It exhausts out the front, is well-insulated and the breeze is more "warm" than hot, but I wouldn't put it where you know you will have to stand for long periods. It is a full-blown oven when you have it in convection or broil mode. But you won't have to worry about coming in contact with the door and getting burned or anything; it seems to stay touchable in operation. But there is no door lock on the oven. If you pull on the door it will turn off the heaters and/or the microwave - i.e., it is fully interlocked, electrically- but there is no locking mechanism to prevent opening the door. A couple more things: The door interlock switches have to be adjusted properly. If you have the oven installed by Miele techs, ask them to please check the interlock adjustment once they get it installed in the cabinet recess (they should be able to do it by ear, or they may use a couple of pennies to set the spacing), actually: you should hear the switches on both top corners of the door frame click at the same time when you open and close the door. I am not talking about the latches clicking, it is a finer click, made by a pair of microswitches that make a fine, sharp, tick. If you hear a distinct "click-click" in sequence instead of a simultaneous clicking pair, then the interlock switch adjustment should probably be done. Also, when I had to have service done on our oven, the techs performed a Miele-authorized engineering change and installed a 12A fuse in place of the existing 10A fuse that ships with the oven. This fuse is tied to the door interlocks, incidentally. The wiring of the oven (and all microwave ovens) is designed to blow that fuse any time one door interlock is closed while the other is open. The rationale is that if only one interlock is being energized and the other isn't, then the door has been damaged and the microwave may leak. The fuse blows and all the power to the oven is shut off. According to the tech, the 12A fuse (btw, this is from memory so double-check those values with the technician) prevented inadvertent over-currents and fuse-blowing from transient pulses due to the door flexing a bit on opening and closing. You know, you grab one side of the handle and pull hard and the fuse pops. So you might ask about that fuse. BTW, just as a heads up, I had to have service because the squirrel cage exhaust fan is a multi-speed affair. The bearings for the squirrel cage got gunked up and it wouldn't spin fast enough to tell the oven to turn on the heaters. Symptom, microwave works, but neither the convection element nor the broiler element will turn on. Cause: there is an RPM COUNTER! on the fan itself. The oven is so careful to make sure that all systems are go that it checks if the blower has gone to high speed before it will send current to the heater elements! The techs can't disassemble the fan to clean and lube the bearings, they just installed a new fan. Around $280 just for the part, IIRC. I kept the old fan, disassembled it and serviced the bearings (they were just contaminated with dust and old oil) When I was done it was good as new. So, if you get out of warranty at some distant date and find that the heaters won't turn on, suspect that blower up in the top of the oven. I know this is a lot of info, but I might as well give you the data dump now. Best of luck with your oven. We, as I said, are really happy with ours and use it all the time.

I looked at all of the Miele dishwashers and yesterday purchased an Optima. The showroom was in Tampa and stocks only high-end appliances. After working with the sales person and going over features, I ended up with the lower priced Optima. I just didn't need all the extra wash setting which were things like "cold rinse with no rinse aid" and "hot rinse with no rinse aid". The main difference with the La Perla was the automatic close feature. It also had a large digital display that I did not want because I'm using a custom panel with "incognito" controls.

deeagaux, thanks very much. I just got back from the dealer's, and your advice was invaluable. The dishwasher and warming drawer looked perfect, even though both had been used. The Master Chef Speed Oven, though, was another story. It had all the trays, manual and probe inside it, so the guy looked slightly askance at me as I practically put my head into the cavity for a second look at the oven interior. The second time, I noticed that the roof of the oven was covered with black/brown flecks and chunks of food. I told him that I'd take the dishwasher and warming drawer, but that I wasn't interested in the oven. God knows what that would smell like when it was hot! He said he'd get it cleaned up, but he needn't do so on my account. I may spring for a Master Chef after all, but it will be a new one. I asked where the stainless toekick for the dishwasher was and he said that he thought they only came in black. He said he'd get me one (but I'm thinking it won't be stainless based on his initial answer. If stainless is what I should be holding out for, please let me know. I'll do some research in the meantime. Thank you again for your recommendations. The appliance market in Orlando, despite having several major dealers, isn't at all competitive. Full retail is the norm, package or no. Really aggravating. I bought my Capital Culinarian and ModernAire range hood insert from Trevor, saved myself sales tax (did have to pay a nominal fee for shipping, though), and doubled the manufacturer's wrarranty using my AMEX card. Tempted to do this for the D/W, speed overn and warming drawer, but it's easier to buy them out of the allowance in the house build budget. Thanks again!

Susan, I'm not at all sure my Bravos dryer is better than your dryer. (And I'm very sure your kiddos are every bit as good as mine! LOL) From all I've seen and heard, dryers are much more similar than washers. The main feature which seems to make a dryer really good is sensor(s) which keep laundry from over-drying. I needed a larger capacity dryer than SQ makes. I appreciate your kind comments regarding me personally -- they were right on. I've had such a good experience with my Bravos washer/dryer, I am indeed very grateful for them. At the time I bought them, it was a real leap of faith, for I'd never owned an HE washer before, nor any Maytags. I knew about the '90s debacle, class-action lawsuit(s), and subsequent company failure which led to Whirlpool's acquisition of Maytag. To those who speculate that I work for Whirlpool and/or am a 'shill' for Whirlpool, I can assure you that neither applies to me. And my Bravos washer/dryer are the first ones I've owned which were made by Whirlpool, AFAIK. My career is in education -- the only field in which I've ever worked. Because I was so un-knowledgeable about current models of washers/dryers in general, I researched for months, both online and IRL, before making a decision. I've seen many posts here from people who love/> their washers every bit as much as I love mine, but it's never occurred to me to accuse them of being an employee of and/or 'shill' for a particular company, or even to think of their posts as being 'over the top'. I figure they've just had as great an experience with theirs as I've had with mine. suburbanmd, I do think if Bravos washers/dryers in general have a bad reputation, it's undeserved. My statement is based on the many positive reviews I've read at a number of websites, plus positive statements from independent appliance repairmen, plus my own experience, of course. Yes, one of the reasons I post my positive experience here is for people who want to hear from someone who owns Bravos washer and/or dryer. At risk of being flamed (not from you personally), there does seem to be quite a bias in favor of frontloaders here. And, yes, you are right -- if I ever have a problem with either of my Bravos appliances, I'll post it here. I've already been totally honest about my one and only disappointment with my washer (which also applies to all HE washers, AFAIK). A guy has posted here a number of times, whose grandmother owns a Bravos -- an earlier model than mine. He too has said she gives rave reviews of her washer. For some reason his name escapes me, but I'm sure a number of you know who I'm talking about. He posted just recently. I apologize for the length of this post -- figured I'd answer everyone in one message. Peace to all. :-)