helou, we have the 42" SxS at the end of a run, but there is a wall there (chimney stack? vent? is in that wall!). Here are some pictures for you:

Thanks cat_mom. Your kitchen is still so beautiful to me.

I'd love to get the stainless version of the fridge, but I can't for a number of reasons. That wall will have a lot of other stainless steel appliances and a large stainless tambour door going all the way to the ceiling, and it'll just be too much SS, especially since they're not all from the same manufacturer, so the SS colors will be different, & altogether "too much." So I'm getting the fridge & having cabinet door panels installed, & I'm just nervous.

I'd never been a huge fan of paneled appliances in general, especially refrigerators (they always looked like giant armoires to me), but I have to say that I am thrilled that I "caved" and got my DW paneled (otherwise I'd be wiping the front down constantly!).

After living with and occasionally cleaning our fridge over the past year (between cleaning lady visits--she does a much better job cleaning it than I do!), there are times I wish I'd gotten the fridge paneled as well. That KA SS is a PITA to clean without streaking, and spot-cleaning is near impossible to do w/out leaving streaks as well (we get few if any fingerprints since we don't have kids, but we do occasionally end up with some water drips down the front when filling a glass....). I still love how my SS fridge looks, I just don't like cleaning it!

So you see, there are pluses and minuses either way you go, so I think you should be fine! I'll bet it's going to look terrific!

Please change your mind about the KA! We bought the 48" sidexside last summer, and it was a complete lemon. It took a ludicrous amount of time and effort to get Whirlpool to finally replace it. The replacement was installed last week, and it too was fraught with problems (dented and bent compressor cover, damaged light shield, noisy freezer fan, water leak...etc.). Also, the temperature swings in the refrigerator are unacceptably large and long. If you keep the door open for a total of 5 minutes, during a 20-minute period,--say, to put a large grocery load away, it will raise the temp, even in the drawers, from 37 to over 46. It could take hours to get the temp back down to 37. I know this because I have been tracking the temps in three zones of the refrigerator just in case I need to sue. We cannot keep even the freshest raw chicken in the meat drawer more than one night or it will go bad. Lettuce is dead after two nights. I think that the temp problems are a design issue. My wife and I agree without hesitation that the biggest supply/material mistake in our kitchen remodel was choosing KA over SZ. I grew up in a house with an SZ. We had it from 79 to 2001, and it never gave us a problem. There is something to be said for SZ's dual compressor system v. KA's design: "You get what you pay for."

Cat Mom, you make me so pleased with my decision. Soigne, you make me so nervous :-). Thanks for the input, though. As far as getting what you pay for, I hope so - this KA is not cheap.

Stay, tuned.

So far, so....(I am superstitious so I will not complete that phrase, but you know what I mean!).

No, it's not cheap, and even though it was much cheaper than the SZ, we felt that $5600 was plenty enough to spend.

Cat Mom, would you possibly have a side view shot of the of the left (freezer) side? How much further than the side panel does the edge of the freezer door come forward? Does my question make any sense to you?

And that cabinet on top - is it flush with the front of the refrigerator, or set back?

Thanks.

If you remind me on Friday or over the weekend to take the pic (shoot me an email if you'd like), I'll have a better chance of remembering to ask DH to get the pic onto the computer--he keeps showing me how and I never remember!

Yes, your question makes perfect sense! The fridge does NOT sit totally flush with the cabs or side panel.

1) The side panel sticks out 1 1/8" past the adjacent cabinet door/drawer.

2) The "trim" along the outside edge of the fridge itself sticks out 10/16"-11/16" past the side panel.

3) The freezer door sticks out just under 1" (15/16"?) past the fridge "trim."

The cabinet over the fridge is set back (sticks out the same distance as the side panel, so the fridge unit itself sticks out past that).

Hope this helps! Don't forget to remind me about that pic!

Actually, your description is excellent. It's what I expected, and sounds fine. A picture would be great, but if not that's OK too. I get it.

As long as I'm asking for favors :-), what kind of recessed lighting do you have in your kitchen? Are they the usual high hats/cans that take incandescent bulbs, or did you get something with lower wattage? Also, what color baffles?

Thanks.

Just regarding reliability of the KA's. I remember a thread from the Appliances forum that seemed to conclude that the KA fridges that were built-ins had problems, but the freestanding ones were problem-free. The two styles are perhaps made in different factories or something. That's not to say that if you get a built-in, it will definitely have problems. Only that there is a higher likelihood than with the freestanding ones.

Meanwhile, I have a KA sxs freestanding counterdepth 36" fridge for 4 years, and have not had one problem with it. It keeps the temperature perfectly, even when my SO stands in front of it with the door open, staring at the contents as if somehow they'll magically change if he stares long enough. The temps come back pretty fast even with that sort of challenge. I have no complaints other than I am not that fond of the sxs configuration, but that has nothing to do with KA.

Hi there helou!

We have the 42" built in version of the KA side by side and have been using it since November. We were lucky to get the floor model for half price at a local sale so we bought it months before the remodel.

We have not experienced any of the problems that soigne mentions. Ours has a "max cool" button that if you load it up with a bunch of warm items or leave it open for a while, you just touch the button and away it goes - no problem bringing it back to cool quickly.

We love the operation of the drawers - much smoother than others we tried and it seems to keep our food very well.

I was looking at the french door model, but the 42" can fit a full size cookie/catering tray in the frig side -no problem, that was my main goal and we saved $4,000 buying it on sale. Plus, after realizing I could fit such large size items in this frig, I preferred not bending over to get stuff out of the freezer all the time.

Here is my built in,end of the run, paneled, 42" french door KA. I've had it for a year and no problems

Amylville,

Thank you so much! I'm printing out the pictures & taking them to my big pow pow with the KD & the cabinet maker next week.

I like the way you put a "double" panel on the freezer door. Very nice.

Our recessed lights are regular Halo (new construction, angled) 6" hi-hats. The baffles and trim are white (matte). We use 100 W floods in them and havr dimmer switches on all the lighting (incl u/c's).

Thanks so much for the pic.

helou, glad I could help. Good luck @ the KD, let us know how it went.