Scrap a Heat Pump

16 years ago

I had to replace our 5 year old heat pump with a new heat pump, old one was a lemon and and finally coil started to leak. I was told I could scrap the sheet metal and coils from the old unit and recover some costs for the new unit. On the coils I have removed the metal that was on each end of the coils but do I need to remove the fins from the copper in order to get the most value from the scrap metals? If so what is the eaiset way to seperate them from the copper coils?

I have searched the internet and was unable to come up with any information, thought this forum might provide me with some help. Thanks for any response.

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Comments (4)

don_b_1
16 years ago
You'll do a lot of work for a little money. Last I heard a few months ago, scrap metal was going for around a buck and a half per hundred pounds. Copper and aluminum are worth more but what is the value of your time? I'd just call the junk man and have it hauled away.
marknmt
16 years ago
I made about 800 bucks in a week break1ng down and carting off scrap from an aluminum, stainless, and copper-brass-bronze commercial steam box unit that was in a bakery. My total investment of time was about 12 hours.

The floor was stainless and was worth over $200 itself. The doors were aluminum sheet over blueboard, and the front structure had a fair amount of aluminum.

Scrap is at an all time high. Copper is running about
$1.40 a pound here, aluminum up to $0.40, IRRC, and stainless was $0.90 a few weeks ago. Even sheet metal is going for $0.02 and good steel for a nickel and up.

BUT: if you're selling copper it has to be separated from any other stuff, or they pay the price of the cheapest material. Same with aluminum- a two pound door latch made of aluminum, with one steel pin in it, is worth the same as two pounds of steel. You can spend a lot of time getting that pin out.

Radiators can be worth a few bucks.

So yes, you can do a lot of work for a very little money. But if you're just hanging around of an afternoon and want to give it a try it's not a bad experiment, the environment is helped, and it may pay a little for your time. If you have kids you might put them to work on it and let them keep the cash (just watch out for your beer can stash once they figue it out.)

It might not be worth it to cut the fins from the copper, but sometimes techniques reveal themselves once you get started, and the scrap company doesn't care how torn, battered and beaten your scrap looks! You should call them and ask how they need things done. They'll tell you.

Good luck and have fun,

M

ps- sorry about your bad heat pump.
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I had a condensor coil from a rooftop unit. I took my sawzall and went down the ends where the copper loops are and cut straight down on both ends. Now it was all aluminum and I got the aluminum price. Took about 20 min to cut and pick up the copper pieces and put in a box and load the coil. I got about $40 for the coil and the coppper is in the copper barrel. Retirement fund.
garyg
16 years ago
Below is a previous post from another thread:

RE: 2 Goodman heat pumps for the price of 1 'name' brand unit
Posted by garyg (My Page) on Fri, Jul 6, 07 at 13:26

I finally got around to taking the old coils to a local metals recycler. I cut as much copper off the coils as possible and I separated the copper from the coils - I'm glad that I did. The outside coil turned out to be all aluminum and was worth 50 cents/pound to the recycler. The copper/aluminum inside coil was also worth 50 cents/pound. The copper was worth $2/pound. I received a total of $52 for all of the metal, enough for 3 cases of Yuengling or Molson Golden.

Scrap a Heat Pump

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don_b_1

marknmt

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