KA is owned by Whirlpool. Thermador, Bosch, Siemens are under one company umbrella.

Remodelfl - just because a company is owned by one entity doesn't mean they don't source products for a competitor. Dacor has done it for years, Miele currently does it with their fridge offerings from Bosch/Siemens. Not really sure if that's what your post is infering though.

Thermador had no fridge offerings a few years ago until they rebadged the Whirlpool models. Their parent BSH went to work on an entirely new global platform that is the current Freedom Collection and now they offer products for Bosch, Gaggenau, Thermador, and Miele. They may have a few other marques in the European markets with the platform too.

Teeski - it's up to you to decide if the $$$ is well spent. The platform is the same, the steel quality is the same. The interface and racking systems are different though and I believe the lighting. You'll also get a better warranty w/ T'dor - in theory.

I wasn't inferring anything... I just may have had my facts wrong. Listen to antss; there's obviously alot of personal knowledge there.

teeski at applianceadvisor.com you can see who owns who and who makes what where. Ask your salesperson to show you the links to get the information at that site. They all know that site.

For all refrigerators and freezers you will see in stores worldwide, the chassis and parts are almost all shared, standardized, available from the same manufacturers, etc. E.g. Arcelik is a huge manufacturer for other brands.

Once you have a reliable cooling device, what makes the sale will be something else like shelving features, warranty service/responsiveness, etc.

david

So how does the average consumer determine which is a "realiable cooling device"? With most refrigerator warranties being one year, that does not give me much confidence in any cooling device. It also tells me the manufacturer doesn't either.
I just read a Consumer Reports article on Energy Star, that the ratings on refrigs can be very misleading. The manufacturers test their own appliances and give themselves the ratings, They do not have to have the icemakers hooked up when testing for EnergyStar, which means the cooling to the ice department may not be working which in turn lowers the Rating, which is not a practical use for most consumers w/icemakers.

Yeah, it makes sense to expect longer servicing of major devices. OTOH, personally I have never heard of anybody who has had problems with a new fridge, except for internet posters. I may not be the best person to sympathize with the need for long-term servicing as part of an included price. I have a lot of insurance on myself not on things. I never buy extended warrantees.

About EnergyStar, which is a dumb rating system, we can agree it will get replaced with some other method one day.

The good thing that EnergyStar and EnerGuide have done is to make our society think more all the time about consumption, and in so doing the net result is less consumption. Manufacturers got swayed to get involved without being fed money to do so. Sounds like it worked up till now.

According to one EnergyStar site I perused last week, average annual energy consumption of new refrigerators, in kWh/year, was
1984 1990 1997 1999 2004
1457, 1044, 664 , 664 , 465

This was for top-mounted Refrigerators in the size range of 16.5Â18.4 cu. ft. which I believe was considered normal size back in 1984.

Today's refrigerators are much better energy performers than older models. This came about without a scandal and without wasting a billion or two on incentives. So even a dumb measuring system can make a positive impact in the right direction.

Let's open a new thread to discuss the ideal criteria for an ideal future rating system for refrigerators.

David

Start a thread, get some great input, then send the results to the new administration, I'll bet you would have an ear.

Start the thread David and make it about all appliances

Seems like the misstating of facts to concerning refrigerator energy use was done by LG

Here is a link that might be useful: LG french door refrigerators

try again

Here is a link that might be useful: LG

Freedom collection is a joint venture that includes Miele, the rest of the Thermador is whirlpool/kitchenaid

Guadalupe- the Freedoms are not as much a collabration/joint venture as you might think. Bosch decide to go into refridgeration in a big way. Their engineers developed an entirely new from the ground up platform and built a factory in Turkey to produce them. Then the bosses told the sales weasels at Gaggenau/ Thermador and Bosch to figure out how to position amd sell these new units.

Enter Miele late to the game, but not to be outdone and they go to BSH and ask them to produce a unit for them. Change a few things like the bins, and lights and electronic and shelves and poof! A new player in the market that feeds the production line and makes the suits happy.

Antss,

I know they're the sales weenies, but the story they give at the Miele showroom is that the boxes, compressors, etc., of their new American style fridges are built for them by BSH (presumably at the famous plant in Turkey), but that Miele makes the electronics themselves, and, I think, do the assembly in Germany.

Since all refrigerators make food cold (even my dying, 20+ year old Kenmore), it's the trim and gizmos that make the difference anyway. :) (Says she who likes the Miele better than the SubZero and hates the Thermadors so much she didn't even realize Miele was the same box until later...)