Thank you all so much! This is really helpful. A2gemini, I love the yogurt story, lol! While this fridge was supposed to be for the house we're building with my parents for them to live in, I got the "brilliant" idea a couple of days ago to give them my JennAir bottom freezer single door, and replace it with the freestanding Viking bottom freezer single door that I've always liked. A way to get a "discount" of sorts ;). I just found out it's discontinued, though, and the local distributor has just 3 left. Any opinions on Viking fridges, or on buying a discontinued model? Thanks again for all these responses!

Service for Sears' Kenmore products is through A&E, a joint venture between Sears and Whirlpool. A&E is the contract warranty servicer for other brands, as well. (GE signed an agreement with them a couple of years ago, for example. Electrolux and Samsung also have agreements with them in some regions, though they may allow alternatives, at times.) The quality of service from A&E has been variable with a pretty fair number of horror stories. There was a long running thread here on that topic and I've linked to it below in case you are interested in the history behind hvtech's opinion and my comments. That said, most folks who buy a Kenmore-labeled refrigerator product won't need service. Judging from the membership survey results published by Consumer Reports, it seems that 1 in 10 or 1 in 9 buyers of Kenmore refrigerator products have serious issues in the first five years of ownership, which is pretty much as good as it gets these days (unless you go for standard, non-icemaker top-freezer fridges which tend to be the most reliable with about 2/3 to 1/2 the defect rate of the SxS and bottom freezer models. CR used to report brand reliability on built-ins but apparently are not getting sufficient survey responses on those lines for what they regard as a statistically reliable sample. Here is a link that might be useful: Experiences with A & E Factory Service?

I'm looking at one as a possibility in my new kitchen also. More than a few people here have them. I've heard nothing but good things about them. I started a thread this week looking for a built-in. It got a little off track so you'll have to wad through some irrelevant info, but you'll see some posters recommended their KA. Also, make sure you check out the Appliances forum. Do a search there first. It helps to have the model number when posting there. Here is a link that might be useful: Info on built-ins, KA

How the inside is arranged, in terms of holding the right amount of the right kind of things, is just as important as the size of the fridge. Also, if you don't have room for five jars of sourdough starter (which I have in my fridge), you dry most of them and just keep on. You limit the number of different kinds of mustard that can stay in the fridge, and how much space is devoted to cold beverages (putting that ice machine to work instead). You didn't say how many people or how big the appetites or how you entertain, but, as with all things, you adapt. A lot of people have way more fridge space than they actually need--as in never come close to filling up. Others really do use all their main and pantry fridges and wine chiller and ice machine and snack center fridge and coffee bar fridge to capacity. A good way to judge if you can fit your current lifestyle in a new fridge is to gather a bunch of containers and bottles that are the size and shape of what's in your fridge right after you've bought groceries on a typical day, skipping things you'd rather not see again, like the jar of chocolate sauce that no one has touched in three months (if it won't fit in a smaller fridge it'll be thrown out), and take the containers to the showroom to see how they fit. You might find that the fridge you're looking at will hold everything that you want in your fridge, easily (probably so for the SZ), but you might find that while you can fit all three open wine/juice bottles, there's really no room for several eggplants along with the rest of your produce. :)