I totally get the panic. If you're really unsure of your choice and feel way too pushed, get a $200 fridge from Craigslist or the reconditioned appliances store for the meantime. Make sure it's ugly so you'll be eager to get rid of it soon. :)

Are there a lot of lemon Electroluxes? Do they fail within the warranty period? Does everyone online have the problem? Or are there just a lot of complaints because it's a big brand? Have the sufferers had good response from Electrolux?

If you think there's a reasonable chance that it wouldn't be a lemon, get the PERFECT one and an extended warranty. And if it's stainless, leave the blue plastic on to protect it from scratches during the remodel.

You can't beat "PERFECT", but make sure it really is, before you buy. I still have love for the Viking dishwasher that was such a big disappointment. It said it had heated dry. I thought that meant it would dry the dishes. Not so. Operating correctly. So sad. :( It went away. If the only problem with the PERFECT one is that it might stop working (a fault) rather than not work correctly when there is no fault, it sounds like a keeper.

People buy and love Range Rovers and buy new ones after the old ones, even though, if you believe what they say online, they are riddled with repair issues. Individual owners don't have the problem that seems to exist in the aggregate. I hope you similarly love your PERFECT fridge, but that your unit has no issues at all. :)

Too bad it's Saturday now. Most of your perishables are probably dead. I wouldn't panic into buying a high priced replacement. Go to an appliance store and buy the cheapest most basic one you can find as a temporary replacement (something without drawers - an icemaker - etc. - etc.) Then - when you find the one of your dreams at an agreeable price - put the el cheapo in the garage for beer - water - wine - extra storage - etc. We have an el cheapo in our garage that we bought when we were building and living in a rental - and it was a real lifesaver when our main indoor unit died a few years back. FWIW - Sears has "el cheapos" on sale this weekend for under $300 (MLK weekend sale). Robyn

Well, folks, I went with the E-lux. It was head to head combat between the Elux counter depth French door and the 72" KitchenAid counter depth French door. I sure hope it was the right choice. It's being delivered Monday.

Shortrobyn, I blew several mental fuses with obsessive fridge research on the web, both before and after our existing fridge died, and the Elux and KA were the frontrunners, though I had a few other runners-up in mind. I think the reason I pulled the trigger, instead of going with an el cheapo, is because my best local appliance store had the following situation that perfectly coincided with my needs:

* The exact E-lux I liked, 20% off thanks to a combination of a rebate and a floor model/open box situation; AND

* The panel-ready version of the KitchenAid I liked, also about 20% off because someone had ordered it and then changed their mind and it had been sitting in the store's warehouse ever since.

In other words, they DID have BOTH my dream fridges at agreeable prices. Well, "dream" is a bit of a misnomer; if my fridge research has taught me anything, it's that even in the $5000+ category there is no perfect fridge. There are no well-designed, well-made tanks that will last 15-20 years. I don't know, maybe the Miele qualifies, but I'm not sure of that and in any case it's almost two feet taller than I am, which is just not that PRACTICAL... "Honey, could you reach the milk for me again?" Agh.

So anyway, they were both around the same price and both could be delivered no later than Monday, and the KA had the added advantage that we could pick whatever handles we wanted. And therefore I went nuts with mind-numbing hours of additional online fridge research, and in the past two days I visited two appliance stores (one of them twice) to check out everything possible before making the decision, despite having already visited both the Elux and the KA in person at yet another appliance store. Agh.

And yes, Pllog, oh hell yes, we're getting the 5-year extended warranty. All brands of fridges seem to be a little... um... tempestuous, so it just seems wise. The appliance salesman, who could've sold me either one so theoretically he didn't have a reason to push me one way or the other, told me that in his experience Elux had been easier to deal with than KA when problems arose. (Apparently he deals with them for his customers if it's during the warranty period, because this is a little family-run appliance store that's been around forever, not a big-box place). He also claims that the Elux problems--the sucky ice maker (doesn't EVERYONE make a sucky ice maker? So it seems) and the temperature problems--were finally resolved with a new control board a few months back. Oh, I so hope he's right! Anyway, Elux with a warranty, here we come.

Phew! Congrats, Ideagirl. It sounds like you made a great decision. I figure anyone who allcaps "perfect" means it. :)

Congratulations on your first major appliance for your new kitchen! See! The fates are as eager for the new space as you are!

Thank you, Plllog!

I drove myself briefly crazy again this morning when it occurred to me to wonder, "Wait--what if the KA is made from the lower-grade stainless that actually is magnetic?!? Then we wouldn't have to lose the 5000 colorful magnets and random items currently stuck to the fridge in a frenzied fiesta of colorful clutter!" So I went online and breathed a sigh of relief when it was revealed that the KA, like the E-lux, is the normal, non-magnetic stainless.

I don't know why we put ourselves through such angst when it comes to buying appliances! It's not a life-or-death decision! Very strange. But such is life.

This technically isn't our first major appliance for the remodel--I have a Fratelli Onofri range sitting in the dining room waiting to be installed (it's wider than our existing range so won't fit until the remodel is done)--but it will be the first one installed. And then the first one uninstalled when we need to move it out of the kitchen so the floor can be done, haha. But yes, I'll trust that the fates are eager for this to happen.

In case anyone cares, the Elux was installed this afternoon and is totally beautiful and very, very quiet. I wasn't even sure it was on. It took maybe an hour for the fridge to reach the correct temperature (verified with a thermometer we put on a shelf) and a little longer for the freezer. Yay!

Lovely!

And as for those magnets, you can buy or make a magnet board and fasten it to the new fridge with Command tape.