Doofus _ I'd be a bit leary of your sales weasel. Miele's DW's are some of the best in the business, they may not fit your habits, or budget but they are really good machines. A compentent cousultant will point out the plusses and minuses and let you come to you own conclusion. Their coffee systems are also top notch, but are not produced in house like the DW's. The only problem's I know with them were in the 1st generation with the steam generators. There was a hose connection system that wasn't as robust as necessary and there were some failures on units that saw heavy use. Miele still comps the parts in most cases even today. The connectors were quickly redesigned and problem solved. I wouldn't worry about the space down the road if that's your only reservation. It's a fairly standard size and will fit a steam oven, microwave and you could even just get a lift up door in stainless or to match your cabinetry if you get tired of it or didn't want to replace with a new one. There are several threads on the merits (or lack of) of these units on here. These units are expensive and must be built in. The general divide comes down to how much you value the "wow" factor of the built in look. Counter standing "automats" are a lot cheaper and pretty much have the same internals. Many of the built in allow you to hook them up to plumbing so you don't have to fill up a water jug.

I don't have one but I have used the one at my appliance store enough - just about everytime I'm there (every week at least, since April). How low will you place it? Of course the one at the store is nearly counter height, and it looks beautiful. I would think that if it is too low though, you may have difficulty with spills and whatnot. Also, I'm not sure if having it too low might impact plumbing problems (pleading ignorance here because not sure if they are plumbed, but I think so.) I absolutely love the one at the store - Thermadore. Sorry I don't have much install info at the lower heights. I just know that it looks very nice and I love using it. I hope you can work one into your plan.

Judy, We ended up changing things around. We lowered the XXL steam oven so that it ended at 42" AFF, allowing us to put a full size drawer below it and started the coffee maker at 42", ending at 60". This allowed us to put a very usable cabinet above the coffee maker with two sliders so that we could reach the back of what would now be a 24" deep cabinet. As with everything it is trade-offs. I think if there were no other considerations at all the ideal height is more or less 42" to 60" and my thought was that bending a bit to use the oven was worth having the coffee maker easily accessible and in optimal location. Having said that, I think ending it at 6' is perfectly fine and if we had gone w/ the regular 18" size oven I am sure we would have done that. Once we went to 24", cabinet wise, it was much easier to either do one full size cabinet below (ending coffee maker at 5') or to keep the oven at counter height and end the coffee maker at 6'-6", which by all accounts was too high. In between was problematic.

I have had one for over a year. Actual install is pretty straight forward. It is a show stopper in operation. Coffee is excellent, just be prepared to fiddle with what coffee you use and an assortment of brew settings. You absolutely have to clean the milk path every day. If you don't cappuccino won't foam and just sputters The only downside is that drip tray fills up quickly since the unit rinses often. Better chart an unobstricted walkway to the sink