Can a Junk Kenmore Refrigerator be Worth Over $1,000 in Working Parts?
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- Опубликовано: 21 окт 2024
- When a refrigerator won't cool, how much can be salvaged from its dead husk? I decided to pull this entire unit apart (save the bottom door which had stripped screws in) and total up what the value was on Ebay with... Surprising results.
I only totaled up parts that were worth over $15 shipped so it wouldn't be a huge load of small-value items. Also, I only priced parts that have actually sold recently on The Bay.
Parts to help you tear down an appliance like this:
Klein 9-in-1 Multitool (takes apart just about any major appliance), $13.99: amzn.to/2KDVsNJ
Basic Putty Knife, $3.59: amzn.to/3eWqPAT
Avis 20v Cordless Drill (Take everything apart faster) $46.99: amzn.to/3eXauMl
Cool video. I just do washers and dryers and occasionally sell parts on eBay. Refrigerators have a lot more worthwhile Parts on them.
They have more sell-able parts, but they are more problematic to sell since those worthwhile parts are usually gaskets and drawers... Boards are easy enough, but I've found the drawers are a bigger PITA than previously thought.
So glad you started your channel! instant subscribe, investment joy and bens appliances are officially like my first two checks when I have free time!
Well then, to outfit a new home with new appliances?
If I am going to look into LG, then I would buy a front load washer and matching dryer from LG. They make excellent laundry appliances, and get a stove from them perhaps. They make nice stoves too.
Dishwashers (from LG) are okay, I may or may not buy one. Dishwashers?? I would probably lean towards Whirlpool ($550.00-$800.00), KitchenAid($800.00 and up), or Bosch or Miele w/Illuminated Stainless Steel Interiors and Advanced Control Panels ($1,300.00 and up).
Refrigeration? For Budget? I would do Frigidaire, GE, or Whirlpool. Upmarket?? Frigidaire (Gallery), GE (Cafe or Profile), or Whirlpool. High-End?? Bosch, Miele, or for a Built-In Model - Sub Zero. I would steer clear of Samsung or LG altogether.
-Charles-
Love tear down videos. Seems more profitable than flipping.
Any LG Pre Linear Compressor is good. The new linear compressors break down in around 3 years.
Great video
Most of the glass and plastic shelves on my Whirlpool Gold SxS are cracked after being in daily use since 2009.
Control boards are reasonable. Worth keeping for practice once you get the EPA licence for recovery and brazing refilling finding leaks and testing if your joints are good, Better to burn an old machine than a customer's pride and joy. Mind you if is customer's fridge is outside warranty is it worth doing?
I’ve seen several of your “Maytag Man” videos about fridges, which I enjoyed and found informative. I looked for similar ones about ovens, but you seem to talk only about fixing ovens that don’t heat. How about videos comparing oven brands, features and reliability? I would like to see which gas ovens offer soft-close doors, or like my 45 year-old and current Magic Chef oven, doors that stop 3/4 the way with the spring and require manually closing the rest of the way. This way the door won’t smash against the oven as with many ovens now sold.
Anyhow, as for this video, I found it most informative and entertaining. And you certainly showed that “the parts are worth more than the whole,” at least with the tear down. It is also the first video I watched in which you were out of your Maytag uniform. 🙂
Question: An acquaintance who rented apartments once told me to never buy used fridges because they contain cockroaches. How often do you encounter this “surprise”? Do you inspect for roaches before you buy or take in old fridges? You think maybe this might be a good subject for a new video?😨
Keep up the good work and videos.
Oven videos are going to happen. The fridge reccomendations was just the first of the rest. Plan to go thru all possible reccomendations
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I will certainly look out for your oven videos you plan to make.
Meanwhile, have you considered my suggestion for a video about encountering cockroaches in used fridges? Your video could include encountering other pests, such as mice, ants, bedbugs, etc. While such encounters are unpleasant, I think it’s important you advise your viewers of such possible encounters and how to deal with them. Of course, if you somehow never had such encounters, I’m certain viewers who live in cities, such as The Bronx, New York, which was where the acquaintance I mentioned who managed his apartments lived, had such encounters. Besides fridges, I imagine these pests can find their way into other appliances.
If anything, such “environmental encounters” videos will be informative and entertaining.
Keep up the good work.
@@altonyee4488 I've thought about that kind of video, but its there with 300 other ideas, and I have to slowly go through all the ideas one by one, and that takes a lot of time, but its definitely on the list
Instant subscribe for me too. I'd use those shelves for behind my bar. Converted my bar corner into a fermentation station.
Ben, another great video. What is your return rate on eBay for applicance parts? Thanks.
6-7% but that includes idiots returning things that work or people trying to scam me
Also, in my town the transfer station has a whole section labeled, "Freon", for appliances with refrigerant, which they charge for dumping. As the appliances are out in the open and the town would LOVE for a scrounger to take an appliance or two home, so that the town doesn't have to pay to dispose of them, if someone knew what they were doing they could potentially get appliances for free and part them out to sell online.
I work with a lot of scrappers on buying dead units for $15-25/ea. This fridge is definitely on the higher-end of price and I got REALLY lucky on it. But there's almost always $75 in good parts on any given appliance... Way more if its a frontload washer, or some sort of fancy stove (assuming no roaches).
Damn. My LG fridge is on year 6, no problems, but you got me scared! 😱
I have been keeping all kinds of fridge parts . take up to much space .. great Video my friend 👍🇨🇦
I've cleared a lot of shelves out that don't sell. I only keep the fastest-selling bins (which are almost always Kenmore/Frigidaire freezer-top units). Other things I keep from non-french doors are the hinges and handles that are small and don't take up much room.
Whirlpool fridges have those new control boards that are the size of a cigarette pack. I get a few of those because WP can't freaking solder their sealed system lines right, so they end up being no-cool units... Easy $100 part.
I have given some thought to selling parts on EBay but not sure about how to package the parts.
Question: How do you know the icemaker works if the fridge does not get cold?
How do you ship everything? Or whats your favorite shipping services for these things?
Sites like PirateShip.com will let me compare rates for the cheapest deal. Usually that's through UPS on larger or bulkier items, but if its small, USPS is usually the best.
Get the epa it’s easy I have one type 1 and type 2 I’m thinking of looking for old fridges and repairing them and selling them as a side hustle
Older video but what’s your method to ship drawers etc..? Say I sell mine on eBay $30 usps alone is $20+ to ship now add eBay fees is there a better method?
Most will say buyer pays shipping but when 10 sellers offer same drawer @$30 with free shipping no one’s buying mine at $30 + $20 shipping if that makes sense.
Such great info! Thank you!
You are so welcome!
Hey I am in Atlanta, have you been able to find truckloads of Pallets available? Seems like they are all 1-4 pallet deals now
Do you sell the parts on ebay/an online store?
Great video. Very well done!
Thanks!
Very interesting.
How do you dispose of the dead appliances and worthless parts? Just take them to the nearest dump or landfill and pay the $20 (or whatever) fee for disposing of appliances with refrigerant?
At least where I live, scrapyards will take refrigerators with no questions or issues, so I leave the sealed systems intact passing along the EPA burden-of-proof to them.
However, I'd quick-learn the EPA course if I found an old enough fridge with legit R-12 in it.
@@bensappliancesandjunk Nice, makes sense.
@@bensappliancesandjunk Yup, depends on the city of the country. Here in NYC, citizens call for collection and the DSNY takes out the refrigerant and then marks the appliance as safe for route pickup. It's then collected on the recycling day. You're right, there is some money to be had in salvaging appliance parts, especially where they are expensive or simply no longer available new. I did this with my WLP made Kenmore dishwasher in 2019. It helped "pay' for the new one that replaced it (also a WLP made Kenmore). For the consumer if you can, making money back by selling the parts from your totaled out appliance makes the cost of replacement that much less.
Love the video. Sorry if this question seems silly to someone who has experience at E-bay selling, but I have zero experience at it. In this video you show the price it will sell fur on E-bay. How do you know what price it will sell for? Is there a function on E-bay that will tell you that or are you just browsing that part and calculating your own average?
Watchcount.com allows you to see what the items actually sell for and how frequently they sell. Very valuable
Thank you. I greatly appreciate that info.
Door handles?
Then there is the cabinet scrap value...... what's that worth 30 to 50 bucks?
Tear down the same model in stainless!! Worth more?
Cabinet may be 150lb at $150 a ton. So maybe $12
Now how do we turn these empty fridges into tool chests?
You mentioned that the lower freezer door only took 2 months to sell, is that generally how long parts take to move? Thanks for the video 👍
Totally varies by part. I've had a few sell within 30 minutes of posting. 2 months on a $250 door was great, IMO. Roughly, I'll move about half of my inventory every 2 months so it's a 4 month average time to sell, but when you have volume, you are always selling parts here and there.
really cool video. Can you show how you run your online business?
I'm going to do that 1 as soon as I get a new lapel Mike. My brother's page, investment joy, has a video about running it but I want to do a more in depth one soon
How can you tell these Kenmore fridges are actually LG?
Great video. Do you have other models you stay away from and just tear down?
Optimally, we try to fix the unit to sell before scrapping, because the way units break down is odd. You can have two units visually identical but the part values are way, way different. I just broke down a Kenmore frontload washer today - HE5t Steam. Bad spider bracket so absolutely un-fixable.
The front interface is graphite color. Listed for $125
The main control board was listed for $115
The motor control board (MCU) for $95
I should get the $300 out of the parts I'm asking. Honestly at this point, I'll just scrap any kenmore frontload if they're gonna price out like that. But it could be hit and miss, again, based on the randomness of specific part#s.
Having said all of that, we do get pretty quick to trash GE washers because its rare for us to get them in fixable shape, but the board+motor usually goes north of $100 for both.
@@bensappliancesandjunk Great info Ben. I dont have space yet to store the items. Just learning how to repair washers and dryers and need to get power in my garage. Have to find some scrapers. Lot's of work ahead but looking forward to it.
I have been given so many nice dubble door fridges . same problem . it's to bad .so I try to stay away from fridges 👍🇨🇦
On the LG/Kenmores that are no-cool on bad compressors, there aren't a ton of super-valuable parts because SO many go bad, others are scrapping them for parts too - very competitive. The only things I really find incredibly valuable are the boards, mullion heaters, and door handles. Once in awhile, if I get a REALLY GOOD SHAPE lower door, I'll keep it. I've sold like... 4 doors for $300/ea. Those are GREAT to sell because shipping prices aren't terrible (usually $30-40/ea) and its a part no one else really tries to sell. However, you really have to be on your game for clealiness and part# because of how obscure they are.
How do you package something like a fridge door? How would you ship it? I have torn down a few washers a few years ago. If I go to the USPS, and it is going somewhere close the USPS forces me to send it priority whether I want to or not. How do you get around crazy shipping prices?
FedEx. Way cheaper on larger/bulkier items. USPS had a rule where shipping prices double for anything over 36" in width, height and depth. FedEx doesn't have the insane rule so can be half price or less.
@@bensappliancesandjunk thanks
@@1anthonybrowning I just finished packaging up the door. 20lb / $26 to ship it from Ohio to Colorado. Used a 30x30x6 box and stretched it to about 34x30x6 to make it work. Not bad on a $250 sale.
@@bensappliancesandjunk nicely done.
Ben, would it be possible to recharge the system with R134a to give it a few more years of life? The recharge kits seem pretty inexpensive for such a nice fridge.
So we've saved a few systems since this video.
Kenmore/LG fridges like this either die because the refrigerant has leaked out or the compressor is totally DOA. If the compressor is totally DOA, you can usually get a free one from LG. Someday soon, I'm going to buy a bad used one to see if I can save it via the free compressor & condenser since I got just about all the tools to do it properly.
Otherwise, recharging 134a - you can try to do it with stopleak + r134a, but its really risky and somewhat unlikely you'll do it properly, because there's usually a major issue that's caused it. Still, even if its a 50% chance the cheap route works, its still workable.
@@bensappliancesandjunk Makes complete sense. I appreciate your response and time. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
You need to get a shoutout from your brother :)
I have to videos on his channel but that was before I started my own. What I will probably do is work on another video war 2 for him I and make sure that I get some subscriptions for my channel from it lol
Bens Appliances and Junk ok :)
Do all the these random parts have part numbers printed on them?
Some do, some do not. Generally, any circuit board will. But shelves and plastic parts - varies by manufacturer but generally I'd say no.
You can always go online, pull up the parts diagram for the given machine and the parts breakdown will be there and you can ID what the parts numbers are for the replacement parts if they are not marked with any part or casting numbers. Many are, depends on the brand.
Ben how do you ship the crisper drawers for cheap?
there's no truly cheap option. I use 18x14x12 boxes bought in bulk from Amazon for about $1.40/ea. They fit the common expensive drawers like Frigidaires (which are always, consistently, big money... like $40-50+S&H every time).
@@bensappliancesandjunk thanks I think you answered my question on Appliance flippers united lol
Would you share your ebay store link?
Some of the parts you are deeming useless are worth money like the display board and you could sell complete door. I know this is an older video some of the parts are very hard to find and extended warranty companies will buy them to avoid buying out a machine
On the door - I've found that some models are more likely to sell than others, and the video only considered the threshold regarding if any tracking data existed for that particular door. Iv'e sold a few complete doors since this video, and you're right - they go for great money.
If the compressor bad I sale the parts cheap at the lowest price just to help others
Were would you sell this stuff?
The parts? Ebay.
Thanks
You forgot about the door handles those are worth money too
They CAN be. Some models are worthless like this one. others are worth big $$$. It just varies from model to model.
@@bensappliancesandjunk ah ok 👌🏼
It's good making money. But why would people even bother buy parts for junk poorly made appliances that can't even last 5yrs. Most people I know if an appliance breaks they junk it and go look for free or very cheap ones on Craigslist , Facebook. They don't bother getting parts to fix or make look good.
All my appliances I have got for free- fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer dryer, spare freezer They are older probably early 2000s but all work. And if they break I'm not going to fix them.
Cool video! Wouldn't you be worried about lack of demand for some of the parts and you end up with a ton of stuff in your shop that never sells? Or is there a way to gauge what's a waste of time and storage space?
I use WatchCount.com and only pull parts that have a sales history in the past 90 days
@@bensappliancesandjunk That web site is a good idea, wish I would have thunk of it!
Wow that's too bad the fridges look really nice
LG updated their compressor design in 2018 and started to offer 5 yr labor warranties on the existing 10 yr compressor part warranty. The new fridges with ThinQ dont have this problem.
Bullshit was out on a call for a 2019 model had same issue. Customer was told it would be 2 weeks before technician would arrive. Customer had me look at it to see if it was something simpler that they could have fixed rather than waiting for LG. NOPE! Sealed system issue. Either stuck compressor valve or refrigerant loss. Either way the problem still exists.
Who actually buys shelves etc for that price? here Ive never seen anybody buying plastic parts for a fridge at all. And if people buy, dont you have to wait for years and then maybe sell one (Aka lots of space needed)
Depends on brand. I use watchcount.com to determine sales volume. Many styles sell very fast
Everything LG SUCKS