honugirl, I don't know if this will inspire confidence, but I'm on my 2nd Kitchenaid wall oven and cooktop combination and have only good things to say. We've never had any problems. Thank goodness. In fact, since we were so pleased with our Kitchenaid appliances from our former home, we reselected essentially the same models for our new place. The appliance dealer from whom we purchased, sells all the other brands, Viking, GE, Thermador, Miele, Wolf etc. and praised Kitchenaid as a quality product. It is disappointing & disheartening to read about the problems as related by other posters. However, it seems this is a venue for complaints on all products and brands. I guess we were blissfully ignorant before the internet and didn't 2nd guess a lot of things. Note to Jerrod, it is tiresome to see your negative and less than insightful comments. As a regular reader, I know you are a Miele fan. Not everyone is interested in import brands and like I said above, there are plenty of complaints about them as well. I.E., last year a member, I believe "Fairgold", could not get her 5 year old Miele dishwasher properly repaired & functioning. Miele offered no help, so she replaced the machine with a Bosch. That hardly fits the 20 year life span that is so breathlessly talked about. Add the cost of the 2 machines together, she could have had a lifetime supply of ordinary brand machines.

I did a little sleuthing with my friend google and read a technician's website who said the self-clean feature can (and does) damage a great many models, not just the KA. I thought I would toss it out for others to appreciate or berate :). Here's a cut/paste of the text. ====== Before you choose to run you oven in the ?Self Clean? mode be sure to read this. After viewing many hundreds of range and oven problems there is one constant theme that comes through. ?After running the self clean feature? on my oven I have this problem or that problem. Whether the oven is gas or electric does not seem to matter. The common thing is that the self cleaning feature was just used on the oven, and now it is not working, the glass broke, or you now, cannot even get the door open. The basic idea of a self cleaning oven is to get the oven so hot that you incinerate everything that is in the oven. The heat from this process will burn up everything in the oven and sometimes things outside also. Even though the wiring and controls are built to withstand high heat, taking the oven to such high temperatures pushes everything to the limit. If something is not insulated perfectly or has shifted a bit then the heat causes it to fail. Repeated heating also wears the insulation out and causes it to break down. For this reason the self cleaning features should be used sparingly. Manufacturers want to please the customer so even though they know that this can create problems they also know that this feature sells more products. It is in your best interest to not even use this feature if possible. If you have a oven that will not unlock after the cycle you have a few things you can try. First make sure that you wait long enough before you try to open the oven. If it has not cooled completely it will not open. Do not run a clean cycle when you do not have the time to let it cool completely before you need it. Sometimes if you cycle the power to your oven off and then on again you can reset the oven and it will open. Turn off the breaker to your oven for a good minute or two before reapplying the power again. If this fails to work then check your manual for instructions or to get a factory service number. They should be able to give you the information you need to open your oven. Here is a link that might be useful: self-clean issues explained

Not your models, but I had an early architect for which KA refunded me the purchase price and I currently have a ge profile. I'm critical by nature, so take that into account when reading the following. GE's grate design isn't the best or even second best. Where the tines open up between burners, small pots can drop through (the continous grates thing is lost on them). You can see the same sort of mistake on the Cafe. Their burner head design is awful. It actually takes LONGER to boil water on the 17k burner than the 12k because the diameter of the burner is so big it can't be used efficently for most pots. Conversely, the simmer burner runs too hot! KA's burners and grates are a better design and deliver more practical heat. However, the refund was because the burners kept melting the porcelain coating off the grates! Both the profile and ka have fairly low power, low efficency broilers. More expensive KA's have better broiling systems. The self-clean works well on both. My profile is two years old. The oven enamel has chipped off in places (naked and rusting are spots the size of quarters) where the racks go. I do not move the racks often. The bottom of the oven has other wierd defects including a 10" circle you can feel. After using both mfgr burners, I think you'd be best off with models that offered dual or triple ring burners. The cafe has at least one and a more powerful broiler. I would hesitate on the cafe because the ones I have seen in person look... well, they have fit and finish issues. Have you checked out the electrolux? It has much the same feature set as the cafe and just under $2k. Here is a link that might be useful: Electrolux

I'll second joeb's opinion. Weren't too sure of Therm ME at first, but when compared with everything else on the market - it came in with the best overall deal as far as cubic size, bells & whistles, pre-heat, and full backing of app. store (in writing), so we went for it. There have been some concerns, but believe a lot of issues have been resolved. Got an xtended warr just in case. Considered KA - really liked the looks, but frankly, repair issues & customer service have been really iffy for quite some time, so we opted for Therm instead.