I've had my SZ since '99 when the price tag didn't bother me. Now, its up there. I have a few friends who are realtors who tell me I've added to the value of my house as SubZero has such a great reputation. Even with the mechanical complexity of the ice on the door, I really haven't had any failures once I figured out that you have to switch from a Culligan Reverse Osmosis water purifier to a Kinetico Quickflow for the Ice maker to keep from overflowing. With the low water pressure of the Culligan, I had to manually defrost the icemaker when I tested to see if the freezer really can go below zero. Back in those times, the SZ was the only fridge with ice on the door that consumed less than 900Kw/H a year thanks to the air lock on the door dispenser and having two separate compressors for fridge and freezer. My house is solar, so that was very important to me. If water on the door dispenser stops flowing, you set the fridge temp below 34 and it froze. You can't leave salad stuff outside the crisper even at 34. It will freeze and decay quickly. Same thing with fruits like strawberries. They go bad faster if they start to freeze. My beer has never been as cold and delicious since it started resting in the meat drawer. Your mileage may vary. My other appliances are a beloved F&P dishdrawer and an AGA cooker. But, thats another thread.

Re sale. Funny I used to think that way, but then I realized that where I live, most seem to buy the house then redo it to the way they want it. My neghbor next door bought her house, redid it(interior only since we cannot change anything about the outside) and didn't move in for 8 months. She also removed the good appliances(I thought they were good) including the sub-zero in the kitchen. This has happened in several of the houses around here...they are bought..and the insides are replaced.... and these houses are far from being "run down" or in poor shape. So I am not going to worry about resale value when it comes to what appliances I have in the house. I buy what I want and I don't really care what my neighbors think about them, because when I am gone my ideas will get replaced.

I just got back from dropping off the Thermador rebate form at the post office. I went to a branch of a local appliance chain a couple of months ago (in the DC area) to look around only to find a heavily discounted floor model 30" Freedom refrigerator column. Since we'd been going in circles for what seemed like forever trying to decide what to do about refrigerators for our new kitchen, I figured this unexpected, very attractively priced floor model would force us to make a decision. Now, what to do about a freezer . . . . I've enclosed a link to the rebate form. If the link doesn't work, you can search "Thermador Freedom Collection rebate," and you'll find the form. Just make sure you have the one that expires in November 2007 rather than the one that expired earlier in the year. I also asked the salesman at the appliance store about a price drop on the Thermadors. He said he was not aware of one and that, in fact, the price was going up $100 or so. Go figure. Here is a link that might be useful: Thermador Freedom Collection rebate form

Panzer, I have Gaggenau single convection oven and combi-steam oven, as well as a Gaggenau induction cooktop. Plus a small Wolf gas cooktop. My fridge and freezer are Miele, Advantium speed oven, Monogram warming drawer and DW, Marvel fridge drawers. Modern Aire hood. I don't believe in going for a single brand. I like to chose what suits me best and panel everything that will stand still for it. :) (I.e., everything but the ovens, Advantium and cooktops.) I don't know anything about current pricing. You can call any of the big retailers and get pricing info that may not be published on the 'net. Universal-akb has a good internet sales department who can help you with that. And I think AJMadison also carries all of these. What I want most in an oven is control and accuracy. I also don't want gizmos to decide how the oven works, like rapid preheat, turns off when the door opens, uses preheat mode to regain temperature after you've opened the door and let out some heat, etc. Gaggenau let's you choose to have rapid preheat, but it's an option in the settings. I don't want any stinkin' computer thinking it knows how I want to cook better than I do, with all those features that I listed. That extends to the menu things on the MasterChef. I use them a little on the Advantium because it's so different than other kinds of cooking. So I LOVE my Gaggenau oven because it will do everything I want the way I want it. You can chose any combination of top or bottom heat, some with only the center on, with or without convection, broiler with or without, etc. It also has its own pizza stone with a special electric element which makes excellent crusts. It's only 12" wide, however, so if you want big pizzas/loaves you have to make them oblong. I can slow cook, dehydrate, souffle, multiple level cooking, broil small, roast big, and everything in between. It'll do anything I want, the way I want to do it. The combi-steam is a marvel. It's the perfect toy for the rich and lazy. :) Some people do up a whole kitchen for the cost of the combi- and plumbing. I just saved up. :) One of the best features is "regenerate". If you have a plate of leftovers, like some sliced meat, potatoes, and veg, you can make it up and put it on the rack in regenerate mode and have it come out perfectly heated and with none of it gone all weird or overcooked. I'm constantly learning new things I can do with it. My first tries at rice were horrible, even though it's dead easy on the stove. I'd given up when a friend was asking, so I gave it one more shot when I wasn't actually making a meal (used it later, reheated). Finally got it right. I found a formula, finally. Use 2/3 the amount of water suggested on the package. At least it worked for field picked organic brown rice. :) It's dead easy once you have that. Use the settings on the clue wheel and adjust the timing for the density of the rice. Dump the rice and water in the pan and flatten it out, put it in, set the timer and forget it. That makes it even easier than the boil and set aside method (though that can be programed into an induction cooktop with memory). My latest trick is the pseudo-braise. Choose a slow cooking temperature on 100% steam, perhaps with just a trickle of liquid in the pan if you just want the tender meat without the veg/sauce. Terrific! There are recipes available for the combi-steam, but if you're used to slow cooking, braising, steaming and similar wet techniques, you can kind of moosh what you know together with the temperatures/steam settings/durations from the clue wheel, adjust for density and mass and kind of figure out how to do anything you want. The plumbed is GREAT! I've been sick and really couldn't face cooking. I thought I could at least steam the green beans, which I had bought at a small store where they only had them in a package with the ends already cooked. That was just rinse, dump in pan, stick in combi-, dump in ice bath, dump in dish. The oven was hot and all so I did up the asparagus too. And the artichokes. Dead easy. Very little prep work. Yummy. I'm sorry I don't have better answers for your direct questions, but I can enthusiastically recommend the Gaggenau ovens.