About a year ago I posted a number of issues we had with our SZ 736 that we put in our new home. The problems were first noticed by us after the first 2-3 months. Many replies seemed to support that the problems were isolated and not indicative or typical of the 736 SZ unit. Generally, most felt it was one of SZs most reliable product. Nonetheless, we continued to have numerous unresolved problems almost weekly until SZ agreed to replace the unit. In summary, the unit failed to hold a freezing temperature in the freezer and the ref would not hold an acceptable temp. We ultimately learned that the initial unit delivered was flawed and in need of repair before it was installed.

We were very satisfied though that SZ, at the strong prompting of our local dealer (who has been wonderful!) replaced the unit and we were convinced that all of our problems were behind us b/c we never thought we would be unlucky enough to get 2 rogue units in a row.

Life was great and so was the SZ as I reported back to lacombe a couple of months ago in a request for an update. At the time, everything seemed fine but I did comment that we had a couple of instances where food in the freezer thawed out once or twice but thought it might be user error (failure to completely close the door).

Well, this unit continued to have problems to the point that thaw outs were becoming a multiple per week event. We have been reduced to keeping detailed dailey logs of times and temperatures...even times we opened the freezer to retrieve items.

After weeks of problems, SZ was reported to be sending a factory rep to look into our problem but in the end, refused to. Instead, they told the local dealer that the unit has a computer log that can be accessed to give a detailed 2 week account, hour by hour, of operating statistics of the unit. They also stated that their state of the art tech support line was developed to resolve issues and the local should rely on rhat alone. When they ran this diagnostic, they found that a part was repeatedly failing causing the thaw outs. So, more parts and repairs and we were back to normal...for about 2 weeks and then the same old issues came back.

Anyway, for those interested, this is not looking good so far for SZ. While they did replace the first unit pretty quickly, the facts bear out that the original unit they sent out was fundamentally flawed apparently beyond repair. The next unit has had equal problems and SZ has resisted sending their own reps to look into the problem. Thay have also complained that the local service people are not calling in and reporting problems and service on the SZ tech line in accordance with SZ policy. We personally have listened to him talking to SZs tech line personally on several occassions.

Do we like another make or model better now? NO

Our 736 fits just what we were looking for, does a wonderful job when working and is custom built-in so we have no motivation to swap to another make or model now...we just want to use our SZ for an extended period (lets say YEARS) without a service call much like its Frigidair/GE/Amana predecessors most of whom are 15 plus years old today without so much as a service call.

Sorry fpr the long post.