cannuck - I agree if I am footing the bill but I am not. I have hedged my bets a bit and I DO know exactly what has been done so far that was disclosed but that is not the point and I really care not. The point is that, as I said before, a fundamentlly flawed product should be replaced not repaired. As for best in class, I agree with antss 100% that that does not guarantee 100% perfection. What it does stand for in my mind is if the product is clearly defective from the start it should be replaced not repaired. I have dealt with best of class operations and manufacturers and they are VERY protective of their reputation and replace in similar situations without question. I have not slammed the dealer yet b/c I had yet to put my foot down until I learned of the defect on delivery. He represents he was not aware of the issue either. It apparently was a condensation leak on the floor that required a part to be replaced. We have antique heart pine floors in our kitchen and the last thing they or I want is that repair bill. The good news is that the dealer is now of the opinion that the unit should be replaced and, by his representation, this most recent repair is to buy us time until they can get us a new one. On a less encouraging note, the distributor alleges that the repair person did not follow protocol by calling the service into the distributor which both the dealer and we as witnesses know he did. Also, it was the actually the distributor that told the current repairman of the initial repair. Apparently the employee who intalled our unit is no longer with the dealer. In the current repairman's call to the distributor they apparently asked about the original repair October 2, 2007 which none of us knew about. I admit I was more than miffed at antss' initial responses to my original posts but he/she did answer an important question..."Is this a persistent problem with these units or am I just the lucky one who got a lemon?" Given the majority of the responses to date, I am convinced it is the latter and told my dealer I had not lost confidence in SZ or the 736 TC, just this particular one. Hopefully we are on the road to satisfaction. I do not want anyting I did not pay for but I do want full value for dollar paid. Additionally, I will admit to major frustration. Of the the most expensive items we sacrificed for in this house 3 of the top 5 are the ones we are still battling with now 6 months later. Just like anyone else, when we do the research, check our facts then are willing to pay the extra bucks to get the TOL, it is very frustrating when you fairly consistently do not get it. Thanks for the insight!

Greg, yes -- I have the columns in stainless and they are beautiful. I never really liked the grill over the top of most built-ins and this use of space makes so much more sense to mer -- as well as looks better. Mine are installed side by side with the kit. They are very quiet and the ice maker has worked well. I questioned it once when my son was taking a cooler of ice water to band camp each day and we were using ice at home, but I think the drawer got put back without getting pushed back all the way. It wasn't the best time to discover that, but we never ran out and those were the hottest days of our summer. I really like the way it looks, but I enjoy how well the space is used inside. I love the full extension drawers. The location and size of the drawers and compartments has worked well. It's just easy to use -- both the fridge and the freezer. I did look at the SZ 736. I like the look of it, but for the life of me, I don't know why SZ thinks people want to reach dow to the floor for ice. Doesn't seem practical here in TX and it wouldn't be good for me -- I have neck problems. Our KD wanted us to see one on display. We waited to see it and decided against it in a matter of a few seconds. And it was design --not even getting to reliability or lack of.

I think I want a stainless Miele dishwasher with hidden controls, but I don't like any of their handle options. In my quest to decide on visible vs. hidden control dishwasher (see my earlier post), I discovered the option mentioned in this post: Order a Miele fully-integrated unfinished dishwasher along with the optional "blank" (no holes, no handle) stainless front panel, no-holes (Miele part number 21995337D). However, I've looked at the cartoon installation instructions referred to above, and I can't quite figure out how this works with a stainless panel. The instructions seem to show how it works with a wood panel, but I'm unclear on how my own handle would attach to a stainless panel. I realize you can drill through the stainless (well, I can't, but my installer can), but I'm not sure what a handle would "grab onto" in a stainless panel, because I'm not sure what the stainless panel looks like out of the box. If you order part number 21995337D, do you get 3/4-inch thick stainless steel? The install instructions say the panel has to be 3/4 inches thick, but if it were pure metal that would weigh 100 pounds! Or is it a thin sheet of stainless over some type of wood? My problem is that I can't figure out if I need some special type of handle with special dimensions, or if this stainless, no-holes, no-handle panel from Miele is engineered in some way to grab onto any handle that can be screwed in from behind. Has anyone ever seen this panel, and can you explain how it works to install a custom handle onto it?

BK - you are just flat out wrong wrong here. SZ makes their own fridges in their own factories, and about the only thing that is of Whirlpool design is the $50 ice maker unit that 60+% of the industry uses ! They fabricate their own steel and plastic cases, source their own, copper and glass, spray their own insulation , designed their own ethelyene filter, and on and on. Whirlpool wasn't even in the fridge business until a decade after SZ was producing theirs , and the only reason Whirlpool got in it was because of a merger. and, we all know about mergers. SZ has and these units in real homes for twelve plus months already , so they kinda know what is flawed with them. These also aren't just some half baked platform off the drawing board like your Maytag example. Further , Maytag ceases to exist because they were boneheads. Their Neptune debacle blew a hole in the ship, and the Amana acquisition enlarged it. And guess who picked up the pieces folks? Yep, BK's white knight and general do gooder, Whirlpool. Happy, I know it's a tough decision for you right now with this model change especially since they are different sizes. I would go for he new design, simply because that 7xx platform is almost twenty years old now and the 36" one is not the best size anyway. Have you considered one of the 36" ers from one of the Miele, Gaggenau, Thermador cousins? They are all top quality and roughly the same price as that 736. Available now and first of the year no changes, proven platform with nice features, and they integrate very smoothly.