I've been reading this forum for quite a while now and I can tell you that several years ago there was a lot of "GE bashing" here. Maybe the person who was the most vocal has left, I don't know. It seems that it was not so much that GE broke down often, but that parts and repairs were expensive, at least according to some people. We remodelled the kitchen over 5 years ago. We have two GE appliances, the refrigerator and the convection oven, both Profile series. They have been trouble-free, other than the ice maker in the bottom freezer tends to spill ice cubes into the back floor of the freezer. I've never tried placing a service call for that problem. But because of the concerns about GE, I did sign up for the service plan, which costs me $7/month for the two appliances. So I would recommend that. If the keypad on the oven ever goes out, for instance, it will probably save me a lot of money. We've been very happy with the performance of the GE appliances. The other appliances that we have are Kitchenaid (gas cooktop) and Asko (d/w). Hope this helps. Steve

The apartment we are renting during our remodel has all GE Profile appliances which were purchased just before we moved in April 2007). I am not sure about all of the model nos., but my experience is the following:

refrigerator (36" counter depth SBS with water dispenser- works fine, we have been happy with this although it is a small for our family. Freezer is not so useful for storage as the shelves are far apart and if you stack odd size things in it (frozen vegetables, bread, meat) they tend to slide down. I wish there were more drawers as the only one is on the bottom and it is quite shallow.

Dishwasher- quiet, seems fine. We have twin three year olds and they are always pressing the buttons and turning it on. No child lockout, and there is no "cancel" button. We press a reset button and it goes through a draining process (whether necessary or not) before going off. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with small children. I know some models have child lockouts in the Profile line and some don't.

Range- we have the 30" slide in all-gas. The range and oven seem to function fine for appliances in this price range. It vents from the rear-center of the rangetop. I find this annoying as you can never leave anything on the rangetop when the oven is running that is heat sensitive. It gets really hot back there an has melted the packaging of my baking powder and a tupperware. When I am baking I would like to be able to place pans on the range to cool and cannot because of all of the heat.

The OTR microwave is fine, but the fan is very loud. I use it as little as possible because the noise bothers me and my kids.

These appliances were brand-new when we moved in (April 07) and have been trouble-free and reliable the entire time.

We have had GE Profile appliances for over 12 years and with a couple of exceptions, have been generally satisfied with them. Exceptions:

* DW: we had to replace the motor after 2 years and 3 years later the same problem was encountered so we replaced it with a Maytag (6 years later and no problems w/the Maytag)

* Refrigerator: We have a top mounted freezer w/an ice dispenser in the freezer door. The ice dispenser never worked. GE replaced the refrigerator once (no hassle about it at all) and when the same problem occurred in the second one, the GE repairman admitted that there had been problems with the top-mount freezer ice dispensers (GE was the only one to offer a dispenser in a top-mount refrigerator)...they freeze up periodically. We decided to just use the ice maker. However, that died after about 6 or 7 years so we've been making ice in trays for the past 5 or 6 years. The refrigerator itself has been great...it has a lot of space and is easily reconfigured when needed. Despite the ice issues, we've been pretty happy with it...several friends of ours have had their non-GE refrigerators die completely after only a few years, so we consider ourselves lucky ours has lasted as long as it has. We are putting it in the basement for an extra refrigerator with our remodel (our new refrigerator will be counter depth and quite a bit smaller than this one).

I should note that our water is acidic so it may have been a contributing factor to the problems in both of these appliances.

Our smoothtop, convection range has been trouble-free for 12 years and still looks new. It's very easy to keep clean and everything works great. We will be donating it and our DW to our church for needy families.

Our vent hood isn't the greatest, but it's a builder-grade, under cabinet mount, so I'm not surprised.

I've never had a GE MW so I cannot tell you how they are. However, quite a few people on this and the Kitchens forums have GE MWs and seem happy with them.

If it helps, most of our appliances will once again be GE Profile: Cooktop, double wall ovens (Trivection), warming drawer, refrigerator (no ice dispenser, just water). Our MW will be a Sharp drawer, our DW will be a KitchenAid, and our vent hood will be Vent-A-Hood.

If you are going to put panels on some of the appliances, then logos won't show. You then also have control over the handles.

HTH!

If you have to go with one brand, I'd recommend that you go with GE Monogram - that's GE high end line - some of the appliances are manufactured by other companies (the ranges are made by DCS - but have GE Monogram logo on them). GE Monogram has a separate service organization. The reviews of GE Monogram on this board have been very positive.

The problem with going with all GE Profile or all Whirlpool/KA is that some of the appliances are good and some aren't. GE Profile refrigerators seem to have lots of issues including leaking.

Many Whirlpool/KA appliances are great - I have a KA fridge, DW, and compactor that I'm quite pleased with - but many people have problems with KA ranges and ovens.

That's why most of us mix brands.

Thanks for all the feedback.

I know the pitfall of choosing only one brand. I still have to research Whirlpool to see if they make decent appliances overall.

The GE Monogram is a little out of our price range.

The search continues.

Whirlpool does in general make good appliances. My previous set of appliances which came new with my house were all Whirlpool except for the range. The lasted over 20 years - I'm still using the washer/dryer after 26 years and the fridge is doing fine in my garage. Of course, these days they don't make appliances like they used to :-)

I don't know anything about Whirlpool ranges but KA is their high-end brand and people on this forum seem to have lots of problems with them.

If you can, get your wife to look at some of the kitchens on the Finished Kitchen Blog - there are some spectacular kitchens there that have a mix of appliances - it's worth a try :-)

How about Frigidaire? We had a refrigerator of theirs and we never had any issues - after our remodel, we gave it to a friend who really likes it and it's still going strong. Another friend just bought a Frigidaire range and she really likes that also. Consumer Reports has rated them well also (I know a lot of people here don't put a lot of stock in their recommendations, but there it is). Also, FWIW, I had a GE Profile range before our remodel and I didn't particularly like it. uneven temps (I'm a much better cook now with my Capital!) and the simmer drove me nuts - it was always at a rolling boil even with their dedicated "sure simmer" burner. Good luck with your choices. Oh, and I agree about not having to match brands. I think you can get better appliances if you mix brands - you can definitely try to match handles, etc and they will blend seamlessly.