I have had the stainless steel version of the Liebherr 36" French door model for over 3 years and am very pleased with it (quiet, energy efficient, well laid-out, cocktail style ice cubes). Regarding the wide drawer: It does require opening both doors to extend it but; there are also two drawers that can be extended individually with only one door open. It's nice to have the wide drawer when needed for larger items.

In our remodel, we replaced our 42" SZ side by side with the SZ 36" French door. We love it. We looked at the Liebherr but thought that the finish of the SZ was better. Also, the Liebherr top shelf is very high and that bothered me.

Thank you for the feedback! I know I've looked at all of these models at some point in the last few months, but it all runs together after awhile, and owner and real life feedback is priceless. I'm going to head out this afternoon to look again at heights, layouts, etc. I want to really like the french door models. The fridge will be very visible from the living area, and will be in the background of our casual eating area, so a nice integration is important. I am in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area, so service should be available, but I'll specifically check regarding the Liebherr.
I'm only recently familiar with the Liebherr brand. Anybody have thoughts on long-term reliability of these new Liebherr models and/or customer service? I'm *planning* on having whatever fridge I buy *forever*...

from what i was told and researched, leibhr has been making frigs for a very long time, longer than sz.
that's what they are known for..so when i read that and was told, i felt alot more comfortable going with them.
they are not as known in the states as in europe..so i had to do some research on GW and elsewhere.

we just couldn't justify the price difference between lebhr and sz and miele.

i am NOT a SS girl and knew from the beginning i wanted the frig paneled...so it did limit our choices from the beginning.

hoping we get "forever" out of ours...keeping fingers crossed & toes!!! :)

Thanks again all! Your feedback is helping so much.

sprtphntc - I found a Liebherr hcb2062 to look at. I liked the layout, and appreciate you sharing your research and experience with this fridge model. I don't know whether I will end up doing the SubZero or the Liebherr, but I am convinced that either will work well for us. Also convinced that my toes and fingers will be cramping from all of the crossing in their future!

Best regards, Ott2

ott2

good luck with your decision. i am sure either will fit your bill. they are both quality frigs's.
its such a big $$$ purchase, but after all said and done it was worth it for us. we really do love it.
keep us posted on your decision.

i hear you about the cramping..haha :)

take care, e.

We just bought a Liebherr CS2062 and already have had to have service, which parts have been ordered. It is a 36 FD bottom freezer. I bought this expensive refrigerator because I was told how quiet it is, well it runs 30 minutes on, then 30 minutes off, then 30 minutes on, then 10 minutes off, these cycles are fairly quite, then it runs for an hour to an hour and ten minutes and it sounds like angry bees. I am told that it is probably the circulating fans. The service person, which as far as I was concerned was an ass, said well that's the way it is, but I will order new fans and will not promise anything. At this rate our power bill should be outrageous. Has anyone else had these problems? I now have frozen vegetables in the vegetable drawer. Bio Fresh means frozen I guess.

Welcome to my dilemma! I really really want the Liebherr, but service issues concern me (i.e. getting parts and a qualified tech).

Vicki, does the Liebherr come with any kind of warranty? I am drawn to the biofresh drawers, mostly because my current fridge freezes produce and I can't stand it!!

It has a great warranty, one of the best . My caveman service person was just here yesterday. Put the new fan in and I finally have a quiet refrigerator. I do have to say I thought the service guy was beating the refrigerator up when he was working on it, but it works. Oops the circulating fan just made a funny noise, but then it stopped. We will see with the next cycle. My problem is I live out of their service area, so Liebherr pays extra for service people to come out here, which might be a problem later on when my warranty is up. The service guy did tell me, he hardly ever has to do service work on the Liebherr's, maybe one per year. That is a good sign. I am hopping this is just an isolated incident. Keep you fingers crossed. I do love the refrigerator.

Keep us posted on the fix...I too am still considering these and would love a follow up from you Vicki!

So far so good on the CS2062, it is much quieter, but I would not call this a quite refrigerator, but I do hear that Sub-Zero is much noisier. My concern now is it runs constantly. It is only the two of us and do not open the refrigerator much. I did put my old Jenn-Aire in the garage, and my new electric bill is almost $40 higher which, I think is high, so I will be calling service again regarding the constant running.

We installed a Thermador T36IB800SP recently and have been really happy with it. Fully integrated, and very quiet. Less expensive than Sub-Zero, and we liked the interior a lot more than the Liebherrs (and Sub-Zero to be honest).

Not that this directly answers the original Sub-Zero vs. Liebherr question, but if you're not dead set on those two only, check out the Thermador.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thermador T36IB800SP

Just an update. Have not had any additional service problems and I do really love the looks of the refrigerator and it does keep the food fresh and is easy to clean. We have no problems with the ice maker, it does seem to take awhile to make ice but works great. I have noticed that our energy bills are a bit lower the opposite than what I thought considering that I think this fridge runs all the time. Still love it.

We recently bought a floor model Liebherr CS2062 and are very happy with it so far. The installers couldn't get it out of demo mode, but Liebherr got back to us very promptly to resolve the issue. The Thermador wasn't an option for us because our fridge is at the end of the cabinet run and so we needed a model with SS finished sides. The fridge is very quiet; the only thing we hear is the water filling the ice maker. It also produces way more ice than we can use in a day, something I had been concerned about after reading some of the comments here.

" from what i was told and researched, leibhr has been making frigs for a very long time, longer than sz.
that's what they are known for..so when i read that and was told, i felt alot more comfortable going with them. "

This is totally incorrect !

In fact the opposite is Actually true,

Liebherr started out manufacturing cranes after WWII and are best known for Heavy Construction Machines like excavators and dump trucks larger than the size of American McMansions. The fridge business cam later is still sort of a sideline business.

SubZero on the other hand predates Liebherr by 5-6 years and started out in the fridge business and only made fridges until their acquisition of Wolf at the turn of the century.

The Liebherr's plastic interior is a lot more flimsy than in competitors' built ins and the toekick detail is not as good if you plan on running your cabinet toekick in front of the fridge.

Also, the freezer drawers are not quite as deep or pullout as far as do the SZ ones.

All and all, not a bad unit, but there are differences that justify the lower price.

While I like Liebherr's use of variable speed compressors, which is of course more modern than the granny or great granny's on/off compressor that SZ uses, one should read the posts about having to pour some cleaning fluid or whatever down some pipe on a regular basis on the Liebherrs.

To me, thats like oiling the push rods on one of those old Buick engines, Certainly not in step with our modern times, "Ya thinks"?

Too bad they don't make the Jenn-airs like they did mine, (2006 before Whirlpool bought them). Variable speed compressor, and my only maintenance is change the water filter once/year, alto I have not done that for a year and a half, since the fridge is now fed whole house softened water.

Gary

Well, just had to make another call for service and I thought things were going so well. Called on Monday, girl said we will order the part and Value Appliance will call you in a day to set up an appointment. Waited two days and called back. Talked to Judy, someone forgot to order the part or put the service call in, she gave me a dispatch number and said she would mail me the part and Value Appliance would call me. I called back on today, which is Friday, talked to Jesus, he says oh, your service has been rejected, hmm don't understand why, I will call you back. I wait an hour and called back, now I am talking to someone else who still cannot figure out what it going on, I asked to talk to the service manager. Wait on hold for thirty minutes, called from my husbands phone, now I am talking to Mike. Seems Value Appliance will not service the product, now they are looking for someone else to service the fridge. They will call back within two hours. They are looking for someone in the San Francisco Area, that is a good three hours from here. WTF So I am still waiting for a call. I now have newspapers and paper towels under the vegetable keeper that keeps icing up and then defrosting so water can run out of the french doors onto to my new $13K bamboo floors. I am not happy. Do not buy this refrigerator,

OH DEAR!!! That does not sound like a good advertisement for Liebherr -- I was grown up to believe that german technology was second to none. I have had my Sub-zero for over 25 years with only one issue. As the kids are gone and there is just me, I think I don't need a 36 inch refrigerator though, a 24" should do. I have had Miele, Bosch for smaller appliances such as dishwashers and vacuum cleaners with no complaints. I will probably get a Liebherr because I don't want to spend twice as much on a Sub-zero.

"I was grown up to believe that german technology was second to none."

Geeze, I wished you could have taught the 2 mercedes Benzes that I owned that!!!!!

After about 10 years of keeping the Service Dept of the Mercedes Benz dealership well financed, I finally got tired of that, and bought a 1993 Cadillac Allante. It has seen the Cadillac Dealer service dept once, and that was to buy and install a battery for it.

I have a friend that still buys Mercedes, and after 70,000 miles gets rid of them as He says that's when the repair expenses start to really escalate!

I did buy a Miele DW, back in 2006, as it was the ONLY DW, back in 2006 that had the 3rd tray, (cutlery rack). It is rarely used, and has been trouble free, whilst my Electrolux Oven, speed oven, Induction cooktop and wine fridge are used all the time, and are alto trouble free. My Jenn-air fridge has only needed 1 repair about $350, since 2006, You cant even talk to an SZ repair man for that (yeah I'm exaggerating just a little) and I doubt you would be able to get much repaired on a Liebherr fridge for that price either.

Moral here, is there are more makes of fridges other than SZ or Liebher. Take a look at some of the Whirlpool products, (Kitchen-Aid, Jenn-air, Whirlpool), Look at some of the GE's. When I had my rentals, I just bought "garden variety fridges", and I never had any problems with them, certainly not the kinds of problems that you see with this new "esoteric Expensive Stuff"!

Gary

Go for SZ. The liebherr draws feel flimsy, ice maker is not user friendly (too man steps) top shelf is inconveniently high and the door lacks the "heft" of the SZ. Doors do not close automatically so the bell frequently is goi off and being annoying. Get the SZ