Hi... . Sorry for the length, but if you are considering an Electrolux purchase, I hope you take the time to read this. Let me start by saying I don't usually write detailed posts/reviews. I generally leave a comment if I really LOVE a product, but I have to be pushed beyond reason to leave a negative comment. Having said, that, we built a new home in 2010, and I pestered my husband to spend the extra cash to get the entire suite of Electrolux appliances. When we built our first home, about 12 years ago, we purchased the Frigidaire Gallery series. He wanted to stick with that brand, as they were rock solid appliances, and we had no issues with them at all. How I wish I had listened to him. I will start with the double wall oven. I was using the top oven only from September of 2010 to Thanksgiving (no particular reason, I just didn't cook any big dinners) and I thought it was awfully noisy. There was a loud convection sound that never went away, even when the oven reached the set temperature. I just figured...OK its loud, but I'll have to live with it. I wasn't about to rip out a newly installed oven because it was noisy. Plus I absolutely LOVED those easy glide racks! I did expect an adjustment period, so when I burned the first few things, I sort of wrote it off as an oops...maybe this oven just cooks faster than my old one. After burning EVERY dish I made, I stuck 3 different thermometers in there and found it was 30-50 degrees above the set temp. And still extremely loud. So when I finally got around to using the lower oven, I found that after reaching proper temperature, the sound went off. And the thermometer that I put in the lower oven was pretty close to the set temperature. Apparently, the top oven has been stuck in the convection mode since day one...which explains why it is so loud. By this time, all of the racks had lost their nice smooth coat (I assume from cooking constantly in convection) and that lovely smooth glide feature (that partially sold me on the oven) were shot...completely shot. The bearings don't work and I actually have to tug, side to side, to get the racks out. I asked for new racks in addition to whatever repairs were necessary. The bottom oven racks were still OK. The cook top: We have the 36" hybrid cook top, and after a few months, it would suddenly stop working, flashing an F error code. If I let is sit for anywhere from a few hours to a day, it would start working again. But I never know when it will simply shut down. That puts a serious hamper on cooking on the holidays. I called the company, and was told that code indicated an internal problem with the "mother board", and that it would need to be replaced. The refrigerator (while it is nice and roomy) has not made ice after the first 8 months, and the water has never come out cold. It's barely room temperature. The handles on the drawers in the freezer have fallen off, and the draws frequently get stuck. My freezer is spotless...nothing to gum up the glides. Several of the small plastic shelf brackets have snapped off. The final straw? This morning, the microwave, one of only two only appliances that I have not yet had a problem with, just quit all together. I checked the breaker, and the outlet. No problems there. Just dead. I have had two separate electricians here to make sure the wiring was not faulty, given all of the issues, and the wiring is fine. The microwave stove and oven are all on dedicated circuits. Now we get to the so called "Electrolux "Support". I called to report the problems. I won't include the microwave, as it is outside the "warranty" period, but it's still only a year and a half old. The dishwasher is insanely quiet and still working well, so no complaints about that one item. I called to report the problems with the refrigerator, cook top and oven when they were maybe 9 or 10 months old. At that point the cook top was not working at all. They said they would send one person each for each appliance. Now, being a working mom, I can't take three days off to wait for three separate servicemen. That was ridiculous. So, after several more phone calls, they found someone nearby, and claimed he would be out with two weeks. Two weeks? Without a stove? That is really a long time to wait with 2 kids under the age of 6. But I didn't really have any say in the matter, and no amount of begging and pleading on my part helped. Of course, no one called or showed up. About 6 calls and 3 months later, an authorized serviceman from All American Appliance, out of Monroe, CT arrived. He looked at each appliance and determined that cook top and the oven needed new computers, and he was going to order some parts for the fridge. He claimed it could take two weeks for the parts to arrive. I waited three, figuring he must be busy. I called his office about 4 times over the next week. Only after I called Electrolux did he finally return my call. He was very apologetic and basically said my order had "slipped through the cracks", and he had forgotten to place it all together. I was frustrated, but mistakes happen, and I tend to be pretty easy going and patient. So I agreed to wait for the parts and his call. He claimed he was going to order my parts and he would be back to our house in two or three weeks. Again, a month later, I called the office several times. The woman at the office remembered me, and told me she was doing to give Dave a call, as he was not in the office. I waited a few days and called her back. She claimed she had no record of his visit, and he didn't remember ever coming here. Turns out the service man "Dave" that had come out initially is the owner of the company. No order, no parts, she has suddenly never heard of me. I called Electrolux, absolutely fuming at this point. They said they were having difficulty finding someone authorized in my area. I filed a report with Electrolux about the "authorized" repair company that had been giving me the run around. Basically, they don't want to bothered repairing the appliances, and I told Electrolux as much. I refused to waste any more time with this guy Dave from All American. I asked that Electrolux find a reputable repair man and get this taken care of. I told the rep that I have had to buy a rice cooker, and one of those plug-in cook tops to make meals when I have a $2000 cook-top sitting there, useless! It's been over a year now that I have been trying to get these issues resolved. Then, the Electrolux rep told me that, since it has been more than a year, the warranty has expired. WHAT???? I just about lost it right there, but I calmly and firmly explained that No, I initiated a service claim well within the warranty period, and due to the incompetence of both the repair company and Electrolux, I have been waiting for repairs for more than a year. They retracted that statement pretty quickly, and said they would get a different company to come out. Electrolux called a few days later with another company. A new rep left the name and number of All American Appliance!!! I'm not sure what I am going to do now. I most definitely am NOT calling All American Appliance again, so I can waste another 9 months??? The idea of having to get an attorney to get new appliances just makes me feel...tired. I could send this post to the CEO, but really, is he going to care? I'm just one person. I'm a nurse, so customer satisfaction is my number one priority, even though it's not likely I will ever see the same patient again. They should take note. I would love any suggestions/ideas on what I should do next. If 30+ hours of phone calls (and I'm not kidding) haven't resolved it, should I resign myself to getting an attorney? I don't have another ten grand to shell out to replace all of my appliances...and now that I have taken the time to write this post, I have a good mind to copy and post it everywhere I can think of!

Here are some resources on sound-reducing construction. The one immediately below, and the one that is hyper-linked, look pretty good. The other one (''Suppressproducts'') might just be an advertisement for their products, I am not sure. Basically sound is vibration that is transmitted from the source to your ear by rigid materials (sound travels well through hard materials like wood) and air. To reduce sound, you want to reduce the transmission of vibration. Air gap is better than a rigid connection. A heavy, soft material (e.g. rubber) is better than an air gap. Techniques are: - Double layers of drywall with dampening material like the referenced ''green glue'' between them (not simply screwing one sheet of drywall to the other) - Staggered studs w/ separate floor plates (essentially making two walls, no physical connection from one side to the other) - Sheet of sound dampening material between the staggered studs (reducing sound transmission through the airspace) - Sealing openings in the walls (electrical boxes, holes for plumbing, gaskets around and under door frame) - Special doors, or (less good) a conventional solid door, or (maybe an in-between alternative) a conventional door w/ a sound dampening layer on one side. - Dampening material between subfloor and joists, and between ceiling drywall and joists - Sound-proofing paint (I've not heard of this stuff before, I am skeptical it does much) Since the bathroom is a small space, you can use these techniques without too much additional expense, and just the loss of about 6'' if using staggered studs and double drywall layers. http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/index.php?/library/articles/elements_of_room_construction http://www.supressproducts.com/soundproofing-articles/Soundproof-Sheetrock.html Here is a link that might be useful: Link

Wow. First time home owner here. I bought a really old house that I knew I would need to put a lot of work into which, for me, meant a lot of money because I am nowhere near a DIYer. First up was the kitchen. I had the kitchen measured, went to Lowes and bought a bunch of cabinets. Then I interviewed about twenty different handymen and contractors before I found one that I liked to install them. I had no idea how to work with a contractor but I did know how I wanted my kitchen to look. He allowed me to buy some things and he took care of the rest and I was pretty pleased with the final result. I asked him to quote installing the master bathroom and not only was his quote very high, his finishes were also not broken out and I suspected they were basic builder finishes. While looking for another contractor for the bathroom, I started accumulating things that I liked from Craigslist, eBay, thrift stores and online suppliers. By the time I found a contractor, I already had the majority of the materials I needed. I explained my vision for my bathroom and showed him all of my materials. He was absolutely fine working with what I had. For the remaining items, if I didn't have a preference, he would buy it but if there was something specific that I wanted, I would buy it for him to install. Anything that was the least bit questionable, he would look at it before I bought it. It is certainly taking longer due to scouting out materials but he understands that this is not a builder bathroom and has bought into the vision. Now that I've been through it, I wouldn't work any other way with a contractor. I stayed in touch with the first contractor and while we both agree that he would have had the bathroom done by now, we also agree that I wouldn't love it as much as I will when it's done because he wouldn't have allowed me the kind of flexibility that this contractor does. That was a very long winded way of saying that I agree with what was stated up-post in that if you can find a contractor that will allow you to purchase materials and you clearly establish who is responsible for what, it can work out quite nicely.

mama_goose: thank you SO MUCH for that link! I have searched and searched for this but could not come up with the right set of words to bring this up. I too want to be able to see out into the garden and not stare at a wall with high-ish windows. I actually talked to a contractor about options (I was thinking of having subtle brackets that could hold a back piece that we could slide in to form a back rest) but this would be even better, especially as I only need it at the two ends where someone might want to lean back and read. The window seat (window bed?) is so deep that no one will be able to lean back if facing the table. I am also going to use tempered glass to cut down on the number of people leaning backwards and ending up in the emergency room. Brilliant...maybe I will even have the fold down bit under the seat cushion so it is not visible most of the time. Good to know that problem has an elegant solution. holly-kay: this takes me right back to why we had that peninsula in the drawings. And why I am on the fence. I wish I could try each out for a week. When cooking for dinner parties and holidays the whole kitchen ends up covered in pots, pans, roasting trays and goodness knows what else and I thought we could use the extra counter to serve from. Then I got feedback that I had created a one person kitchen (when the distance from sink counter to the peninsula was drawn to be 4'6")...so I ditched the overhang, made the peninsula narrower (2 feet wide) in order to get more room inside the kitchen. The span is now about 5'6" in between sink and peninsula. Do you think the peninsula is too narrow? I have visions of Julia Child sliding things over that toppled to the floor? original plan was 3 feet wide but probably don't have the room for that And what do you think about the width needed so that two or more people can be in the kitchen without bumping into one another or having to scootch by sideways?