I had a pair of Thermador Columns installed in December (30" Fridge, 30" Freezer). I love them. I had a hard time deciding between the above set vs. 27" pair from SubZero. So far, everything has worked perfectly and I'm very happy with my decision. My final deciding points were: For about 20% less money I could get 25% more storage. (The 27" SubZeros were about 25% more money compared to the 30"), and I had room for either. I LOVED the way the doors on the Thermadors swung fully to the outside of the fridge, rather than staying within the front of the fridge. Opening is so much wider feeling. As for now living with it, here are some thoughts on concerns others have brought up: I'm 5/2" and have no complaints about the top shelves. They are high, but I prefer that to stooping over for lower stuff. And the drawers are great! And I like the shallow shelves, with deeper door stuff because no more lost stuff in the back of the fridge. The doors hold ALL the condiment type stuff and the rest is wide open for large jugs of milk, juice, and everything else! One of the comments I get most when people look inside is: WOW, you can see EVERYTHING at a glance! It all seems to be at eye level and just item or two deep. No more hidden leftovers & stuff. The shelves are still deep enough to hold two gallons of milk, one in front of the other, as well as my big huge serving platter, cookie sheets, and pizza boxes. So no need for the shelves to be any deeper for me. I love the ice bucket location. Open the door and it's right at waist/chest level. Perfect. As I said before - no regrets so far!

I posted these questions in the "Kitchens" forum, but then it was pointed out to me that they might belong here instead. Apologies for double posting: OVEN BROILER: The broiler element in the top oven of my double oven used to work fine. Now it heats up partway, but it no longer gets fully hot. It never turns red, for instance, and food placed under it does not really cook. The top oven still bakes with no problem. The bottom oven works fine. Do you think I need to replace the broiler element? Or is the problem somewhere else? Is this a DIY fix? Thanks! SUB-ZERO FRIDGE LIGHT: I have a Sub-Zero 511 fridge in my kitchen, of indeterminate age. The previous owners installed it, and we've lived there since 2006. The lights inside the fridge have stopped working. Over a period of a few months, the fridge light became intermittent. Sometimes it would be off, but fiddling with the switch would cause it to come on. Then it quit completely. I took the plastic cover off to find that this fridge has four specialty bulbs. All of them had turned black. I ordered and installed all new replacement bulbs. The fridge still won't light up. This suggests to me that something may be wrong in the switch assembly. Is this a DIY fix? If anyone has any guidance in disassembling a Sub-Zero light switch, I'd be grateful.

hvtech42 - I'm looking at refrigerators now and agree with you. My situation is my almost 20 year old KA side by side is still working fine (has some very minor cosmetic issues). But I'm replacing my kitchen floor. So - if I ever want to replace the KA before it dies - now's the time to do it. When I look at the build quality of refrigerators (at least the stuff I can see and handle - drawers - shelves and the like) - the current SZs seem to have the build quality of my old KA. The new KAs are a lot worse. Some models of some brands like Samsung and LG seem to have better build quality than KA. So I am confused at this point. Also - when I got price quotes - the cheapest SZ quote was $7400 for a 36" side by side. Is that reasonable? I find it kind of maddening that getting price quotes on these things is like pulling teeth. Nothing on line or over the phone. I don't have problems getting price quotes on $75k cars or $1000/night hotel rooms. I think the notion that if you have to ask what something costs you can't afford it is ridiculous. Most people who wind up having money to spend didn't get there by being cost-oblivious. I live in a somewhat higher end house - but don't give a hoot about resale. I'm in my late 60's - and figure my next stop is a nursing home.or grave. My primary concern is build quality that leads directly to reliability. In the end - a refrigerator isn't a design statement. It's a utility stream. I have never had a refrigerator fail. Not even the low end harvest gold one in my first condo. That I gave to my late mother in the mid-1970's when I remodeled my kitchen (it was still humming when that house was sold in 2005). Or the super cheap ($175) bare bones absolute bottom of the line 20 year old one from Montgomery Ward that we use in our garage to store things like beer and water. Have needed some repairs on ice makers over the decades - but that seems to be par for the course with any brand. Refrigerators that fail seems to be a new phenomenon in recent years. Is my perception wrong? Finally - when I moved where I live now (almost 20 years ago) - there was no outfit that serviced high end appliances in terms of warranty work. Now there is. And it's the same outfit that will do the warranty work not only on your $10k SZ - but someone else's $800 Whirlpool. First come - first served. This alone would give me pause about a SZ (the repair outfit in question isn't the worst in town - but it's far from the best either - the best today IMO doesn't do any warranty work at all now). It's kind of like paying for concierge medical care - and having to wait a long time in waiting rooms to see doctors who are also seeing lots of Medicaid patients. Perhaps this sounds snobby. But - if I paid such a large amount of money for an appliance - I would expect not only a superior product - but superior service as well on the hopefully few and far between occasions when I needed it. Robyn

Give us the model # for the fridge, please, that way we will know what ice maker it has in it. I "believe" it was Antss that posted the ice makers were made by Whirlpool. If that be the case, mine died after about 5 years and was easily replaced my me for about $125, (it's a plug in). The way those ice makers work, is after the cubes are made, it has a heater that comes on just before the motor comes on that turns the device (kind of a "auger thing") that removes the ice from the tray. If that heater is burned out, (like mine was), then the motor is just not strong enough to remove those cubes, without slightly heating them first. If you just push on the cubes, (gently), you should not busticate anything. Not sure I would use a hair dryer to heat it a bit, as you are around water and a ground, and if~~~~~~well you might be missing a lot longer than you were, this time, (LOL). Gary