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.

A couple weeks ago, I visited the 2062 in a showroom and noticed... 1) both doors opened whenever I opened one 2) the doors did not close on their own easily unless I closed both at once 3) the handle-to-door connection seemed weak, as if the steel skin on the door was not adhered to the underlying door frame. Not sure when this unit was made. It was not turned on and of course it had nothing stored in the doors. I came home and googled for opinions on door issues and found this great forum. After reading up on others' similar concerns, I called the retailer with my concerns, and they arranged for the supplier to call me. He mentioned that Liebherr doesn't believe the moving flap mechanism on other French door brands will stand up over time (presumably due to heavy use, food grime, etc.) Instead they use magnets where the doors touch each other, which eliminates moving parts at the seam. He added that they've recently modified the design to address the issues thru revising the magnets and adding clips concealed inside the hinges that help the doors shut more securely. Everything else about this fridge we liked, and they've been building them a while, so we ordered it. I still had worries, tho, that it would not be friendly to one-handed operation. After all, 50% of the time you have something in your hand when opening or closing a fridge door, right? Yesterday it arrived, and 24 hours later, I'm pleased to report that ours works better than the one in the showroom. In fact, I'd say all my concerns have disappeared. Perhaps the door motion is optimized for the weight of items stored in the door compartments? Maybe due to it being leveled, and the anti-tip bracket in place. Elsewhere in this forum someone pointed out that they got used to the motion required to use the doors without problems. That's what we're finding, too. True, the Liebherr is different, with some pros and some cons, but I do not find it flawed. Here is what I find now regarding 1,2,3 above... 1) if I open a single door briskly, just that door opens. If I open a door slowly, both open. That could be seen as feature, I guess! I can also open either door slowly and with either hand, without the other opening, but it requires a little hand work. To open a single door with the same side hand, use your thumb to keep the other door closed as you pull. To do this with opposite hand, the back of your wrist can keep the other door closed. 2) a door can be closed on its own even when the other door is already closed. However, you do have to either gently guide it all the way closed, or you have give it some momentum; it does not self-close from a slow/still position at 30 degrees as does the integrated model apparently, and as do many other FD brands. This is the net disadvantage of the 2062 freestanding model, but overall I think it's a good tradeoff for having no moving parts in the seal. 3) my handles are more securely fixed to the doors than what I recall from the showroom. The fridge ships pre-assembled, so it wasn't an installation issue. I don't know if the showroom fridge was from an older batch, but I hope/assume mine is a recently produced version with all the latest fixes. Overall, we're very happy. It's quiet, very shallow (truly cabinet depth, including the doors!), looks great inside and out, and seems to be working fine. And of course it has the technology, eco-friendliness, and very low energy consumption we were expecting.

Had a minor issue with the drain in the back of the fridge. Contacted customer service and they were responsive and very helpful. I think customer service is on Mountain time so I was able to reach them after work on the East Coast. The problem was resolved in about 5minutes. Discovered a blueberry had rolled into the drain. Poured bleach down the hole and it was resolved. I actually love the ice maker. It's makes small ice cubes which I actually prefer because most of my glasses are tall and thin. The only issue I have had with the ice maker is that when you aggresively scoop ice out of the drawer, ice can come out of the side and prevent the drawer from being pushed back completely. This prevents the contact switch from activating for more ice to be made. Just watch out for this and it should not be a problem. One other thing I wanted to note is that I have always hooked my ice maker up to an Everpure filter. I have not had any issue with scale build up or any of the general ice maker complaints. One of the comments I see on the board all the time is how flimsy the Liebherr plastic drawers look like. This is one area where I think people judge a book by its cover. They are lighter and sleeker than conventional drawers but they are very sturdy. I have dropped them many items when cleaning them without damage. Good luck!

I wanted to contribute my experience- we got the capital culinarian all gas 48" w/ the griddle (so we have 6 burners) within the past year and I have been using it for a few months. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our decision!! I too did a lot of research and did not read many negative reviews about it- and they are very well built, pretty, and simple design-wise (my husband is a contractor and thought they were most similar to the commercial ranges he has worked on, i.e. if something breaks it would be easy to fix). I probably wouldn't need 6 burners just for cooking- but it is nice to have. I also do a lot of canning/preserving, and do use 6 burners at the same time (simmer for warming lids, canning pot, pot for extra hot water, pot w/ stuff to be canned, pot w/ syrup for the stuff to be canned, one pot w/ dinner cooking). My husband loves the griddle- very easy to make breakfasts, hot sandwiches, etc. You could always do 4 burners and a grill/griddle as an option if you don't can/need 6 burners. Also, I really enjoy the big oven on the 48" (not sure how this compares in size to the 36" since the 48" has a large and small oven and the 36" one large oven). It can fit 9x13" pans side by side, and cookie sheets. The roll out racks aren't as smooth as some of the other brands we looked at (we liked the thermador racks the best- very smooth) but they work pretty well. Also, I haven't had any problems w/ the baking heat/evenness, and our oven is gas (which I think is typically worse than electric ovens?). I haven't baked bread yet- but have done a lot of other foods (cookies, casseroles, etc.). So if it were me I would definitely do the 36" over the 30" :-) It sounds like you would use it w/ all the cooking that you do. If you have any questions about mine please let me know :-)