off position).

**Always have a container handy to capture any excess water which may be contained within the hosepipe after removal**

6. Unscrew the other end of the cold water hose pipe - At the back of the washing machine (usually at the top) you will see where the cold water hosepipe connects. Unscrew this as you did in step 5.









You will now have a fully (and safely) disconnected washing machine which you can now remove from your kitchen or laundry room !!.

How to dispose of your washing machine for free

Possible ways to remove your broken washing machine include the following :

• Trying to get it into your car and taking it to the city dump / recycle center yourself (fee may be applicable).
• Asking the local council to collect and dispose of the item for you. My local council charges £29 for this service
• Hire a 'man with van' to collect the item and dispose of it for you which can cost up to £100.
• Get the supplier of the new washing machine to disconnect and dispose of your existing washing machine. The place where we purchased our new one from offered to disconnect and dispose for £20.

My favourite option however is the free one. Scrap metal is valuable and although you don't see (or hear) a rag and bone man too often I knew that there must be a company out there that would like my old appliance. After abit of googling and a couple of phone calls I found a local company that would be happy to come and pick up my washing machine for free. So all I had to do was disconnect it and drag it outside of my house. The following day as promised they turned up in their van and hauled it away.

Google search terms I used : Free washing machine removal, free scrap metal removal, kitchen appliance removal for free *and location

I hope you found this post helpful and it gives you confidence to do this very simple job yourself and save you some money. Please let me know (and others) how you got on in the comments section below.