The difference here is that the steam oven still needs all the guts to provide the steam. The only change is having a fillable reservoir or a small hose that attaches. The working pieces stay. The analogy breaks down there - as in the fridge ALL the water parts disappear.

My only experience with steam ovens are commercuial ones and it seemed everytime we really needed one it was broken down I run a catering biz from my home and have not found the need to purchase a steam oven. My fridge did have an issue with the ice maker but we repaired that ourselves with new plastic piping . Not sure the steam oven is a DIY fix. In the case where a stam oven stype help is needed for me I just go old scahool pan basket lid on burner . I think all appliances have things that can go wrong so really think about how much you need this in your life. I have an gas range rarely do things go wrong with them. IMO your appliances are chosen for how you cook period.

Patricia Colwell ConsultingOh yes, I already cook with an asian bamboo dumpling steamer and I use it almost every day. I steam everything, meat, veggies, carbs, you name it.

It's so big and clunky and annoying to clean, it takes forever to air dry on the counter, you have to baby it the entire time, and steam goes everywhere into the kitchen. A combi steam oven would be a dream of mine for keeping the steam out of the kitchen, no need for a loud vent blowing for an hour, and no need for crap on the counters... this is how how much I love steamed foods.

A CSO would open up the possibilities of even more dishes all in 1 appliances.

I just need to pick the appliance the version that has less potential to breakdown lol, hence my thought about plumbed vs unplumbed.

We’ve been using our non-plumbed Miele CSO, for 8 1/2 years. Never had a problem. Works the same today, as it did at install.

I agree…filling/dumping the resevoir takes seconds, and is no big deal.

I must completely agree with Patricia on everything she said. I Maintained bakery machinery for a number of years and my biggest money makers were steam generated proof boxes and steam ovens in that order. Water vapor and electrical components don't play well together so lots of destroyed electronics and electrical components. Heating elements for the steam generators become calcified, overheat and burn out. Sediments drop filling the reservoir in short order depending on the hardness of the water and needs chiseled out. Water floats continuously stop working or solenoid valves stick or leak. Water vapor molecule size is one ten millionth of a millimeter and hard to keep out of anything.

This is commercial bakery equipment I worked on where you roll in a racks costing 10's of thousands each with expensive industrial controls, and they can't make them reliable. The steam is only used a small percent of the baking time and only for specific items and still became $$$ problems. Your future failures will depend on how often it's used, and if it's like my steam clothes dryer my wife had to have it will be once.

The steam makes the food taste better and locks in the vitamins they say, well so does putting a lid on the cooking vessel and the same thing. It's not the oven used but the experience of the cook and I'll bet Pat's food is top notch

In my experience, appliances tend to break down due to issues with the electronics, not the plumbing. The plumbing is mechanical and is probably not going to be a problem. If a steam oven is what you want and you're building from scratch, put in the plumbing. After all, appliances are really about convenience. If I had a choice between filling a resevoir all the time vs. just pushing a button, I'd go with the latter.

I have designed TWO kitchens with the 24" Miele CSO XXL with water supply and drain. I didn't have any problems with the first unit in the previous house and no problems with the second unit in 2.5 years in the current house.

The only issue when water is involved, is that if you have hard water you could get some minerals building up which could cause an issue at some point ... but you would know this as you would have mineral crusted faucets and shower heads. This issue would be solved with a whole house water softener.

Every time I use the Miele CSO I run the rinse cycle after dinner. Just press a button and walk away. I can also use the soak cycle by just pressing a button. No need to fill anything or dump anything.

If you are doing a descaling then you will need to dump the container once to get rid of the cleaning agent, which is the only time you ever need to open up the front panel with a plumbed version. How often you need to descale will depend on how often you use the CSO and your water hardness.

As with any product, you want to make sure you have a service company in your area that can come and fix things if you do have any issues. In LA Miele had its own service center and they could usually get out to the house in a few days. Here in FL, the large independently owned store I bought the appliances from has its owned trained service people and they would also have someone out in a few days. I wouldn't buy any brand that didn't have service in my area.

In addition, in each of those kitchens we've had a built-in Miele coffee machine, also plumbed.

Again no issues with the plumbed part of those appliances.

In the previous house it was less used as my DH was still working, but in the current house DH is retired, so he uses it several times per day. No issues with a unit that got low use and no issues with one that gets heavy use. He does have to descale more often, which is proportional to the higher usage.

The LG WSEP4727F earned a CR recommended rating and a 4/5 predicted reliability; has steam roasting and baking; and owners like it (Lowes, Best Buy, Home Depot). User-fillable water tank is inside oven door at top right.

We have a 10+ year old Wolf CSO that is unplumbed that we love. We do not find it cumbersome to fill and empty the water. We are now planning a kitchen renovation in another home and do plan to install a plumbed CSO. We will be paying close attention to this thread because if people are having problems with the plumbed ovens we will have no problem installing another unplumbed version.