Most of the larger Ikea kitchen appliances sold in USA/Canada come from Whirlpool USA or Whirlpool Italy. The ikeafans.com website is a good source of information on how their products work in the real world.

owls4me and craigintx, Thank You both for the kind comments about our kitchen. That is really nice. While I still think it is a v. pretty space, the thing which pleases me most is its function! This kitchen is considerably smaller than the kitchen from which we moved (in CA), but somehow we have scads more workspace and my partner and I can work in it together, which children and pets weaving around as well. That's saying something. You know, I'm not sure how long it really took us to plan -- it was in fits and starts, dribs and drabs. We first spent a long and considered time picking out the appliances, figuring everything else (cabinetry) would have to fall in place around those. We already knew we were a drawer-loving family, so that was also easy. Everyone has outside considerations: work, family, etc., but I don't know if I'm more easily frazzled than others (I know I am definitely not less so!). But, from the time we moved into this house (and the appliances were already selected at that point) until we did our sign-off on the final plans was eight months. Of that eight months, however, I'd say only three-four of them were on the layout -- the rest was interviewing cabinet companies / makers, coming up with the door, drawer, moulding styles, figuring out the finishes (faucets, pulls / knobs, other hardware), plus a one+ month break for me from Shingles. A big, important and time-consuming piece of our pie was moving and narrowing the entrance to the dining room. It sounds simple, but for some reason every single person who measured things came up with unique measurements (in all it varied by six inches). Because of that we weren't sure the width of certain cabs, so when we signed with a specific cabinetmaker who was responsible for the measurements (since he'd be building the cabs) we were able to fully commit to cabs Y" wide. (and as it was, things on that wall were still a little funny [meaning the cabinetmaker's measurements ended up being nearly two inches off as well!] our wonderful carpenter was able to hide the extra two inches with some clever casing) The reason I think it would've taken considerably longer for me using IKEA is because of how to retrofit the IKEA cabs to get the things we just told the cabinetmaker "we want X." With IKEA, we'd have had to figure out how to jerry-rig V to get that X. Seeing the IKEA kitchens here I absolutely know everything would have been possible, but it would have been possible with more thought on my part. Also because I had a v. specific vision of what I wanted the door / drawer styles to look like (let alone the fridge, freezer and dishwasher panels), that would've been an additional project for me to find and then work with someone for those doors / drawers. Would it have been possible? You bet, but I'm being honest when I write that at the time I was overwhelmed, and I really didn't know if I could put anything else on my plate. Now, in hindsight, I wish I had done just that. This is v. embarrassing to admit, but because we made a bit of money selling our CA house I felt flush, so I chose to kinda throw money at it instead of being more creative and finding / making time to figure other options out. I think the most creative kitchens are from those who don't "take the easy way." (I am NOT saying our budget was limitless, I'm just saying at that time I had more money than sense!) Two things I really, really wish I'd done differently: 1) When we moved into this house I wish we'd unpacked everything, all our kitchen stuff, so we could've seen what we had and the dimensions. We got lucky that everything fits, but I know I could've done better planning having everything out. 2) I wish we'd seriously investigated IKEA. Who knows? Maybe it would've turned out to not work for us, but because of it being out of state we didn't give it a second thought. I honestly regret that. Hope this rambling message makes sense!

Yes, the Bosch 300 panel-ready models are about the same price, if you shop around. I don't know what Ikea is doing right now, but so far their appliances for the US have been mostly whirlpool, a few electrolux. There's nothing wrong with that, except that when problems happen it's easy for ikea and whirlpool or elux to point fingers at each other forever, while you wait for service. On the whole, the general consensus has been that ikea appliances aren't worth the savings unless you never, ever have a problem with them.

So here are the dimensions specifically pulled from my manual for our soon to arrive counter depth fridge. It specifically shows the side panels for the "built in look" should be 25" deep. That takes into account the 23 7/8" deep fridge plus 1" min airspace clearance. The IKEA panels come in 25" deep (90" long) and 36" deep (96" long) options. I'll likely need to go with the 96" long panel to completely fill in the sides floor to ceiling. The manual is not clear about how far the doors will open with 25" deep panels. Does anyone have personal experience that can confirm how far your doors open with 25" side panels? Direct from the manual: When installing refrigerator adjacent to wall, cabinet or other appliance that extends beyond front edge of unit, 20" minimum clearance recommended to allow for optimum 120° to 180° door swing, providing complete drawer / crisper access and removal. (Absolute 4-1/2" minimum clearance will ONLY allow for 90° door swing which will provide drawer / crisper access with restricted removal.)