We've been looking at the 36" Thermador/Bosch (French door versions) as well as the Liebherr. (Meile doesn't have an FD model yet, plus the wifi on a fridge seems stupid to us, even though we work for an internet company. Gaggenau, well, same thing with more stainless and more $$.) I think the Therm/bosch have motorized shelves too. The Therm/Bosch seems a little more solid than the Liebherr--the doors work better--but they seem similar on usable space to the Liebherr. We like the LOOKS of the double freezer drawer on Liebherr better but I suppose a cabinet guy could fake that look on the Therm/Bosch. We liked the Bosch interior better than the Therm, but neither of us can remember why. Probably the fewer $$. :) If you're in the CA bay area, I know of at least one dealer with all 4 bosch lookalikes, with the Thermador and bosch side-by-side. Very helpful to sell the Bosch! The spouse preferred the door storage on the Liebherr, but I think relearning where you put things will take care of that sort of issue.

Gary's picture is a very helpful illustration. It shows raised panels that do not have that puffy look that I warned against. I totally disagree with LWO, which is very rare. It is a designer's job, and LWO is a professional designer as is the KD you're working with, to say these things, but it doesn't sound to me at all like you're planning an "upper end kitchen". It sounds like a very nice kitchen, but more value oriented than high end. I definitely agree with your reasoning that the choice of fridge should be based on your ideas of form and function. You like your choice of fridge. Choosing a different one to suit what the Jones are doing in the magazines or what designers think is the latest hot look will take away from the rational choice you've made for yourself. I went into my own kitchen remodel assuming I was getting SubZero, and preferring integrated, and still looked at freestanding fridges like the KA to compare them and see if I liked them better. I didn't. I liked Miele better, so went that. You sound like you've done enough shopping and know what you want. If the look of what you want bothered you, you would have worded your post differently. There is nothing wrong with having the edge of the fridge showing like Gary has--it's a very nice kitchen, but not designery and it wouldn't change the look if the fridge were integrated. There's nothing wrong with having the freestanding panelled fridge you're talking about, and putting nicely made panels on it, and having the sides show a little in the opening with a couple inches of air space. It's not built-in, but it's decorated to match the kitchen. It's not a high end, designery look, but it's perfectly fine. I find the comments otherwise to show more about the snobbery of the people writing them than the look itself. Matching things are out, right now. That's a big part of the problem. The people who want to be "in" decide that it's wrong to match if you can't make the match indistinguishable. It therefore must be integrated. Some people really make the match perfect, with faux drawer fronts and all so that you really can't tell where the fridge is. People aren't advocating that. I think if you can tell by the size and shape of the panels, it doesn't matter whether it's integrated, built-in but frame showing, or free-standing. It's still a fridge, and a fridge is a fridge, and what you want it to look like in it's fridgeness is entirely up to you. I also disagree about the death of the work triangle. I cook. I walk that triangle constantly. I have two fridges and two sinks, so there are different versions of the triangle which overlap, but I would never, ever, given a choice, remove the fridge from the main cooking area. People remodel their kitchens just to correct this problem. A big reason I planned a full remodel from the time I placed the offer to buy the house was the distance from the fridge to the stove. It was massively inconvenient even in an almost straight line. Moving the fridge out of the kitchen just so you won't have to look at it is something that people may do nowadays, but it is greatly impeding the function for cooking. People also buy vastly uncomfortable chairs because they look good, and then sit on the floor with pillows because they don't like sitting on the chairs. For some people looks is the most important thing of all. I've always admired the Duesenberg, one of the best and most beautiful cars ever made. They designed the works first, then designed the beautiful carriage to fit over them.

Not sure about the "Consistency" of my good friends advice here. First He recommends the SZ, by now most folks know about the copper problems(2004-2007) that contributed to their bottom ranking by Consumer Reports--even one of their marketing guys admitted that. He or another SZ type also said that another reason for the low rating was they had a 2 year warranty, instead of a one year. Now I don't know bout you, but I don't get a "warm fuzzy feeling" knowing that enough SZ's needed warranty work in the 2nd year to contribute to their low reliability ratings. We haven't seen these types of posts recently regarding SZ problems--so--I guess we can assume you feel they corrected the problem/problems and hence you recommend. Take a look at recent posts about Elux Fridges (within the last year or so), most are now positive---so why not "Forgive and forget" like you do with the SZ. I, in fact, had recommended not buying Elux Refrigerators, due to the earlier posts, (alto I'm very happy with my other Elux appliances)----Now I am keeping an open mind, due to some of the imformative posts by the Ladies above! We can learn a lot from these Ladies (Above), if we keep an "Open Mind" Cheers! Gary

Here's what I said in another thread about counter depth, one upper door, bottom freezer drawer fridges: Check out the interior of each available brand's model (there aren't very many) and look at the filter holder, light bulb cover, type of shelf brackets, and type of door shelves/bins. All of these can take up a lot of the stated cubic foot space, or at least seem to make the configured space less versatile). I really like our new SS counterdepth, one upper door, bottom freezer drawer, KA fridge (KBLA20ERSS $2,200) that we got after kitchen update in June. But, our previous (white and counterdepth bottom freezer) Amana of the same cubic foot size had more useable and versatile space because of the configuration within the interior. Every empty fridge looks pretty roomy on the showroom floor. "Empty" is what fools the eye.