anyways, i just got all this stuff (the electrolux fridge not samsung) from plessers. Gene was a really nice guy to work with and the price i received was 10% less than the local store here after considering no tax, no shipping fee, and a good bit less per appliance. it should all arrive in 2-3 weeks, i will post up my thoughts. oh and i did go with the viking internal blower 600 cfm. they gave me a good price on it, and if i need more i can always wire in a 2nd fantech inline blower down the line somewhere... now how to get rid of all the existing appliances ... perhaps craiglist it ? The fridge is almost new and so is the dishwasher. the rest of it is circa 1987, but works really well. maybe good for a local meth lab ...

I'd ask my kitchen designer to bring your code enforcement people into the conversation early. I'm renovating an old house too and the city, Alexandria, VA, is looking closely at what I'm doing. I'm using a BS 24" range with a BS 30" hood over it. They look at the code and the installation instructions for the stove. I understand that if they conflict, the instructions usually have more weight. BS says that these should be used with a hood that's 6" wider than the stove. The guideline for airflow is 10 CFM for each 1K BTU. There's a chance that your locality may ask for make up air. There are endless discussions here and on the kitchen board on this subject. Good luck.

I don't see anybody jumping in, so maybe I can help get a conversation started for you. GE had pretty significant reliability and parts problems with its fridges when it started contracting out (outsourcing), but it has brought much of its production back to the US a few years ago. CR's survey data shows that GE is now no less (and no more) reliable than most other brands of SxS models. In our area, GE also cut back on the number of dealers it works with and seems to be concentrating on the highest-volume retailers and big-box stores. Some friends bought one of the large new GE SxS models a month or so ago -- I think it is the one rated for 29 cut. ft. -- and say they are very pleased with its features and capacity. Something to else to bear in mind is that rated capacity is often overstated. Supposedly 25 to 28 cu. ft. SxS fridges sometimes turn out to have no more than 18 cu. ft. of actual capacity. Capacity is affected by the size of the through-the-door ice and water dispensers and some of the larger capacity models have two ice makers. If memory serves, CR rated the Whirlpool and Samsung SxS models as having more usable capacity than other brands with similar capacity claims. Samsung models have separate evaporators for the freezer and fridge compartments. Not the same as having completely separate compressors and cooling systems (ala Sub Zero) but still something of a marketing leg up because of the theoretical advantages. When I was fridge shopping, it seemed that the jury was still out on whether the separate evaporators made much practical difference. Doesn't the biggest Samsung SxS have an external display screen that connects to the internet or you smart phone or displays photos or something? Strikes me one more thing to fail. cascade to other circuitry and interfere with the primary functions. FWIW, some friend have had a Samsung 26 cu. ft. SxS (no screens) for three years with no problems. They make heavy use of the external dispensers. This post was edited by JWVideo on Sun, Jul 6, 14 at 15:48

Ah! This is a potentially complex topic. Normally what I mean by 'aperture' is the open area at the bottom of the hood that leads to the baffles, but not any flat or rounded edges between that area and the hood outside surface. Please note that in many hoods, the baffle areas themselves may be less than the 'aperture' I am referring to. What makes this complicated are two things: (a) There is some flow at the edges that will tend to pull air past the edges, and hence the effective aperture is slightly larger than my definition above. This depends on hood design and air flow rate, and this effective size increase is larger for lower velocity (lower temperature) effluent plumes than higher velocity plumes (for a given blower speed). (b) The interior shape of the hood may have angled surfaces to baffle areas that are smaller than the bottom aperture, and depending on the angles and flow rates some curling out (downward momentum transfer) of the effluent plume is possible. This is more often seen in some commercial hoods (see link) in extreme cases than in, say, Wolf / Independent Pro hoods in residential settings, but there are so many hood designs departing very far from the optimal commercial designs that there can be many other opportunities for containment failure due to surfaces not having baffles. This is also affected by how much volume is between the baffles and the hood entrance. For an illustration of what it is all about, see page 4 of this link http://www.fishnick.com/ventilation/designguides/CKV_Design_Guide_2_031504.pdf Additional links: https://www.captiveaire.com/Sitedocs/videos/Hoods/Schlieren/SVideo.asp?EXH=1&PSP=0 http://www.energy.ca.gov/reports/2003-04-10_500-03-007F.PDF "One of the blue star models I'm looking at seems to have angled baffles in the front and back with lights directly in the center, would that design be preferable?" That design is closer to commercial than many others, and would in general be [functionally] preferable, given adequate air flow rate, lights not being in one's eye sight-line, and cook's staff tolerance for cleaning the lamps. kas