My kitchen isn't much bigger than yours. I went with Bertazzoni range, Miele DW & Liebherr fridge. Very happy with all and they were appropriate for size and location. I think choices depend on emotion/use, what fits, what's expected in the building and other real estate stuff. If you're going for energy star remember about the rebates.

IMO Miele dw is that much better but also feel that applies to the Liebherr and Berta. The Liebherr self-defrosts -- it's against the wall and no problem opening. Best fridge ever.

There are a few brands that offer 24 inch 4-burner ranges -- Blue Star and I think American (?).

Fridges

- Summit is not a manufacturer but just a trade company that rebadges goods coming from several different contractors, who may change time by time

- Fagor-Brandt is a spanish-french corporate, not so common in my country, so can't comment. reviews from ciao.co.uk

- Liebherr. A couple of years ago I got a 24" x 24" x 78" stainless steel one with no frost freezer and fridge fan too. I saved round 200 euro on the very same fridge badged Miele (yes, Miele outsources 24" fridges from Liebherr). Silent, have had any problem till now and enjoy the pleasure to forget what "defrost" means.

Dishwasher - can't comment GE not available here

I could not replace our stoneage miele with a new one, cause ten years ago here stainless steel door mieles weren't available here. So I got an AEG. My brother did the same a couple of years ago, while my sister got a Miele last month. To cut a long story short there is no comparison (quietness, wash performance); next one I'll go back to Miele
Moreover the 3rd cutlery rack leaves more free place in the lower rack. this is very important in a 18" dishwasher

HTH

Rococogirl - I looked at the Bertazzoni, but really sort of want a 30" range. I may concede this at some point, but I like a nice sized oven. I've read on the forum that the Berta ovens can be a little finicky. Have you had any issues with the oven (in terms of uneven baking)? The Liebherr is beautiful, but twice as much as most any other refrigerator of its size. But it sounds like it was worth it to you and that you are happy with it. Do you feel like it is worth what you paid? Were you able to find it for a decent price? My dilemma in expense is that, while I'm living in a nice building, I'm not sure it will support a really high-end renovation. So hard to know what to do in that regard....

Sayde - I sort of want a 30' - do you think that is a mistake?

Hidroman - Thanks for the link to the Brandt reviews. People here seem to love them (though they haven't been here very long). I WISH I could save 200 Euro on a Liebherr :-) As for the dishwasher, it sounds like a lot of people love their Mieles! Noise isn't that much of a consideration to me (I'll just run it when I'm asleep or at work), but the cutlery tray has been the one thing that makes me wonder whether it truly is worth paying twice the price of a GE.

My NYC kitchen is about the same size as yours, tkingny. I struggled between Kenmore and Miele 18" DW and chose Kenmore in the end because of the price. Can't say I've been happy with Kenmore (btw, it's very similar to GE model). It didn't work right out of the box, we had 4 visits from the repairman, but now it works well. My main issue with it is the noise, which I didn't expect based on the specs. If I had to choose again, I would go with Miele.

I've never seen the GE; it probably wasn't available when we bought our Miele. I love the 3rd rack; it is great for items too small on the lower racks. If the GE has exposed coils and/or you can't load the center, I would definitely say it is not worth the price break. For our family of three, the 18" Miele is a much better option than a full size DW since it gets run more often so we have virtually no hand washing of frequently used items. True, it was annoying that we had to spend as much as if we had purchased a 24" Miele, but I think the difference is not so much if you amortize . . .

Hi. My galley kitchen is 7 x 8, so I feel your pain. I went with the Fagor fridge, the 24" Berta and the GE 18" DW. The NXR is beautiful. Search Fagor in this forum and you will find a recent thread on 24" refrigerators.

nxr is high output and a very large oven. Best with a hood of some sort. Most comfortable if kitchen has a window -- just look at burner design. Berta has varied burner size and an oven with storage hatch below so it's not as tall. I don't need a huge oven (no vent). Burners have great control. Lights like my old stove - electric igniters so I'm used to those but some don't like them. I like the continuous grate across the top so the whole surface is usable. Downside is oven dial is imprecise. I adjust to an oven thermometer but it does a great job. Sounds like you want nxr.

24" makes some sense but I had a 30" range in a 7 foot kitchen with no window. Hot but who uses the oven in summer anyway.

Unless you want to do high end kitchen reno no sense in going Miele and Liebherr. Joyce has a thought with the Fagor fridge. Not sure who else makes 18" dws but Guadalupe will know offhand.

I've used Krups 11 W 18 twice now. With them, best to go in person.

18" DW's are also available from Bosch, Haier, Danby, Fridgemore, and Smeg.

Small fridges can be had from LG, Blomberg,and Kuppersbusch as well. If you want to splurge the SubZero 700tci is not much wider at 27".

You might also consider a single dishdrawer from Fisher Paykel and or Smeg.

Re: the wine fridge. You simply don't have the room with 49 sq. ft of space. This is a vanity purchase as anything in this size an budget is just a glorified fridge. Store your whites in the 24" and get a decanter or aerator to have a show for the red snobs.

If I had a really small kitchen, I'd look into induction (range or cooktop). The cooking surface can serve as a counter/prep surface much more easily than gas and it works a heck of a lot better than standard electric.

Thanks, everyone for your input!

Antss: I knew about the LG and Blomberg (I think Summit makes one as well). People seem to love their LG, but I worry that it might be a little too small. Are the Blomberg/Summitt pretty reliable? Any idea which of all of the 24" refrigerators are the quietest? I'm not totally opposed to paying more - I think I just want to know that it's worth the premium.

I should have clarified on the wine refrig. I'm doing a pass-thru to my DR/LR and will have cabinets built in on the other side of the pass thru. I have a small Cuisinart wine cellar right now (my apartment tends to get warm during the day, because I don't run my AC when I go to work), so my red wines sometimes go bad in my apartment. Anyway, I could continue to use my small Cuisinart, but was considering building one in the LR side. I would only do it if I could find one that was really inexpensive - otherwise, I would prefer to spend the money on better appliances....

Joycedc - I'm starting to get more and more interested in the Fagor. My big dilemma for the 24' refrigerators is what to do about ice (except for the Liebherr). Is there a dedicated place to store ice trays, or do you have to try to balance them in to one of those drawers (and hope you don't spill)? Also, how do you like the GE DW?

Does anyone know much about the 18" Bosch DW?

one of the original questions was which fridges were frost free. I'll presume you meant that you wouldn't have to defrost the freezer manually. Those mentioned in post #1 all are like that. Except for some of the many Summit fridges which you will find on their website. Summit is not just one fridge.

If you want passive cooling in the fridge, instead of air circulating in the fridge portion, you can find it in several: the Liebherr, one of the Blomberg fridges and at least one of the Summit fridges, the CP-171. I don't know whether the GE is passive or air-circulating in the fridge. Passive cooling is better at keeping organic stuff fresh. I mean the kind of organic stuff that is not hermetically sealed. I got an LG and although it circulates air in the fridge, it keeps fresh food fresh a long time (weeks!). I don't buy much that is highly packaged.

Can't tell you which is the quietest - one would have to have all of them to tell you and that's a lot of fridges.

From my experience Liebherr, Miele and the BSH cousins are among the least noisy fridges I run across in any #. SZ's new BI series is not far behind. The JennAir sXs built ins were really quiet a few years back but they don't have anything your size.

Liebherr has a very small built in wine cooler that is top notch you may want to look at, and FisherPaykel has a cooling drawer that can be used as a wine cooler or freezer or fridge. It's fairly wide though.

The ice making situation with the Fagor is pretty much a joke. It comes with an ice tray which can best be described as Baby's First Ice Tray. The tray does fit safely across any of the 3 drawers and there is a storage compartment for the tiny cubes. I tried to find a picture but was unsuccessful. If you go to the AJ Madison site, look up the Fagor, go to the owner's manual, on page 12 you will see a very crude drawing of the ice tray. I believe the tray produces 12 tiny cubes. I'm not a big ice user, so that didn't impact my decision. I have kept the tray in a cupboard and have used it maybe twice. When I've had lots of people over ("lots" being relative in my small condo!) I buy bagged ice and use ice buckets.

Seeing your interest in wine, did you know the Fagor does comes with a wine rack inside? I don't drink wine, so I ditched that and use the top shelf set at the higest level as my beverage center. Perfect for holding cans of soda, beer, and the 10 oz water bottles I purchase. I have stashed a bottle of wine there when needed as well.

I like the GE DW. It cleans my dishes which is all I ask. It holds a lot. Compared to the antique I had which sounded like a Mack truck was revving its engine in my old kitchen, the GE is quiet. Not whisper quiet like the bigger, better, more expensive DWs, but it does not inhibit in person conversation and when I'm talking on the phone while it is in use, no one has said, "Is that your dishwasher running in the background?" The cycle is long (maybe 1.75 hours?), but I think that is the nature of an 18" DW. I may be wrong on that score.

Hope this helps.

Joyce

Bosch 18" fully integrated DW : inside it is almost the same of this one

Both Miele and Bosch are that quiet

This is Smeg 18" fully integrated DW . Smeg has a unique system called {{gwi:1395875}} to recover the main issue in 18" dishwashers.

I mean spray arms draw a circle when they spin. Now draw the biggest possible circle inside a 24" x 24" square and another biggest possible one inside a 18" x 24" rectangle. In the rectangle corners are farer from the circle ----> spray arms are less effective in 18" machines .

Smeg system recovers this issues cause the lower spray arm centerpost traslates so to spray even corners

Do refrigerators post DBA measurements like dishwashers do?

I'm in the same small appliance boat and trying to pick between the Summit CP 171 and the Liebherr. My bedroom is only a wall away from the kitchen so the price savings on the Summit wouldn't make up for a refrigerator that I can hear in the dead of night.
The old GE top freezer model that came with the house works but it's noisy; hence my looking to replace it.

wolfgang - I'd invest in sound attenuation for your walls and a solid door long before obsessing about which fridge was a few db quieter than another. That will give you good noise abatement no matter what/which appliance you choose.

The Summit you mentioned is branded as Summit by Summit. It's the same fridge as one of the Vestfrost (350 or 375 or ...) which has also been rebranded by ConServ and two other companies that I've almost never heard of.

Why am I telling you this, and why is it relevant?

I heard this machine in operation. That is why I'm telling you all the names it goes under. The ones I heard were two versions (newer and older) of the same fridge or almost the same. They hadn't changed compressors.

I was really impressed. They were quiet, to me. They were new and almost new demonstrators and no longer new used models used in the distributor's company kitchen. I spent so much time there listening to the fridges and getting down on the floor studying things, that the office manager bulldog chick tried to have me leave and never come back. She failed. I came back with my wife as protection, and we spent hours studying the fridges as a couple.

So I think you can be satisfied about noise and quiet.

Does your fridge startup noise disturb you today when you are sleeping?
Ditto what antss said about isolating your room from the kitchen.

I purchased 2 GE Profile dishwashers (for 2 homes) two years ago. They are so quiet that you have to put your ear next to them to hear if they are running. You can hear the water draining through the pipes when it empties, but if you put the sink stopper in it blocks the sound. I've been very pleased. Mine are the standard 24" DW so I don't know if that makes a difference. One is installed in a Great Room and the other on a ceramic floor in an open kitchen and I'm really pleased with how quiet they are.

Thanks everyone - this is so helpful. I just love GardenWeb - everyone here is just great!

Joycedc - bummer about the ice. I actually use ice pretty frequently. I don't suppose you can use regular ice trays and slide them in one of the drawers without making a huge mess, right?

hidroman - Smeg is a new one on me! I will check it out.

Your could use regular sized trays, it would simply reduce the amount of space for other frozen items. Is there a place where you can go check out the Fagor in person? If so, take a couple of ice trays with you and see what you think. Maybe turning the top drawer into an ice station would work for you.

Tkinghy can you let us know what you ended up with? I am on that impossible narrower/quiet fridge hunt now! (I've decided on the bosch 18' dw, I think)