Nice bit of "Jenn-air" history, hvtech42! My only disagreement with it would be to "Lump all the JA products together" in the "History Lesson". I have no experience with the JA cooking products, (cooktops, ranges, ovens~~~etc). But I do have a lot of experience with a Jenn-air Fridge and in fact, I've done a lof of research on them. Back in 2006, I was looking for a 48" built in fridge. Back then, I only had 3 choices, (or at least that's all I could find in stores and on the net). One was GE, since I had a GE S X S full sized fridge I was going to replace, (I could not get icemaker parts even during it's one year warranty)!!, & It leaked and rusted out the sides of the fridge~~sooooo~~~~GE was out of the running, (back in 2006). The other choices were SZ and Jenn-air. Apparently SZ was having evaporator problems back in 2006, (some say it was a copper problem, others say it was caused by copper tubing and aluminum fins on the tubing)~~~~anyway~~~SZ was rated "Dead Last" in reliability by Consumer Reports~~~~yeah I know, but I took time to research the evaporator problem and found out enough about it to scare me off! Jenn-Air "S X S as well has built ins" have been rated the #1 fridge for reliability by readers of Consumer Reports since 2006, and today I believe it is "Tied" with another manufacturer for the #1 position, SZ is about 4 points below, (So not significant, at least to me). The Jenn-Air of 2006 was "Way Ahead of it's Thyme". It offered conveniences and attributes that even most fridges today don't offer. It was one of the first to use the variable speed compressor, very quiet and efficient and great temp control. It has digital readouts and settings for 3 different areas of the fridge, (Meat Keeper, Chrisper and main compartment). It has a 4th digital readout and control for the freezer. It has crank up and down shelves---luv those, so handy when encountering a tall bottle or whatever! The fridge also has built in Diagnostics The disgnostics will check the speed of every fan in the fridge, it will check compressor speed, check the flap operation between the fridge and freezer, all in all about 31 diagnostic test~~~~~sooooo~~~~if I ever have a problem with the fridge, I should be able to pretty well "Nail down" which part is causing the problem and make sure the appliance repair company has it, BEFORE they come out and have a "Look SEE" as they do with most fridge repairs. So, great history lesson, but I think you have to (at the very least) split the JA Fridge from the JA cooking appliances to really see "The Whole Picture"! Unfortunately, today, 2014, it looks like Whirlpool may have removed a lot of the things I really like about my JA Fridge, The crank up/down shelves, The 3 different temp settings for different areas of the fridge, and I would bet money they removed the "Diagnostics" Too!! Gary

Ha, we just spent all weekend having that debate about the dishwasher! :) You can do it any way you like---doesn't affect the functionality, so it's just aesthetic. The problem we had (we have the Inspira with prefinished door) is that the "natural" way to open our door involves putting your thumb on the top of it, and to do that we had to either lower the dishwasher or pull it out from being flush with the cabinet doors. In the end we left it flush and just lowered it, but I think it's a wash on the aesthetics. One way it lines up vertically with the cabinets; the other it lines up with the depth of the cabinets. The awesome thing about the Miele is that you can play with it after installation before screwing it in---all of the screws/controls to lower and raise it are accessible from the front, so you just slide it into place and then wiggle it till you're happy with how it looks. Super, super easy installation (aside from the spousal agreement bit). We left 24" for the dishwasher and 36" for the range even though neither of our appliances is actually that big. Our cabinetmaker just put filler in to cover the difference; it can be unscrewed in the future if someone wants to put a 24" dishwasher or 36" range in, with no cabinet hacking needed. That was important to me, since we were remodeling a kitchen with lots of "cubbies" for 1940s appliances that couldn't adjust to modern dimensions at all. So we actually did that for all three appliance spaces (36" for the fridge though ours is only 30", with an adjustable shelf to allow for variable height).

I have a KA dishwasher and I'm very happy with it. I was torn between the KA and a Bosch, I'm sure I would have been happy with the Bosch as well. Being single, your DD probably won't be running the DW everyday. She could go with an entry-level Bosch which will satisfy all of her needs and give her the Bosch name for resale. I have a Bosch slide-in range. While it performs great, I wouldn't recommend it because the oven fan is very loud. (Why does a company known for quiet DWs make loud ranges?) I have chosen to live with it because I love the way it looks in my white kitchen. However, if I were to replace it I would go with a Kenmore Elite. They have great reviews and are quiet! As far as what color... I usually prefer stainless EXCEPT I do really like white appliances in a white kitchen. It always looks fresh and clean and sleek. And since this is a starter condo, will it really make that much of a difference at resale? Which has more appeal - a white Bosch DW or a stainless Frigidaire? Nicole

When I moved into my husbands home after we got married, he thought I was crazy when I told him theres something wrong with his newer Bosch dishwasher because it wouldn't dry plastics. He said thats how all dishwashers work, but I insisted that my old one dried just fine. Getting fed up with the plastics always being wet, I did some research and found out you have to use JetDry with the Bosch (which I personally think is absurd they would make a dishwasher that requires it to work effectively and a scam to get you to spend more money). I was also able to change some of the default settings to make it dry better. With the setting change and always having to use jetdry, it dries much better, but I also got rid of most of our plastics. We have twin 1yo girls now and have been using Silicone dishes for them which works well. But if we move to more plastics, I might just go crazy and have to get a new dishwasher.