You don't "need" high btu gas cooktop but you might "need" a 4-4.8 kw induction hob? The 4.8 kw induction hob is more powerful than the CC/BS burners.

If you disqualify Wolf induction on price then I would get the E'lux induction. That looks like a really good value.

The Fridge. Those are three different price points and all really good values in their class.

With SZ and Liebherr,although you lose cubic feet, you get great organization. Everything is in your sight line and within grasp. Nothing gets lost in the back of the fridge.

I have a 24" Liebherr All-Fridge. The only thing I noticed is that two 1 gallon liquid containers fit easily. More do not. In my old regular fridge I could fit four.Then again in my old fridge I lost stuff in the back for months that were gross when found again.

The Samsung is an excellent value and probably the way I would have gone had I not found a Liebherr fridge at a liquidator and a Gaggenau freezer at a store closing sale.

The Miele DW,Elux ovens and Advantium are excellent choices.

Hoods: You seem like a Kobe,Zephyr,Best by Broan type of person. Right in the high quality but still high value sweet spot.

Beverage Fridge

1)Perlick. Best of the best IMO but pricey. Below is link to factory seconds list.

2)Liebherr

3)Marvel good but a bit loud. Cheaper than above.

4)Summit Best of the really cheap ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: LINK

Thanks deeageaux. I am feeling good on the DW/oven/speed oven but kind of all over the place on the cooktop/fridge. Probably leaning away from the induction, although it was definitely interesting.

Any thoughts on gas cooktop if not Wolf?

You are right about "high quality but still high value sweet spot." This is where I want to be.

Kek10, take the time to read all about the high power gas cook tops and
"very low simmer". AT best, you are only going to have one "Very Low Simmer Burner", (and a small one at that), unless you go with sealed burners and if you haven't,
do take time to read posts about open vs sealed burners.

With Induction you have both high power and "Extremely low simmer"
(on ALL HOBS), regardless of the size of the hob. You can simmer just barely above 100F, (Until the Cows come home), if ya want.

Even the smallest hob on my Elux will boil water faster than the highest power burner on a "pro range".

Read the arguments on which is easier to clean, open or sealed burners, then look for those same cleaning arguments for induction---You won't find any---Cleaning an induction cooktop is a "Non Event".

I have both, a real "fire breathing dragon" out on my patio kitchen. Fortunately it is outside so I dont clean it that often, but when I do----Well I'm gone from here for quite a while!!! and it is a PITA!!

One time our power failed and I had to use the outside gas cooktop to heat the water for coffee, I fell asleep 10 times before the water was finally hot enough for my coffee!

You do not need to buy an expensive induction cook top.
Folks are happy with their induction cook tops regardless of what they paid, and in fact, probably the most negative comments we have seen as far as induction cook tops go is comments on one of the most expensive made.

I'm 70, never saw induction before I read Garden Web, I'm sure glad the folks here, "Learned an old dog, New Tricks"!

Gary

Any thoughts on gas cooktop if not Wolf?

Frankly, if you are getting a gas cooktop in the $2k Wolf class I think it is dumb not to get a BlueStar RBCT365BSS. And the BS is cheaper than the Wolf to boot.

It is not only the power of the Supernova burner but the evenness of all the burners.

I was making a mushroom frittada the other day on my CC. I was tickled by how evenly it cooked. Even vegans boil water right? Also done much faster on high power cooktop.

Even if you have local regulations that say installing a vent above,say, 400cfm is a PITA I would still get the BS.

I would rather have a BS cooktop with a 400cfm vent than a Wolf cooktop with a 400cfm vent.

In picking an induction cooktop, consider the arrangement of the hobs. This a personal choice. Some people want a big hob in back, some in front.

I also thought about the "required" clearances of each of the different brands, as shown on the on-line installation instructions. Since I wanted a utensil drawer immediately below the unit, I needed one that had small clearances. (GE, in particular, needed 12" below the unit before you got to anything combustible.) That said, there has been much discussion that those clearances are just CYA, and nothing in your implement drawer is likely to catch fire with any brand. I completely agree, but I followed all the rules, anyway. I was concerned that the warranty might be affected.

BTW - I got a Kitchenaid induction cooktop with a bridge burner. I love the induction, but my KA is noisy. Not only does it buzz, no matter which type of cookware I use, but it clicks at the lower temps as the magnets switch on and off. I don't notice it as much any more, but it was very annoying at first. So you might want to avoid KA.

I liked the layout of the 6-hob Viking induction unit. It also has knobs. What I didn't like was the price.

There are so many good ones out there that it is hard to give a 'best'. Its a matter of features, layout and control that is all personal preference.

Well, things might be changing. DH wanted to look at our options. (uh-oh.) Now he wants all SZ/Wolf (and Miele ;). I really don't know if I can do it - the price difference is staggering. And I really don't know if it's "necessary" - I'm more Toyota than Cadillac!!!

This is our 20-25+ year house, so I suppose we'd never need new appliances again. Allegedly. If I can get over it.

Anyone want to talk me off the ledge, here?

Are you jumping off the ledge or pushing your DH off? :>)

For Toyota vs. Cadillac (or BMW/AUdi/Mercedes etc.), that is an endless debate here. Have you seen the threads about "is Subzero worth it?" Do a search (or try google if nothing turns up.)

I'll second what Deeageaux said about the Samsung refrigerator Samsung fridges tend to be pretty reliable and many seem to be long lived by today's standards. There are a lot of favorable postings here. The rap on Samsung is warranty service for the FD units that do have problems, as every manufacturer's line of products do. Consumer Reports' surveys of its membership currently show that about 14% of Samsung FD fridges have had problems in the first six years of onwership. That is right on the edge of statistical significance. According to CR, Whirlpool Corp.'s line FD fridges have the best rating with an 11% problem rate but difference of 5% points or less are said to be "statistically insignificant." I know numbers of people who have had Samsung fridges for years and have had no problems whatever. Obviously, all of my friends are among the 86% of Samsung fridge owners who never have problems with their fridges.

From what I found at various sites such as Consumeraffairs.com, the problems with Samsung fridges is not that some of them break down but, rather, that Samsung has outsourced warranty service. Some of the service providers seem to be unusually able to provoke numerous irate (and extremely irate) postings about inept, unresponsive, and bad service. Most major manufacturers seem to have followed this fad and are now generating increasingly large collections of irate postings.

But, I am curious. The Samsung RF 428 is -- AFAIK -- a standard depth fridge where the Liebherr and SZ models youa re looking at are "built-in" models. Because built-in fridges are sold in far fewer numbers that counter-depth (CD) and standard depth (SD) fridges, they are several times more expensive. Is a wood-clad "intergrated" unit a "must-ave" or a "it might be nice" kind of thing?

If we are talking car analogies here, I'm neither Toytoa nor Cadillac. I'm more of Subaru buyer, both stylistically and budgetarily. For fridges, this seemed to put me somewhere between KitchenAid CD and Liebherr CD fridges when I was recently shopping for a new fridge. I would up with a KA model. Personally, I could care less about hiding a fridge behind wood cladding and, if I did care, I would have recessed a standard fridge into a nook and built myself a cabinet around it. (Fine Homebuilding magazine had a design for this about five or six years ago).

But, if wood cladding is a "must" have, I would be inclined to go with the Liebherr rather than the SZ as long as you live someplace where you can get decent service when anything goes wrong. One thing about SZ is that, even in rural Montana where I live, SZ service and support seems to have a good reputation. I know six or seven families with SZ fridges and nonbody who has ever had a problem getting SZ service (and several of them have needed it multiple times.) Lieherr does not seem to have any kind of a presence in my part of the state. (Liebherr loaders and heavy equipment? Now, that's a different story.) When I was shopping for a fridge here several months ago, I could not find any local dealers where I could even look at a Liebherr refrigerator, let alone get warranty service. So, Liebherr was not a brand I would consider for where I live. YMMV.

For rangehoods, I would suggest a Kobe over Zephyr. I have a Zephyr because I have a very small kitchen and needed a hood that was short rather than tall. The limitation of the Zephyr hoods is that they have flat bottoms, so they do not have the capture capability that a canopy type rangehood does, like the Kobe. Search on Kobe hoods here and you will find that most reviews are very positive.

As for induction versus gas cooktops,there is no consensus on which is "best." Too many variables. If you want social approbation for your choice, then it depends on who you friends are and what their individual preferences are.

Personally, I have an abstract preference for induction over gas. But, I discovered that I had to compare the units actually available to me when I recently had to shop for a new stove. I wound up with a particular gas stove even though I set out to buy an induction stove. This was because I found I liked working with my particular gas stove (an NXR) a bit more than the induction range (Samsung, Whirlpool) that were within my price range. My choice had virtually nothing to do with the usual gas versus induction arguments. It was all about working with the actual stoves. Where were the controls, how would I like using them, etc.

Also look at what else has to be done to accommodate one or the other. (I'm talking about things like such as wiring or running gas lines. Beyond that, unless you have a specific preference for and a collection of expensive tin-lined antiquue copper, do not let cookware dissuade you from considering induction. There is a lot of relatively inexpensive but good quality induction cookware available. (Lots of postings here and on the Kitchen and Cookware forums about this subject. Costco. for example, has several sets of good stuyff for less than $200, for example.) Plus, if you live in a warm climate, I would highly recommend induction over gas. (But, then, I'm far less heat tolerant than I was decades ago when I worked in restauraunt kitchens and, later, when the government could sen me out in the midsummer sun in places like Twenty Nine Palms and Panama.)

If it is at all feasible, try out the induction cooktops and see about the noise factor. It affects some people and not others, and seems to vary with the unit selected, the installation, the cookware used, the phase of the moon, and other intangibles.

BTW, both GE and the Electrolux induction cooktops units have received favorable reviews here. I've found Gary's many postings on his Electrolux to be very informative.

I do not know anything about setting induction cooktops flush into countertops except that I have seen it done. The one concern I would have about insetting a cooktop is that, however finely finished, there is inevitably some kind of seam or gap or ledge. For me, a seam around the edge of the cooktop will create a place for goo to collect, and be hard to clean, as well as creating a crack into which spills can seep and leak. Doubtless you have already thought about this aspect, so I don't need to go on about it.

This post was edited by JWVideo on Sat, Jan 12, 13 at 3:36

Just want to second the motion on Kobe hoods. I have one, and I love it. Easy to clean, quiet. Mine is 720cfm. I had a really good experience with their customer service, too. (Not a problem with the hood, my own problem. I took it apart too much, unnecessarily, when I was cleaning it and couldn't figure out how to get it back together.) I bought mine based on a picture on the internet and reviews I read since there are no Kobe dealers around here. I used ventingdirect.com and I was very happy with them. Be sure, if you order a hood to be delivered, that you inspect it before signing for it. I know of at least two people whose hoods received noticeable dents in transit.

IMO, Elux is an excellent value in wall ovens. I would stick with your Wave Touch. I love mine.