I've see Sub Zero last in kitchens for nearly forever. For the 2k difference? As far as I'm concerned, Sub Zero OWNS the cooling category. Not even a discussion within the luxury appliance category.

My in-laws have had theirs for 35 years.....and it’s still in perfect condition.

Btw.......... don't ask the same question TWICE. You have two posts on the exact same topic. A 2k difference over even ten years in a home , spent on something very important to you is 200 bucks a year. Drink less Starbucks.

So worth the money, just the food savings alone will pay for it. My vegetables stay fresher so much longer! My only issue is the top shelf is way up there for short people. Since my husband eats meat and I do not that is where he places any he has.

No negatives from me after 4 years! Glad I did not take the less expensive route!

I've had two different sets in two different homes. I didn't install them in the homes. But, I sure appreciated them. The good news is they can be serviced, no matter how old.

One set was 20 years old when I got them. A new compressor and we were good for another 20. I'm willing to bet those units are still in that house. The current set is 10 years old. I just bought the house. I'm the third owner. No issues.

Having said that, I have a Kitchen Aid Architect II French Door refrigerator in my garage apartment. I bought that for a previous home renovation. It's a really nice unit, but I don't expect it will last as long as the Sub-zero.

If you are comparing highest end refrigerators, then it would be foolish not to get a SubZero for $2000 more - assuming that your home can actually support that kind of high end feature.

My good friend has a SZ which is more than 20 years old and she is thinking of replacing now rather than do an expensive repair - if it needs it.

If one is in a location that doesn't support a SZ refrigerator, then it's not worth it as my refrigerators have adequately cooled my food for less per amortized year than a SZ would cost.

They cost a lot. That’s the big downside. We looked at them, did some math, and are getting the Electrolux pair Sophie mentioned. They won’t last as long, but for the cost of Subzero we can replace them several times of it comes to that and still save money. We are going to trim them up to subzero size so if we change our mind in the future we’ll have the space, but we just can’t justify the cost right now.

I decided to save a few thousand and go with a Liebherr integrated. They get trashed sometimes in reviews, but I'm happy as a lark!

My mother in law’s sub-zero was great for the first 3 years, then the water line ruptured while they were out of town and flooded the whole kitchen. On the plus side, they got new floors out of it…

I can't know whether the SZ quality has remained consistent over the last many years, but I do know that mine is going strong after 25+ years! I have a maintenance company check it, clean components, etc., about every 18 months (at cost of approximately $100/visit).

I can not tell you anything terrible about sub zero, but I can tell you my 5 year old integrated Liebherr has been wonderful! ...and it was a couple grand or more less :)

The Sub is OK but I don't think you could go wrong with the Thermador, Miele or Gaggenau. They proven to be very good units. Fit completely flush and can completely hide away in a kitchen when custom panels are used.

We have a nearly 30 year old SubZero. Sounds a bit like an airplane but runs.

Something bad? Freezes my ice cream hard as a rock. Pisses me off actually. (And there’s no control.)

**off-topic

Blueostrich Nine, have you tried putting your tub of ice cream into a freezer bag? It keeps the ice cream a little softer. :)

Loud & ugly. You asked :)

Everything everyone else said. Though I've never liked the SZ grill on top. I would look at the Miele fridge if I were you. Very nice. Price is maybe just slightly lower but by very little. Lighting inside of the Miele is better IMO.

The only downside is the price, it works great. I had my original one for 27 years. Had it repaired maybe 3 times at not a great cost ($100-400). Purchased a new one for my new kitchen 4 years ago, and it's even better. The freezer has its own control, the ice maker works great, love the glass shelves. If you're doing a high end kitchen in a high end home, go for it.

I never thought I would have one because there's no way I'd spend that kind of money on a fridge. When we remodeled our kitchen years back I got a KitchenAid built in which was some number of thousands cheaper. Since then I moved into a house with an SZ fridge and I see why people who have them like them. My friend who is a CMKBD (and home economist) swears by SZ and has always put one in her home. She's often explained to me why they are better in terms of keeping food longer and I just didn't think it could be that great. Now that I have one though I see what she means. Mine is about 18 years old and working well. If for some reason it bit the dust in my lifetime I do think I would get another one much as I swore I would never spend that much of a fridge. I don't notice it being particularly loud and loud refrigerators do tend to drive me crazy.

Mine's a basic 36" stainless, freezer on bottom. Other than the fact I don't care for stainless the appearance is fine with me. I'm over the idea of disguising appliances so they don't look like appliances though you can certainly do that with SZ if you're into that.

@Sophie Wheeler Re: Are you looking for function? Or form? Or just to keep up with the Joneses in the neighborhood you’re building in?

Good question!

Form is most important (but hey, all look good.) I would say I like Thermador column, then Sub Zero, then Viking.

Function is next. But I just cannot fathom than any refrigerator above $8,000 would ever (EVER) be a problem. This is where I am bit I am naive, and using the forum to educate me. Reminder, we care the least about the freezer (all about the fridge,)

Name is LEAST important to us. Actually, Sub-Zero we least liked because it had such a “reputation.” Although, looks like this tread is proving us wrong, Sounds like SZ is worthy of the accolades. $#%*&%@!

The reality is, we are hovering between:

option A)

SubZero & Wolf

• $18,400 (pre tax, pre install)

◦ 11,100 48” SubZero Side by Side Stainless Steel (not sure if this price is truly accurate)

◦ 700 DW (tbd)

◦ 6,300 Wolf Range AG

◦ 1,300 Zephyr Hood

◦ -1,000 rebate

option B)

Thermador

• $18,547 (pre tax, pre install)

◦ 12,647 30”/18” Fr/Fr Column

◦ Hood (free)

◦ 5,700 Harmony AG

◦ 200 DW (free)

option C)

Viking & Sophia

• $15,285 (pre tax, pre install)

◦ 9,600 48” Viking Fr/Fr

◦ DW (free - 1,200 value)

◦ 700 microwave

◦ -515 %5 off for over 10K

◦ 5,500 Sofia

◦ Hood (free Zephyr Hood)

Hmmmmmm...

Three service calls and $1500 in 5-6 years we had that kitchen. Then they discontinued that width.

I liked it a lot but on the other hand it had problems (the next owner had a service call in the six months we temporarily lived in the same building) . I was kind of afraid of my own refrigerator.

People keep them because they are worth repairing since they are so expensive. But I wonder how many people would just call it quits if they hadn't paid $8000 to begin with.

I want a built in for this house and I am hesitant.

It is my understanding that there was a period of time around in the mid 2000's when they changed from their old technology of copper lines to aluminum lines. The service calls went through the roof. They have since returned to the older, very reliable design and the reliability that goes with the older design. I wonder if you had one of the units from this era?

Eliminate Viking immediately. You just don’t want to go there.

The best package you have so far is the Thermador. Because you’re not allocating enough for a good upper end DW in the SZ package. And it gives you more refrigerator. But that’s also going to be visually unsymmetrical, since appearance is important to you. Plus, you never know how having good tools will change your behavior. You might want to buy half a cow for a freezer.

I’d challenge you to get away from a package and buy the best in class for each of your needs. That emphasizes the functional over the form. Yes, it’s more research and introspection and analysis. That isn’t a bad thing. None of these will look “wrong” in the right kitchen design.

Lok at Bluestar, Capital, or American for ranges.

Meile or Bosch for a DW.

Ventahood for ventilation.

Liebherr or Thermador or SZ for built-ins. Electrolux for almost built ins with twice the capacity.

Sharp for a MW drawer, Panasonic with the inverter for a cabinet stack built in or countertop MW.

homechef,

yes it's quite possible, because my refrigerator was purchased around 2003 I think.

I agree with Sophie--drop Viking. But I'll suggest looking into induction for a cooktop and Miele or Bosch Benchmark within the induction offerings. Miele or Bosch for your dishwasher.

In 1987 we doubled the size of our kitchen and installed 2 sub-Zeros: a 36" wide freezer and 36" wide refrigerator. When we moved last fall our 30 year old freezer was still running perfectly. We did replace the refrigerator when it was 27 years old because it needed an expensive repair and knowing that we would be selling our home decided to buy a new one.

Based on our experience with Sub Zero in our previous home we recently installed a 42" wide 3 door model in our new home.

We had a SZ in our old house. When we had a problem with it after over ten years, their customer service was incredible. We purchased another one for our new house. I was afraid not to, because at this point my shopping habits depend on my refrigerator keeping food fresh for a very long time. And I love that it is so easy to clean.

I can't help with negativity either. I've purchased two subzero refrigerators off craigslist, each about 20 years old at the time of purchase. The first was $200 (white and very lucky on that price--it was being used as a spare beer fridge at the time!), and the second was $1200 (stainless). I had the first one for about 10 years and only replaced it with the second because we moved and needed to reverse the door. Not a single issue. I absolutely love these refrigerators.

at this point my shopping habits depend on my refrigerator keeping food fresh for a very long time.

There absolutely is a difference in how well refrigerators can do that.

We accidentally stumbled on a solution that I am surprisingly happy with -- at least in the interim. During our kitchen remodel, we have to move to the in-law unit. It has a small and rather basic refrigerator that never impressed me with keeping food fresh particularly well.

But since it is too small anyway, we ended up buying a commercial True all-refrigerator for the garage. That thing is a tank. It works amazingly well though. And it keeps food chilled at a very constant 33°F.

We now keep our day-to-day ingredients in the cheap/small fridge, and everything else in plastic crates in the True. The results are impressive. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as a permanent solution, but it does drive home the point of how much better a well-designed fridge can be. Does that justify the high price of the SZ? Hmm, don't know how to answer that. Does it explain why people love their high-end residential fridges? Yes, totally. A high-end residential fridge is essentially just a commercial fridge that has been domesticated (less noise, easier maintenance, better looks, some internal organization, ...)

During the 27 years we had our SZ in our primary residence, we built a vacation home. Since we clearly weren't going to use it as much as our primary, we went with lower end appliances. The first refrigerator, a Whirlpool, broke after a few years; the second, a GE, konked out in the middle of a hot summer weekend. The third is a KitchenAid French Door that we installed when we redid the kitchen in 2012. It works fine, but for the money we spent on 3 fridges (and the repairmen to tell us that the fridges were beyond repair) we could have purchased a SZ! Sometimes you can be pennywise and poundfoolish.

This is a difficult decision, isn't it?

We aren't big cooks but did consider resale value -- we looked at our local market and price range and determined we had to go with higher-end appliances to stay competitive in event we had to sell sooner than we expect.

We ruled out Thermador as my SIL put in all Thermador appliances and had to replace every last one within the last 10 years. We went with Wolf for the oven/micro/cooktop. Miele for DW as we were replacing an older Bosch that had problems, and we love our Miele vacuum.

The hardest decision was the fridge. We knew we wanted to do panel-ready so brand name, when it came to resell, wasn't all that important.

We wound up splurging on a SZ because my parents have had one for 30 years and it's an excellent fridge. What's more, since we aren't huge cooks, a fridge that can keep food fresh a longer time is a very big benefit to us ---and boy does it do that! Takeout and leftovers stay fresh for weeks.

And finally: I stood there in the appliance store and closed and opened less expensive french door fridges over and over... a zillion times.... and just couldn't get over the chintzy plastic part between the doors of most brands. Maybe it's a silly thing as that part is probably easily replaced. But I wondered about the rest of the fridge, the parts I couldn't see.

Besides keeping produce fresh for weeks... my husband who at the time did not want to spend 5 figures on a fridge was convinced when our power went out for 3 days and the ice cubes in our freezer did not even melt! The SZ is built like a tank!

Great comments. Sophie Wheeler - you gave "best in class" for most appliances...except ovens/double ovens. What do you think about "best in class" for those? We are thinking of Miele CSO XXL stacked over a 30" oven.

We like everythng about our SubZero except the occasional water leak that develops when a water tube gets clogged. Sill not clear on what is causing it to get clogged. It happens about once a year.. big pain!

Ice makers are a pain, in general. If anything, subzero appears to do a little better than the competition. But everyone has problems with their ice makers.

When we remodeled, we intentionally decided to omit the ice maker. That gives you extra storage space too, as the ice maker is surprisingly bulky.

Now, instead of a built-in ice maker, I have a countertop model. Every so often, I make a bunch of ice, and fill a container that I keep in the freezer.

This won't work for everyone, but it's the best compromise for our family. Works well with how we use our ice