I could certainly be wrong but from the sound of your post you sound like someone who has "aspired" to have a SubZero fridge not necessarily for a functional reason but to have the brand. It sounds as if you're going all out - two Miele dishwashers, etc. - so why not just go for the SZ? If you think about all the people who have been keeping their food chilled without investing in SZ, there has to be something people "value" about SZ other than it's functional ability to keep food chilled or frozen that would make them pay the premimum price. Could be appearance, appeal of saying you have the brand, etc. In any case if you want one and want to spend the $ go for it. It seems you can count on repairs with any brand these days - kind of like luxury auto brands. Just because you spend alot doesn't mean it will be trouble free.

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.

"I was grown up to believe that german technology was second to none." Geeze, I wished you could have taught the 2 mercedes Benzes that I owned that!!!!! After about 10 years of keeping the Service Dept of the Mercedes Benz dealership well financed, I finally got tired of that, and bought a 1993 Cadillac Allante. It has seen the Cadillac Dealer service dept once, and that was to buy and install a battery for it. I have a friend that still buys Mercedes, and after 70,000 miles gets rid of them as He says that's when the repair expenses start to really escalate! I did buy a Miele DW, back in 2006, as it was the ONLY DW, back in 2006 that had the 3rd tray, (cutlery rack). It is rarely used, and has been trouble free, whilst my Electrolux Oven, speed oven, Induction cooktop and wine fridge are used all the time, and are alto trouble free. My Jenn-air fridge has only needed 1 repair about $350, since 2006, You cant even talk to an SZ repair man for that (yeah I'm exaggerating just a little) and I doubt you would be able to get much repaired on a Liebherr fridge for that price either. Moral here, is there are more makes of fridges other than SZ or Liebher. Take a look at some of the Whirlpool products, (Kitchen-Aid, Jenn-air, Whirlpool), Look at some of the GE's. When I had my rentals, I just bought "garden variety fridges", and I never had any problems with them, certainly not the kinds of problems that you see with this new "esoteric Expensive Stuff"! Gary

We're not pros by any means but we purchased a 30" Bluestar Platinum when we moved last year. Originally we were looking at Wolf until learning about the flaking blue enamel on this site. Wekick's posts on this topic over the years have been very helpful. Before moving we had the 36" Sub Zero all freezer and 36" all refrigerator and appreciated how well they worked and Customer Service was fantastic. It's very disappointing that the SZ side of the business is so responsive while the Wolf side is dismal. In our new place we went with the SUB Zero BI 42" model. It was a real adjustment to the smaller size but this has worked well for us. As for the BlueStar - DH loves the big burner for his wok, and the oven has been perfect for his bread, tarts, pies, cookies etc. We also have a 30" Thermador wall oven which I tend to use because the height is better for me. The HVAC fellow who installed the MUA is married to a chef and they both cook. They were using a Garland from a local restaurant that went out of business and he was impressed with the simplicity of the BlueStar. I've posted these before - Ina Gartin's Tatin and bread.