What model do you have, applnut? I never had any problems with mine but I am curious about the recalls. Really a shame they have cheapened the newer ones as I sure like the features on mine, and nary a problem in the 7 years I've had it, except for an ice maker I replaced after 5 years, new ice maker works great. I wonder if some of their newer "Upscale Models" have the LED lighting and the crank shelves? While I'm a "Techquie" and like the LED lighting, I sure cant complain about the incandescents in mine, It has not blown a bulb yet, it the 7 years I've had it, and if you do accidently leave a door open , it turns off the lights after 5 minutes or so, and sounds an alarm, alto the alarm could be louder, (in my opinion), but as I recall, the door has only been improperly closed only once in the 7 years we have had it, there was pot/pan or box that had not been pushed far enough in to allow the door to close. Gary

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

Wow! Happy 75th and happy golden anniversary! I hope I last that long! I'm sure he'll match the panels and your wife's kitchen will be restored just in time to celebrate. Ive thought all of those things you mention about that roll out shelf. It's heavy duty, so it held something heavy. I can't imagine a Kitchenaid mixer there - it's right at the entrance to the living room and diagonal from the double ovens. I put my Kitchenaid clear across the room by the pantry and ovens (tray storage above ovens). The living room had an actual bar (it's been removed but was on the original plans and I removed the upper cabinet from the laundry room wall - kept bumping my head on it and don't need glassware storage upstairs). I agree, it's custom and I can't figure it out. We have a fire sprinkler system in the garage only (because, save the cars, of course). The house is quirky to say the least. As for baby proofing, well, we literally live on a cliff, so there's that. The house is currently raising its 3rd set of kids, so I suppose mine will survive just fine too. Just don't look down when the house is taking 80 mile per hour winds. Fortunately, the foundations are set 30 feet into bedrock. The cool thing is when the fog creeps in. The house looks like it's floating in the clouds. It's like a lair - complete with a pirate deck off the master. It's hard to be a grownup here sometimes......

This is a difficult decision, isn't it? We aren't big cooks but did consider resale value -- we looked at our local market and price range and determined we had to go with higher-end appliances to stay competitive in event we had to sell sooner than we expect. We ruled out Thermador as my SIL put in all Thermador appliances and had to replace every last one within the last 10 years. We went with Wolf for the oven/micro/cooktop. Miele for DW as we were replacing an older Bosch that had problems, and we love our Miele vacuum. The hardest decision was the fridge. We knew we wanted to do panel-ready so brand name, when it came to resell, wasn't all that important. We wound up splurging on a SZ because my parents have had one for 30 years and it's an excellent fridge. What's more, since we aren't huge cooks, a fridge that can keep food fresh a longer time is a very big benefit to us ---and boy does it do that! Takeout and leftovers stay fresh for weeks. And finally: I stood there in the appliance store and closed and opened less expensive french door fridges over and over... a zillion times.... and just couldn't get over the chintzy plastic part between the doors of most brands. Maybe it's a silly thing as that part is probably easily replaced. But I wondered about the rest of the fridge, the parts I couldn't see.