Here is my "Built in and panelled Fridge.
It is not completely hidden as that was not one of our
goals. Our goals were wood panelling, along with it's much easier upkeep than stainless steel. It does not have any gills showing, and the works as well as the water filter are in that top compartment---makes it very easy for routine maintenace (vacuuming condensor and changing filter, once/year.

A truly integrated fridge would not show the SS around the doors as ours does.

Good luck with your decisions!!

Gary

Here is a company that specialized in fully integrated appliances. Look through some of the pictures, you can't tell they are appliances until the doors get opened.

Here is a link that might be useful: fully integrated appliances

This is my built-in fully integrated fridge (Thermador Freedom). Two people have visited my kitchen for the first time in the past few days and have been completely surprised that this was a refrigerator---they thought it was a cabinet and the fridge was in a different room!

med22 - you have a goo handle on the genre.

A built in means exactly that, you've got to put it in and fasten it to some cabinetry. A free standing can be placed a and use din the center of your room if you like. Also, a built in does not always accept panels - a large percentage actually have stainless steel doors.

A built in will ALMOST ALWAYS have a carcass depth of 24" and will not have finished sides like a free standing. This is the biggest visual difference;. Now, after the 24" carcass, a manuf. can out a door that takes a 3/4" panel, or a 1/4" panel or both, or put on a Stainless Steel door that is 1/2" thick or 3" .

It's this door that makes the built-in grow past the 24". Counter depth varies too, we do a lot of flush countertops which means the fridge needs to fit in a 24 3/4" to 25" depth if we want it flush! We have also done some built up ogee edged counters that have an 1 1/2" overhang giving lots of room for fridge depth.

If you choose a model like dodge's and have framed cabinets like he does , then you'll get a fairly "flush" install. If on the other hand you have euro/frameless cabinets and chose a subzero 600 series (discontinued) with a stainless door your fridge would protrude almost 2" from the face of the cabinets.

Fully integrated is totally concealed, no toekick , no grille, not trim, no vents visible, like honeychurch's.

Thanks for all the responses. I went to an appliance store and the saleperson was able to actually show me the difference on several models. I saw the SZ BI48 and while it was panelled, the panels had a small border of stainless around it and the door sides showed since it was not truly flush with the cabinets. He told me you can get around that by pulling cabs forward and adding 1/2" on sides of panel. I then looked at SZT36 which he called fully integrated. I know that is debatable for some since the bottom grille still shows.

In any event, it was really helpful to see the difference in person. Gary your pic of the Jenn Air was helpful too. It is tough to tell from the angle of the pic, but do your doors protrude and is the border of stainless around the panels actually the door sides?

So it seems from past posts and my research, that if I really want fully flush/integrated fridge, I should be looking at Thermador and Miehle. SZ is close except for the bottom grille. Fridges classified as Built in are not fully flush.

Again thanks for the info

Maureen

OK Maureen, I have more pictures, from different angles, I will have to put them up on Flickr then bring them over here. As you can see, ours shows "No Gills" either at the top or the bottom (I'll show the bottom later).

Lining up the wood on the front of the fridge, with the adjacent cabinet doors, It looks like the fridge "Might" stand out (protrude) about a half inch from the cabinet doors (hard to tell, as it's not much.

The border of stainless is actually part of the doors, some of that could probably be hidden by "trim strips there", but back in 2005-2006 we didn't see any "Truly Integrated (Hidden) fridges, so we made no attempt to hide or disguise ours. As we mentioned we had Stainless steel before, Fridge and DW, and both were more work to keep spotless that we wanted to do again, hense the wood.
As you can see from the kitchen pics, we have nuff wood in there, so I dont mind, a bit, how the stainless breaks it up a bit---but just our preferences.

ok bblb with some more pics!

Gary

Here's a pic of my Miele fully integrated fridge. The cabs are full overlay so just 1/16" between the doors on those and we achieved the same with the fridge.

I have a piece for the toe but we haven't put it on for some reason yet (not sure if that is DH's or the GC's fault :)

OK here is one "Side shot" of the built in Jenn-air.

Here's a shot from the other side.

Gary

Thanks Gary...those help a lot. It does not look like the fridge sticks out at all.

Not to us, anyway, Well Congradulations!!! You just graduated from "Built In Fridge Academy"

Good luck on your future purchase!

Gary

Between built in and integrated seems to me the goal is to gain the best cabinet look?. Does the built in provide better operation for frig? Why would you choose built in over intergrated? Thanks

The issue is purely aesthetic. Nothing whatsoever to do with operation of the fridge.
You choose one over the other to get the look you want. I have a built in fridge, not integrated. No cabinet panels.

I think there is a cost difference between the two and either way you hope for no repairs. If Gary had replaced his fridge door handles with cabinet handles the fridge would be barely noticeable. The depth of the fridge or the depth of the surrounding cabinetry determines how much the fridge will will stick out, if at all.

Agree really a preference. We are going with DACOR Discovery integrated cabinet front ready, compressor on the bottom.
Extra cabinets are installed on top so we thought best to put compressor on bottom. Plus you do not see it.
Never owned built in or integrated. So we are new to all this. Thanks for help

I think those new Dacors are made by Fhiaba. I haven't seen any Fhiaba reviews, please post back here with a review once you've had it for a while.

What I've read it has 5 star rating. Made USA in CA.so the interior is has a different look.plus blue light freshness.
I like it because it is hard to find a exterior door without the ice dispenser. We have wood floors and kids. We have the DACOR
Appliances and the past service has been very good. Call DACOR.com if you have questions. It's my first integrated refrigerator. I called many times and they were helpful.
Gold Purchase ...Discovery refrigerator plus Handles You get 2 additional appliance choices. I'm not exactly sure pricing but it was what we were looking for in a package.

The other thing I should have mentioned, (although I hinted at it), is the ease of maintenance and repair with the works on top. If you have long haired pets, as we do, (3 cats), then with the works on the bottom you are going to be cleaning out the condenser more often.

Now how do I know about that?, Well our Wine Fridge, with its guts on the floor needs to be cleaned a lot more often, than does the big fridge. Also at our ages, Mid 70's, it's a lot easier to clean that "which is up" as opposed to getting down on hands and knees, removing the cover over the wine fridge filter and then whilst still on hands and knees, vacuuming the thing out! I thinks I will train our cleaning lady on how to do it, as last time it took me a half hour to "get vertical", after cleaning that succer!!!!!!!

Gary

Marcydc. Nice job you can't tell it's a refrigerator.

What I've read it has 5 star rating. Made USA in CA.so the interior is has a different look.plus blue light freshness

That fridge is definitely not made in the USA and Dacor has never made any fridges in-house in California. They only make cooking products in-house. The rest of their products are sourced from other manufacturers. Their previous line of fridges was made by Whirlpool elsewhere in the USA but those are now discontinued.

5 star rating? According to whom? Those fridges have barely been out long enough for anyone to leave reviews.

I like it because it is hard to find a exterior door without the ice dispenser.

I have never seen any integrated fridge with an exterior ice dispenser. That would defeat the whole point...

hvt - Gaggenau & Thermador's all freezer column units have the option of through the door ice.

I agree that it defeats the whole point if fully integrated though.

Oops. Lol I've never seen anyone actually buy one.

Still, integrated fridges without exterior dispensers aren't exactly something that you need to go far and wide to search for...

DACOR is made in Ca. Family owned business.
Nice refrigerator for the price. Not made by anyone but DACOR.
We have been very happy with performance.

Sorry 61612- you are simply mis-informed !!!

Dacor is a family owned business and headquarter in Cali

- BUT -

They don't manufacture their fridges there !

or their microwave

or their wine station

or their wine cellar

or their dishwasher

or their cookware..............in fact they don't make those products themselves AT ALL ! And their fridges are made by two different manuf. too boot.

When they did try to build a DW in house , it was a colossal failure !

and if you're connected to the inner circle - tell em their website navigation sux. May just be the worst in the business.

Where did you hear this stuff from to begin with ???

lemme guess - your local sales weasel spun you a great story about an apple pie American family company and you ate it up ?

We've done a few kitchens with them hvt - usually along with trash compactors . Remember those ???

Some people just want what they're used to, even if they are moving up.

Xedos who makes their wine station? Also they did update their website pretty recently.

61612 I'm confused... earlier it sounds like you were considering this fridge, but now it seems like you already have it?

Napa something or another, I've forgotten. They've had the thing in restaurants/ bars for a decade or more.

Having redone the site doesn't make it better.

We have a DACOR kitchen building a another home
Purchasing new appliances. A package is important to us
Never owned an integrated refrigerator /built in Nor a compressor on top or bottom. DACOR service has been good. We had a small spot on oven door. Service arrived shortly and replaced door.

Package "deals" short you in functionality. If you never cook, you won't likely care. If you actually do cook, scuttle the package and go best in class for each function. I wouldn't do Dacor for anything. Not if I expected any type of support from a existing company. They are not long for this world.

You're really digging in deep now 61612.

You'll find no love of "packages" from the crowd here.

And you still haven't answered about where you're getting this rubbish info . Hope they're giving you a BIG package discount for your advertorial.

Is Dacor really at risk of going out of business?

That's news to me ! What's the story?

Or have you "read on the internet" ?

It was in response to Sophie's comment "They are not long for this world"

.......read on the internet, knew it.

Questionable products being inaccurately over hyped by sales weasels never bodes well for a company that has such a small market share to begin with. Sure, it's speculative, but it ain't based on a stupid guess either.

Makes sense... I never see them being installed in my area, and I rarely hear people talk about them on here.

They will maintain the status quo.

Sales weasels hype the flavor of the month to suit them. I see it happen with industry darlings miele and wolf/sz too !

Even viking has managed to remain afloat.