I thought it was pretty clear what you were asking about in your OP (but perhaps the title was a little confusing for people), so it just goes to show you never know where an internet discussion will roam. I think sometimes people just read the title and don't bother really reading the post or other responses and just fire away. Oh, well. Anyway, yes you are on the right track. And right to come to the permaculture forum with your quest(ion). And reading that thread has actually given me some good ideas for where to look for free stuff. My garden is new and it will need quite a bit of input for a while as far as mulch, etc. before we can be growing our own all the time. We can get truckloads of free mulch at the city dump, but that is about 20 miles away and my husband's little pickup can barely handle the weight. But the other day I watched the "greens" collection truck go by. It scooped up the cans, emptied them into the hopper, and it looked as though stuff was being chewed up as it went down. It didn't just go down, it kind of went in gradually and was turning and churning a bit (my house is slightly above street level, so my vantage point allowed this observation). So now I'm wondering if they would stop at my house and just empty their truck in my front yard if I asked 'em. We pay so much for our waste service, and we barely take out the trash twice a month, so they should give us something for our money, right? Anyway, I'll be on the lookout for free organic matter from now on! Jeanne

I could certainly be wrong but from the sound of your post you sound like someone who has "aspired" to have a SubZero fridge not necessarily for a functional reason but to have the brand. It sounds as if you're going all out - two Miele dishwashers, etc. - so why not just go for the SZ? If you think about all the people who have been keeping their food chilled without investing in SZ, there has to be something people "value" about SZ other than it's functional ability to keep food chilled or frozen that would make them pay the premimum price. Could be appearance, appeal of saying you have the brand, etc. In any case if you want one and want to spend the $ go for it. It seems you can count on repairs with any brand these days - kind of like luxury auto brands. Just because you spend alot doesn't mean it will be trouble free.

Well, I must admit that your SZ sure preserves "Horse Feathers" well, and it is kind of you to share your "More than adequate supply of same, with those of us here In GW! SZ mentions as one of 3 things needed to "keep food fresh" is precise temp control and they mention their +/1 degree F~~~~~well that's just half as good as the JA which is +/- 0.5 F. One can not control the temps of the various compartments, (meat, veggie & Chrisper) in the SZ as they can with the JA, (at least my model of JA), and in fact Consumer Reports mentioned that fact, as other fridges do have that capability besides my JA. CR also mentioned that the SZ is more noisy than some other fridges, (maybe that goes along with the horse feathers)? I grow my own boysenberries, and they keep very well in my JA fridge. The JA fridge3 has the "Climatezone" storage has automatic humidity control which does not require a $50 filter that must be changed every year (a la SZ). My JA also has "Built in" diagnostics. It checks every fan, thermistor, defrost sensors, compressor speeds, etc etc, sooooo if I ever do have a problem, I can "Nail it down" to which part is giving problems and not call a repair company to first "come out, look see", then make a guess as to what part is needed, then order the part and then come back. Well, It used to be SZ was , as you posted, "in a class of its own"~~~~but that was "Pricewise ONLY"~~~~now the other fridges have caught up with SZ's prices, as I posted here, probably round 7 years ago, ~~~so now folks hafta pay thru the nose on just about any built in fridge, thanks to SZ! Gary

Cat Mom, I really liked the display too. The chef did about 3 minutes on SubZero and almost nothing on the gas ranges, but everything was there for fondling, measuring, getting the feel of size/looks. HPX, I'm with you on the ovens. They were really great. Plllog, I'm still figuring out the other attendees too! There were maybe 20 of us and I spoke in some depth to six people (I got nosy and was all "so when do you break ground on your renovation? What are you in the market for? Did anything you saw here tonight change your mind?") So sweeping generalizations from small sample size follow. The crowd skewed older - mid-50s and up, with four of us I'd peg for younger than that. I wouldn't recognize a designer outfit if it smacked me in the head, but based on the jewelry, handbags and plastic surgery I saw, this was an upper-middle-income-plus crowd. Of the six I spoke with, three people (one couple, one woman) were buying appliances for their second homes. One couple was proudly buying an entire Wolf/SZ suite of appliances, everything from microwave to outdoor grill, and the guy got a little testy when I asked what other brands he was looking at, as in "what else has this kind of name recognition?" And many of the participants treated this as a cooking class. Besides the from-scratch-cookies amazement and the salmon thing, they were quizzing the chef on the best pans to buy and how many minutes per pound to cook a Thanksgiving turkey. I got the impression that most people were looking at their purchases as status first, cooking capability a distant second. The ovens would be nice for the caterer to use, but the interest level dropped off significantly as the chef went into detail on the differences between bake, roast and convection bake. These were casual cooks at best.