How much do scrappers make for a water heater ac unit?

the items mentioned are only worth a few dollars each, because in the scrap industry all these things are considered"contaminated", which means they must be disassembled into parts and the parts stored with like parts until sent away for recycling. For instance, the washer has enameled steel outside and possibly inside if the drum is also enameled. If the drum is stainless steel, that is a separate grade from "white ware" the name given to enameled steel. Then there's the copper windings in the motor, the aluminum housing of the gear box, etc. It takes a man time to dismantle a washing machine, the man has to be paid for that time, and the scrap yard has to sell the dismantled machine as scrap metal and make a profit. So if he gets $25 for all the scrap in the washer, why should he pay you more than a couple of dollars for something he now must spend time and money to make salable as scrap metal.

I just took a water heater and mini fridge not too long ago and got $12...was better than nothing, or worse yet paying our local trash collection place $15 each to take them.

You can call your local scrap yard and ask what they give a pound of scrap. My son has done this a few times and needs to have the truck busting at the seams of the bed, meaning scrap tucked into every space to make a hundred bucks. So those 3 items you mentioned aren't that much money. The scrapyards are pretty good at estimating the prices for you.