I do not have any experience, but with some research and touching and feeling them and searching the forums here, our fridge in our 2010 remodel will definitely be a Miele. Is it wrong to love a fridge so much??? ;)

I have the Miele 30" fridge / 18" freezer columns. If you do a search, you will find comments on the units. Things I like: the way the doors swing open widely; (I have mine next to the oven and accidently marred the wood on the frieezer by closing the oven door while the freezer was open - oops), great lighting, drawers glide easily in the fridge, nice sleek look, there is plenty of room for items - but shelves are a bit high for me, though it is easy to look up through the glass and spy the needed item on the top shelf. I like the idea of the compressor on the bottom away from your ears. I do have a bit of an issue with the freezer making noise - either the ice maker or the fan at times is loud. The fride is relatively silent. The freezer is to my way of thinking small, the ice tray is really small, but the ice maker takes a fair bit of space. I have a second freezer in the garage otherwise I would need something bigger than the 18". Overall I'm satisfied. I didn't go with the subz as I wanted the compressor on the bottom, and I was steered away from the thermador columns. I have other miele appliances and the reputation for service is good.

Very reputable dealer advises that the new Meile fridges are made by same manufacturer that makes the Leibherr. At a lower cost. Hanldes are different, hinges are the new soft close on the Miele and not the leibherr, and warranty period is different ( 1 yr Meile vs 2 year Leibherr) and bot definitely look very very close if not identical in appearance.

In our remodel for our new house, we considered the Miele, as well as the Thermador columns and the Sub Zero BI series. We approached the decision w/o any biases: we had a SZ in our previous house and we loved it, my brother has the Thermador columns and he loves them, and we've had Miele products in the past and we also loved them.

We chose the SZ, but for a very odd reason. The SZ has its grill at the top; the Miele and Thermador have it on the bottom. One of our dogs and one of our cats shed terribly--we are constantly vacuuming dust bunnies (with our trusty Miele vacuum). I just felt that having the grill on the bottom was asking for trouble or, at the very least, a whole lot of "check filter" warnings.

Macrosox

Your dealer is so of the mark its unreal. I should check with another dealer for the correct info

Macrosox,
Run, don't walk, to a new dealer. It's pretty obvious that the one you mention doesn't have a clue to who's building what.

The Miele, Thermador, Gaggenau, and Bosch built in refrigerators all come from the BSH factory in Turkey.
Mechanically they are all the same unit with different user interfaces and interiors.

The Miele boxes come from the same factory as the BSH, but Miele claim to make their own electronics, and I think they said they do final assembly in Germany. There are some significant design differences.

Miele has a 2 year warranty if you have an authorized installer put it in. There are a lot of fine technical adjustments. It's worth it.

BTW, if you have a wi-fi hooked up to the 'net, your Miele freezer will call you if you leave it open, and it'll phone home (to the factory) if it gets sick.

I chose the Miele over the SZ for opposite reasons to Canuck. I liked the height and width, and really like that there isn't all that door storage. I like the deeper shelves, and especially the full depth lower drawers.

The 30" width worked a lot better for me than SZ's offerings too, and I like the way the shelves adjust. The real kicker is the hinges that open out and away so you get fully flush and can still open the door wide.

"Very reputable dealer advises that the new Meile fridges are made by same manufacturer that makes the Leibherr."

So much for his reputation. HE IS DEAD WRONG ON THIS ACCOUNT.

The NEW Miele fridges are made on contract for Miele by their competitor Bosch in a brand new factory operation in Turkey. These units also are produced for Thermador, Gaggenau , and Bosch's lable though it's been retired recently in the U.S.

We'll excuse his ignorance as Liebherr used to manufacture Miele's European units for the Euro and Asian markets.

Does anyone have thoughts/information about Miele vs. Thermador refrigerator columns? I have been told by multiple appliance sales folks that they, along with similar Gaggenau units, are made by the same factory in Turkey and are "the same" except for the interior detailing. (Interestingly I got a completely different story from the Miele rep at the Miele showroom in San Francisco, who claimed that Miele columns were made entirely by Miele, had different control systems, better refrigeration, maintenance-free function, etc. Who knows what to believe?)

Anyway, in comparison to the Miele unit, Thermador is a bit less expensive and has one large gallon size door bin, while Miele only has the 1/2 gallon size. It also has somewhat sleeker shelves, which might make it easier to get stuff on and off. But I don't want to give up superior refrigeration and service. Anyone have intel on this? Or Gaggenau fridges and freezers?

Thanks for any help you can give.

"Who knows what to believe"

Not this guy!

"better refrigeration" - ask him how it's better EXACTLY and which components are different. He won't be able tell you.

"maintenance-free function" - except for the water filters.
Ask him what maintence needs to be done on the Gaggi and T'dor units?

Ask him which Miele factory produces THESE fridges.

Ask him which factory produces their European and Asian market fridges. It has typically been Liebherr.

Ask him if they make the Gaggenau and Thermador fridges. When he says no ask him why they look so very similar. If he says yes , ask him why he's full of crap.

Ask him why Gaggenau has a longer warranty if Miele's is so much better.

Ask him which factory produces their coffee systems.

Ask him how these factories in countries other than Germany square with Miele's long held policy of keeping THEIR factories in Germany. Hint- they are not MIELE factories.

Antss - I always like to read your posts, because they are so informed and informative. However, I am scratching my head over this latest one. Your post just left me in suspense over what are the answers to all those questions you listed. I therefore am requesting, on behalf of people following this thread who have no plans to go with Snewzy to revist those various salespeople, can you provide the answers to the questions you assigned to Snewzy to ask? I find the whole Gaggenau/Thermador/Miele fridge situation very tangled. TIA.

It's been awhile since I looked at Therm and Gagg. I'm talking about the columns only not the bottom freezer units. I believe that the Gagg did have fancier features than the Therm. I don't know if the Therm has the temperature controlled drawer. Gagg has the stainless interior, and will take the super heavy door if you want to put a tree on the front. But I don't remember the specifics.

Miele does have their base units made in the Turkey factory. My understanding is that they finish them in Germany with their own electronics, etc. The Miele will take about the same weight on the door as Gagg. The drawers in the fridge can each have their temperature set independently (I don't know about the others).

Miele probably does have a different control system, but unless they're using different compressors, evaporators and insulation, which is doubtful, I don't know how they could have "better" refrigeration. Both Miele and Gagg (don't know about Therm) have controls for countering the cold loss when you open the door a lot or have it open for awhile. Maybe "better" is if Gagg only has 2 zones (I don't know) and Miele has three?

Personally, I like the water filter and think it's worth the bother.

The Miele freezer also has "super cool" where you can "pre-cool" the freezer to lower than normal (hours ahead of time) so that if you want to freeze soup or a bunch of chickens or something you won't raise the temperature of the freezer above what's good for the rest of what's in there.

Miele units have door alarms if they're left open, and they'll phone you if you let them talk to your internet wi-fi.

I don't know how these features stack up against the BSH, but they're just features. Even my 25-year-old, broken Kenmore kept the food cold and the ice cubes frozen.