Like so many others, this site has been an invaluable resource for me as I'm going through my kitchen remodel design process.

I have narrowed down my refrigerator to either Sub-Zero or Miele. But today, I was looking over the Sub-Zero installation guide and stumbled on a possible road block. The installation guide warned about installing the built-in freezer models to a softened water supply. The warning is against "malfunctioning" softeners specifically and that could damage the ice maker.

We have a whole-house water softner and since I know next to nothing about water softeners kind of worries me a bit. I know we can do things to make sure the water softener is working properly (that's on the hubby's list now!) but I was wondering if any Sub-Zero owners have ever had a problem with this. Also, what do people without water softeners or ROs do?

I'm also inclined to think that the potential problem could also occur with the Miele freezer's ice maker, although I don't know how the two brands' ice maker mechanism differ. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated too.

If there is no way to avoid soften water going to the ice maker, would installing an RO system avoid potential problems of a malfunctioning water softener? Again, my knowledge of ROs is as vast as my knowledge of water softeners, zelch! This is even after reading most of the threads on ROs.