I have a second Subzero, which I purchased in 2014 when I redid my kitchen. The first one lasted 27 years, with perhaps 3 minor repairs needed. This one is also very good. The ratings on Miele however, are outstanding, so I don't think you can go wrong with either. Maybe someone with Miele experience can weigh in?

I have the Miele columns. They are approximately 2 1/2 years old. I much preferred the layout and lighting in the Miele as compared to the SZ. My Miele fridge was replaced at the 2 year mark (or thereabouts) because the top shelf was freezing everything while the bottom shelf was at the top of the safe range for storing food. The crisper drawers did a worse job of keeping produce fresh than my Kenmore fridge. After replacing almost every component in the fridge, they finally replaced the entire fridge. The icemaker in the freezer stopped working after about 2 years and was replaced. Now the seal on the freezer doesn't seem to be working (they are coming this week to look at it). If you decide to buy Miele and are in Canada, I would suggest that you buy their 10 year warranty.

Wow, that's too bad. Maybe the Subzeros ARE all they're cracked up to be.

Sub Zero OWNS this category! For a reason. Don't reinvent wheels. Get SZ.

I have a fridgeadaireall fridge/ all freezer combo with builtin kit. It is 11 yrs old not one problem and if it dies tomorrow I can replace them twice more for what a sub zero would have cost. IMO SZ is over rated and service if you live outside a large city is horrible.

My parent's have a SubZero (built in) and it's been going strong for 32 years! Only a few minor repairs over that time, and recently we decided not to replace the $550-ish part to make ice cubes. If you can afford the splurge, get Subzero.

I have a Miele. It's three years old and doing great. I have tested the temperature and everything is as it should be. In my other house we have a Gagg (same Turkish plant makes Miele, and BSH refrigerators.) It is a bit older and is doing fine too.

I don't have a Subzero or Miele, so I can only comment on the appearance which is that I like that the Miele doesn't have the grill on top the way the Subzero does. And I have read on this forum that the Miele has much better lighting inside than the SZ. Having said that, my sister has an older SZ, and has never once commented on the interior lighting haha. So perhaps that is drilling down into a detail that is just for us appliance nerds.

There was an older thready by Rococogurl that went into great detail about her Miele fridge decision, perhaps try searching for that.

ETA: found the thread. It's long, but you can see the entire thought process on the decision and photos too: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/refrigerator-again-perspective-please-dsvw-vd~2312992

In all the years we had the Subzero in our primary residence, we had THREE junky GE/Whirlpool refrigerators in our vacation home. AND they always broke down during the hottest summer day, when we had a houseful of guests. I'd rather pay upfront for quality than have to replace an appliance every 3 or 4 years. That being said, our fridge purchase in the vacation home in 2014 was a Kitchenaid French door counter depth. BUT it wasn't cheap. So far, so good (fingers crossed).

So the SZ will cost you $5,100 more after you factor in the higher SZ cost plus the lost Miele promotion amount? That's quite a difference. I'd think about Miele plus extended warranty. As I said above, they replaced my fridge.

I have a subzero for 23 years. It has cost us a fortune over the years. I would say approximately $1000 per year for last 10 years or more. I’ve had compressors, thermostats you name it. Two years in a row a thermostat. Of course it was right after warranty expired. The parts are super expensive and I need to buy a refrigerator for vacation home now. Thinking maybe thermador. Or will see what appliance package comes out the best.

Good luck

I apologize in advance that I have no answers but only a comment and more questions I've had a subzero for 28 years and it is limping along on life support. I keep having to put freon into it. Last service call for freon 2 weeks ago was $550. I'm curious, Laura Mac, that you say the new icemaker part was quoted at $550. A new icemaker was quoted by Subzero at $1500 which I wasn't going to do ( so Im back to ice trays).

In my vacation home I'm on my 3rd refrigerator. The original Maytag which came with the house had to be replaced at 10 years. I bought another Maytag French door non built itn. which stopped working at about 14 months. The Maytag distributor a mile away charges around $100 to drive down the road before they even do any repairs. I've paid that amount so many times I could have bought a new suzbzero! Their inability to actually complete the repairs left me without a working frig for 6 weeks; over summer, with a house full of guests. So i went to Lowes on July 4th and bought a Frigidaire French door which I thought would work out well when I do my kitchen remodel. It also started giving problems at 14months. So I'm also looking at what I will put in when I remodel my kitchen. Good point about the Miele package, I will look into that seeing that I know I will be purchasing the Miele CSO.

@luv2cruz, thanks for the details on your SZ. I was speaking to another kitchen sales person, and he mentioned something similar. For example, he said SZ is the best in refrigeration, however, he said I might get a bad one (that one percent that has issues) - he said in that case, it makes sense to save the cost on Miele, buy the extended warranty and then I am spending about the same overall. His feeling is that if I spend the extra in SZ but then run into issues, I'll be regretting the decision for 20+ years. If I buy the Miele but spend less but buy the extended warranty, I would end up spending the same as buying the SZ overall.

I think I might be leaning to buying the Miele given this. The Miele does look better (but that was not my deciding factor - I was more concerned about reliability). However, if reliability is about the same, I might as well save money and put it towards something else in the kitchen. I'll keep everyone posted on other decision factors as I come upon them.

Oh, one other question - I am leaning towards getting the 36" freezer and 36" refrigerator. Do I have to support the floor joists to handle this heavy load? I will of course ask my contractor, but was curious if anyone ran into this issue with the weight.

meluky, are you in Canada or the US? In Canada, the 10 year warranty is an extra $1000 for each of the fridge and freezer. The warranty is 100% parts AND labour for the full 10 years.

Hi Sherri, I am in US. We only have a 5 year warranty, and it is about $500 for each of the fridge and freezer. I am not sure what happens at the end of the 5 years - is there a way to extend it even further?

Hi Melucky,

what did you end up deciding? I am in the exact same position - Miele vs SZ fridge/freezer. I'm pretty sure we are ending up with a Miele Range and Combisteam (and DW), but are undecided about the Fridge. Like you, I am hoping to take advantage of the "deal" they have going on now

Thanks for this post. I'm evaluating SubZ vs Miele (with freezer on bottom) and it was helpful to look through. We have had a Miele 36" freezer on bottom for last 3 years since kitchen reno and we LOVE it. We now have a 2nd home and my husband insists we get another Miele. However, I was going to use a Wolf range and thought we'd take advantage of the discount for buying both a Wolf and SubZ. It looks like there've been a few issues with SubZ BUT many comment theirs lasts over 20 years! And, perhaps there're similar issues with lemons in Miele but the product hasn't been around as long for the data to come it? They both seem like amazing products with possible one-off issues. Since the KD has already gotten the design done with the SubZ (that spec for the panel probably doesn't change too much, but we've gotten this far and I need to order!) I think we will go this route this time. Then, we will have a real comparison, owning both!

We have a Miele, it was a display model so had already been running for a few years. Still running perfectly for us a year after we got it.

Miele is the worst product I've ever had. This is a top end fridge, It leaks water all over the wood floors, there is always frost on the back of the fridge inside and the doors are covered in rust.

We have a 19 year old SZ and recently had to replace the ice maker. It cost around $1000. Other than that, no issues. The technician who replaced it said the fridge is in overall very good condition, so I'm figuring another 5 years on this one. I'd definitely get another one.

We have an eight year old Miele column freezer and next to it a Miele fridge. Absolute junk! The freezer completely failed almost a year ago (over $2000 to repair) and now the fridge is failing. I guess you get what you pay for! Oops! We spent over $12,000 for the two of them. Miele was no help at all. Do not buy aMiele refrigerator or freezer.

I am getting all Miele appliances, oven, CSO, induction, downdraft, d/w and w/d for a new home. I have my eye on the SubZero 30-in Designer series. It has two freezer drawers and the top one lines up with the countertop, so clean lines. The former grill section at the top is at the bottom, so not visible. It looks lovely. Since I'm going all Miele, I am -considering the Miele refrigerator/freezer combo instead. Anyone out there have the SZ Designer series?

The Miele fridge is garbage compared to the SubZero. I wish I had never made the mistake of going with the Miele. The ice maker broker, plastic parts keep appearing in the freezer, my vege's freeze, the air cleaning system is a JOKE (a plastic strip that holds a charcoal foam that falls off everytime something touches it). And their customer service is rubbish. $17,000CAD for this. I should have bought a $2,000 samsung as they are the same quality...

Their range is also junk. 3 months in, my range top is etched from hot oil and water splashing on it, the ignitors are always clogged and stuck on.. SO annoyed at myself for not sticking with SZ and Wolf...

I have the Miele fridge and freezer towers. They look nice. What i don't like are the metal cage bins in the freezer. Frozen items can get stuck in them and are hard to remove. The door on the fridge is also hard to open. This was made worse by the kitchen designer putting thin pulls with a sharp angle on the door panels. My finger developed trigger finger from the door and I now open it by pulling a towel that is tied around the door handle. The door becomes particularly hard to open if it has just been closed. Before you buy try opening a working model a second time in quick succession. Another consideration is the height of the Miele units. They are tall. I am 5 foot and it is a stretch to put heavy items on the top shelf.

Right now our plumbed Miele Steam Oven is saying is has to be descaled in two more uses or it will lock out. The problem is there are no instructions for descaling a plumbed unit. I called Miele three times and each time I get help from people who take about a half hour to determine there are no instructions for descaling a plumbed unit. There is no technical help. They are going to send a service person but there are no appointments available. I'm supposed to be contacted within 72 hours for an appointment. Think long and hard about buying Miele. If Sub Zero is known for good service than I would choose it over Miele.

I am the OP. I wanted to give my view. I ended up buying all Miele appliances and I have had no issues. I did take into account the height of the towers and knew about the descaling. They tell you 10 times before you get locked out. I actually appreciate the warning, and I was ready and did it around the 2nd warning. It was pretty simple. My post is not to say anything against previous posters that had issues, but to give you my view, and I have had no issues.

Perhaps you didn't understand my comment about descaling. My unit is the plumbed model not the one with a tank inside. There are no instructions on descaling a plumbed model and after three calls to Miele no one has been able to provide a solution. I'm in line to get a service appointment. So far two days have passed without a call from Miele with an appointment. So beware if your Miele refridgerator should fail you may be waiting days to even get an appointment for service.

Did Miele get back to you and were you able to figure out how to descale? Asking since we are thinking about a plumbed Miele CSO!

Eventually I did speak to someone from Miele but by then I had figured out that the plumbed steam oven also has to be descaled and I did descale the oven. I haven't had any problems with it or the full sized Miele oven we also have. They are nice looking appliances and have more functionality than we take advantage of.

Do you have a Miele fridge/freezer too? Like the op, we are debating Miele va sub zero for fridge/freezer and are quite torn.

I ended up buying all Miele and got a good discount. So far I haven’t had any issues with any of my Miele appliances. I like the Miele fridge/freezer so far. The only thing I notice is the very top shelf of the fridge tends to get very cold (colder than rest of fridge). However, I use it to store things that could be stored in colder temperatures and so far it has worked out well for those kinds of items.

I have the Miele tower fridge and freezer and have had no problems. The kitchen designer selected a narrow pull with square corners for the doors on these units and I hurt my hand opening the fridge. This of course isn't Miele's fault. I now open the door by pulling on a towel that is wrapped around the pull. Not ideal but it works and my hand has healed.

The only slight criticism I have is for the wire metal baskets in the freezer. If they are packed tightly food can get stuck in them and is hard to remove.

I think the Miele fridge and feezer are the best looking in the category.

@meparisi, I do agree that the inside of the Miele with the lighting looks the best. Of course that should not be the reason someone decides a Miele over a SZ. However, it is nice to open up the fridge and freezer and see the lighting and layout. One other thing for me, which would not be an issue for tall people - I found it difficult to reach the top shelf of a SZ. For the Miele, they put the condenser (I think this is it, someone can correct me if I am wrong) up at top. This brings the top shelf down to a height that I can easily reach items. That was another useful feature for me.

I am also weighing fridges as we are doing a complete kitchen remodel and I want to go biilt in. i have been told that Miele customer service is not great when it comes to warranty. Ourhigh end kitchen appliance store is contemplating discontinuing Miele for that reason. Wondering af anyone else has heard this or had experience? We currently have a Beko that are using temporarily in our kitchen but will be moved to rec room and I love it! i just dont know enough about company to invest in the work and installation of built-in Beko. Leaning toward comapnies I know well.

I will reiterate my preference for Subzero refrigeration. I've not heard of Beko, but if you have had good experience with them, then go for it!

It took Miele a long time to get back to me when I called customer service about descaling the steam oven but I think they are faster if you have a critical issue like the fridge not working. My Miele applicances are built in and were installed by Miele. The fridge / freezer towers we have were complicated to install and that is a concern as you would probably need Miele for service. It is hard to know but things may be slow because of covid issues right now. We have had no problems with any of our Miele applicances. At times Miele offers a five year warranty and I suggest finding out if or when that will be available.

@stark52, I have had no issues with getting a Miele technician, but I live in an area where there are a few Miele certified technicians. You can go to their website and see if there are any that are near where you live. I also have the extended warranty and recommend getting that.

The hidden cost of a Miele side-by-side: Lawyers! We have a Miele Refridgerator/Freezer side-by-side. Our freezer has not worked for the past 14 months. Miele service has been horrible. We have payed $5000+ for failed repairs. The has now been pronounce dead. Miele’s response is a discount on a new freezer. We have never sued anyone for anything; but we’ve now hired lawyers to sue Miele. My advice: Stay competely away from Miele!.

We have an eight year old built-in Miele top fridge bottom freezer. The ice maker has been repaired twice and now the freon is leaking and no one from Miele will repair it. I too regret not buying a Sub-Zero.