Gary's picture is a very helpful illustration. It shows raised panels that do not have that puffy look that I warned against. I totally disagree with LWO, which is very rare. It is a designer's job, and LWO is a professional designer as is the KD you're working with, to say these things, but it doesn't sound to me at all like you're planning an "upper end kitchen". It sounds like a very nice kitchen, but more value oriented than high end. I definitely agree with your reasoning that the choice of fridge should be based on your ideas of form and function. You like your choice of fridge. Choosing a different one to suit what the Jones are doing in the magazines or what designers think is the latest hot look will take away from the rational choice you've made for yourself. I went into my own kitchen remodel assuming I was getting SubZero, and preferring integrated, and still looked at freestanding fridges like the KA to compare them and see if I liked them better. I didn't. I liked Miele better, so went that. You sound like you've done enough shopping and know what you want. If the look of what you want bothered you, you would have worded your post differently. There is nothing wrong with having the edge of the fridge showing like Gary has--it's a very nice kitchen, but not designery and it wouldn't change the look if the fridge were integrated. There's nothing wrong with having the freestanding panelled fridge you're talking about, and putting nicely made panels on it, and having the sides show a little in the opening with a couple inches of air space. It's not built-in, but it's decorated to match the kitchen. It's not a high end, designery look, but it's perfectly fine. I find the comments otherwise to show more about the snobbery of the people writing them than the look itself. Matching things are out, right now. That's a big part of the problem. The people who want to be "in" decide that it's wrong to match if you can't make the match indistinguishable. It therefore must be integrated. Some people really make the match perfect, with faux drawer fronts and all so that you really can't tell where the fridge is. People aren't advocating that. I think if you can tell by the size and shape of the panels, it doesn't matter whether it's integrated, built-in but frame showing, or free-standing. It's still a fridge, and a fridge is a fridge, and what you want it to look like in it's fridgeness is entirely up to you. I also disagree about the death of the work triangle. I cook. I walk that triangle constantly. I have two fridges and two sinks, so there are different versions of the triangle which overlap, but I would never, ever, given a choice, remove the fridge from the main cooking area. People remodel their kitchens just to correct this problem. A big reason I planned a full remodel from the time I placed the offer to buy the house was the distance from the fridge to the stove. It was massively inconvenient even in an almost straight line. Moving the fridge out of the kitchen just so you won't have to look at it is something that people may do nowadays, but it is greatly impeding the function for cooking. People also buy vastly uncomfortable chairs because they look good, and then sit on the floor with pillows because they don't like sitting on the chairs. For some people looks is the most important thing of all. I've always admired the Duesenberg, one of the best and most beautiful cars ever made. They designed the works first, then designed the beautiful carriage to fit over them.

The Liebherr HC2062 below is fully integrated custom panel French door refrigerator. It is right up there with Sub-Zero in terms of performance and quality. If "Being Green" is important to you here is Liebherr's statement. Liebherr's list of responsible production initiatives is longstanding. For example: �Liebherr was the first appliance manufacturer worldwide to remove CFCs completely from the production process in 1993 �Since 2000, Liebherr's considerable investment to ensure environmental compatibility has resulted in the reduced use of chemicals, solvents and energy consumption �Liebherr has established central waste and resource collection stations at their manufacturing facilities �The packaging materials on all products are 100% recyclable �The water used in the production process is purified and pollution-free �The energy released during production is recovered and utilized again in heating the manufacturing environments. Liebherr is an industry leader in green manufacturing and we use ActiveGreen as a symbol for our responsible practises. We've invested in the research and development necessary to proactive and to make a difference. And our products, as a result, embody green design. No More Harmful Substances As of summer of 2007, all Liebherr appliances in North America met RoHS compliance making Liebherr the FIRST refrigeration manufacturer to comply with this practise worldwide. RoHS stands for the "Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment" and eliminates the use of major hazardous substances in the production of Liebherr products such as lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd) and certain types of chrome and biphenyl. Liebherr has found better, greener ways to produce quality products - materials that are less damaging and have less impact on our eco-systems. Recycling old components will no longer cause issue because there is no lead and mercury to be disposed of. RoHS compliance will certainly become mandatory in the years to come in North America (it is already being implemented in Europe) but Liebherr has decided to be proactive instead of reactive. Why wait? Why continue using these substances when they are known to be harmful? ** If you live anywhere near Chicago Reed Appliance is taking offers on a floor model. They won't ship though. Here is a link that might be useful: Liebherr HC2062

Here's the report from the higher end: I have to have a heater because I don't have enough of the right kind of mass in my typical load for the convection dry of Euro models to work. I've heard good things about Kenmore Elite, but know nothing about it. I don't like the racks in the Whirlpool family. This left me very few choices. I started with Viking. It's supposed to have a dryer. But what I thought was a coil in the bottom is a gasket, and the dryer is a blower. Everything about this dishwasher is fantastic. I love the racks, etc. But my dishes couldn't get dry. I'm not talking about a little bit of damp. I'm talking great big water drops all over everything. Viking were very cool about it, tried replacing the dryer parts, then took it back, no questions. It should work for anyone who can do a convection style like Miele, because, basically, it has an enhanced convection. This is one of the new units that Viking are making in house, that are very well designed indeed. They're trying to get their good name back. I ended up with Monogram. The racks are okay, though most of the tines are too close together. There are some decent adjustments, and the upper rack works with my upper rack items (not true of Whirlpool family). With this one, the normal cycle is what gets it its conservation ratings, and is useless. Plastics cycle with added heat and heated dry get me something that works like a plain old dishwasher, though the dishes aren't as sparkly clean as my old mid-range, 15 year old Whirlpool (from before the annoying racks). It doesn't like set on gunk. The normal cycle with added heat and added dry will get the dishes sparkly, but really not the plastics, and even my flatware are plastic (acrylic handled fancy Italian stuff). I think one of the other cycles might "clean" better, but few of my dishes require a lot of cleaning. I require drying. This DW is fine but not brilliant. A nice feature of the Monogram is that the door has a little gap before the counter. You can cover this with your panel if you don't like the look, but if you leave it, there's a display on the top edge that says how long the cycle will take, how long is left, which step it's on, and has a done light you can use to say all clean. It also comes with a little handle in the front which makes it easy to use between plumbing installation and panel installation.

Ok I guess at the end the difference between panel ready integrated or non integrated relies on the fact that the fridge allows for flush install or not (they all state 24" deep when they state "panel-ready" so I guess they can have flush install, including the Dacor above, but i will call Dacor to be safe). Basically you just need to have a cabinet guy that understands that he has to get me cabinet depth and panel width in a way that everything is flush. But there is not such a thing as integrated or not integrated to me, it is all about the depth of the cabinets and width of panels. All panels ready fridge who are 24" depth are "integratable", as long as cabinets allow it. It is the cabinet design that "integrates". Do we agree or am I missing something?