I agree with Joe above different companies being better in different products. I have had very good luck with LG as a whole, from electronics, to laundry. The brand I've had the most trouble from and had the most appliances in is GE, but they were all lower end models so that could be part of the problem.

The idea was to go all Jenn-Air, but we are open to suggestions anyone has.

We really like the their cooktop http://jennair.com/appliances/details/JGC7636BS

We need - Refrigerator , Lp Cooktop , Convection Double Oven, and Dishwasher.

Thanks

As far as dishwasher's go, I seem to see Miele often referred to as a top of the line reliable brand. We have a Bosch, which is generally well talked about and we have been happy with it (it doesn't break dishes like so many cheap dw in rentals we had experienced over the years).

Ranges are less clear and more subjective it seems to me. We looked at Wolf, Miele, Blue Star and Lacanche. Wolf is known for its good customer service but there are some complaints about the power of their products and blue enamel chipping from ovens (not sure if this is still the case). Miele might be worth a look, they are good quality IMHO. Neither are not inexpensive, but there is a little bit of 'you get what you pay for' in the market. People love their Blue Star ranges though they have their fair share of complaints too. We ended up with a Lacanche (frenchranges.com) and love it - they generally get good reviews. Fewer complaints generally means more $$. And you can always find someone to complain about anything so just go with your gut after you do your own research.

Not sure about fridges other than we have a crappy GE profile. We won't be getting a GE when it dies. If you are considering a wine fridge skip Vinotemp (they suck IMHO - we've had two and both compressors died) and consider a Uline or some other brand made in the USA with a 3 to 5-year warranty on the compressor. It all feels like a bit of a crap shoot. Good luck.

First, if you haven't already, I suggest seriously considering an induction cooktop instead of a gas cooktop. Lots of thread on here about induction, which swayed me away from gas a couple of years ago and I love my induction range and would never willingly go back to gas.

Do you have size constraints on the refrigerator? That may limit your choices.

For a dishwasher, I suggest considering a Bosch. I have been very happy with ours and they generally get excellent reviews here. Miele also gets excellent reviews here, but is usually more money.

Do you want two regular ovens, or do you want a steam or speed oven for one of them?

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/jennaire.html

You can NOT use the above site to get any idea of the real world performance/reliability of an appliance

It is a "Dumping ground", (Place to complain) about just about anything that is manufactured. Try doing a search in that website, for Miele, or Gaggenau, or Wolf, or Kitchenaid~~~virtually any name, and then read the posts. If you do that you would NOT buy anything!!!!!

You need many review sources (such as Houzz), reviews on Amazon, reviews on appliance websites, etc etc to get a "pretty fair" idea about the performance of any appliance.

Most of us here in Houzz, do not subscribe to buying appliances of all one brand, We try to do our best "homework" and buy the best appliance for the particular job~~~~IE Dishwasher Miele, (some say Bosch), Ovens, I love my Electrolux (8 years trouble free), but many folks like the Mieles~~~.

I shopped this way back in 2006, Miele DW, Electroux oven, speed oven and induction cooktop, Jenn-air Fridge and it has worked out very well for us. The only repair in those 9 years was a $300 repair for the JA fridge, so no complaints about any of the selections we made.

Gary

ITA with crl!!!! Do thoroughly familiarize yourself with induction before going with an LP cooktop. Almost no one uses them nowadays and induction cooks just as fast and far more efficiently, is far safer (especially if you mean to have children) and will clean up with a swipe of vinegar. A basic Bosch induction top, a basic Bosch dishwasher, a set of Electrolux convection ovens or something similar, and you will be good to go. Can't help you with the fridge. They all suck, so far as I can tell. I think LG is the best bet, but there are experts here who can better advise. As to Jenn-Air -- my housekeeper loves her slide-in range, but other than that, everyone I ever knew with a Jenn-Air product hated it and had constant repairs, FWIW. Congratulations on your marriage.

Tyler: Go to Reviewed.com and see Jenn-Air new ovens and dishwasher. I saw them tonight. My neighbor has a JA drop-in style stove. Had it since 1993 and never had any problems.

The new Jenn-Air dishwasher is made by Bosch. It is an upcharge over the "free" dishwasher (about $500, if I remember correctly). I did a brief comparison in the appliance store, and I think it's about at the same level as a Bosch 800 (but my memory may be faulty).

My friend has a 3 yr old Jenn Air free standing range with the regular glass cook top, not induction. The oven has failed 3 times and has had to have boards replaced. Likely from using the self clean. Her temps are way off and she can't reliably use it for baking things. She is replacing it.

I know there can always be duds in every brand, but she won't be replacing it with a Jenn Air!!

And I do agree, to at least consider induction. I love mine. It's a GE slide in nearly 2 years old and so far have not had an issue.

MsLizzie,. What do you mean no one uses LP anymore? LP = liquid propane. Plenty of people use it where NG is not available.

The new dishwasher at Reviewed is made by KitchenAid. The bottom arm is identical but saw nothing about it that looked like a Bosch. May vary by models. Years ago, they were made by Maytag for the higher end but the "cheaper" JAir dw was made by GE but this was in the late 90's.

I believe this is the model made by Bosch: http://jennair.com/appliances/details/JDB9600CWS

I agree. It's a Bosch but the one I saw was a KA. I just went back to Reviewed.com and looked it up. They refer to them as the 9000 series but then talks about the 9600 having the 3rd shelf on top and has pics. The pics are the same I saw of the KA model. You can see the 3rd rack down through to the 4 way wash arm(KA). Guess more than one company makes them. Go to Reviewed and take a look. Listed under new ovens JA and then DW below in same article. Thanks for the details!

KitchenAid is the only non-European company I know of that makes any 3rd rack dishwashers. I researched this last about 3 months ago, when I bought my Bosch, because the 3rd rack was a must-have for us.

I just looked at the JennAir you are referring to. I would probably take the Bosch-manufactured dishwasher over that, but I obviously haven't seen the new JennAir. I also don't know what the price differential would be between the two as an upgrade over the standard "free" dishwasher.

GE also makes 3rd rack dishwashers. The ZDT870, CDT765 and PDT760 all have a 3rd rack.

The JDB9600 is DEFINITELY made by bosch (basically a SHX68 with a water softener). The 9000, 9200 and 9800 are whirlpool/KA/JA built. The 9800 is the only of the 3 JA models with the third rack.

I believe the up charge is $400 for the 9600 over the standard model.

LG and Samsung also have third rack models.

Folks. This JennAir (and all others) thread totally fascinates me. We have spent over 20k on JennAir appliances in two houses, mainly because we felt that we were getting the best deal for our money (we have the range reviewed at reviewed.com and have loved it, even though it is too powerful for our needs and is being vented by a JennAir microwave situated some 14-16 inches over it (stupid, but the limitations of our second/vacation home). I looked at every appliance under the sun and then some and reviewed hundreds of posts on THS and other resources. I also talked to my installer who is a certified JA, SZ, Thermador, Wolf, pretty much all high end brand installer. He tells it bluntly...ALL, yes ALL manufacturers produce lemons that require one time expensive repairs or multiple expensive repairs. He attributes it to "sick day" or "snow day" syndrome...couple of workers call in sick or fail to show up bc of inclement weather and a whole assembly line of products roll off the assembly line and get packaged after poor assembly by "scrub" workers. He has seen no more failures among JA, SZ, Thermador, etc than among any other manufactures.

Now, how a manufacturer deals with a problem is another story. I have yet to call on JA for service and hopefully won't have to. My dealings with GE (and those of my parent's, as well) have been atrocious. 3 delivered dented replacement refrigerator doors (all left for me to dispose of...all had tiny dents, but GE didn't feel it was necessary to recycle any of the stainless steel they left behind for me to deal with). Also had our brand new GE fridge break within days of the 1 year warranty expiring and we had repair men fail to show up and then have to wait several weeks for replacement parts. GE tried to charge us several hundred dollars in repair fees (which we successfully fought), all on a $8-900 fridge!!! My parents have had equally exasperating experiences with GE. We had the compressor die (and I believe get replaced for free...after we sold our home) on a top of the line SZ fridge and we had a Viking 8 burner range that never really worked fantastically and that was a major, major pain to keep clean.

We have two local major appliance dealers within 10 miles of us. I am incredulous that when querying both of them independently, they tell me that JA products are flying out of the stores (including complete high end packages like ours), mostly due to aggressive pricing and promotional discounts (installation subsidies and free appliances as part of a package purchase). Yet, I have never, ever, ever met a single person who owns a JA product, let alone is considering JA for their remodel. Several have not even really heard of JA!!! I was initially concerned with the reviews I read online about JA reliability and customer service, but so far, it has not been an issue. We purchased and installed the new Obsidian fridge from JA and the door had a tiny scrape in the corner where the stainless was not "buffed". JA did the right thing and replaced the door with no questions asked. They also called to make sure we received it and had it installed. See my separate post about this fridge. Luv, luv, luv it. And, it's super quiet. And a good $1500-2000 cheaper than similar models from the competition.

With respect to the 9600 model of DW built by bosch, I believe it cost us $200 more than receiving the free DW that comes with a range (or cooktop and oven purchase) and it is indeed built by Bosch (for what that is worth). It had no panel, which we desired as we were going with a built in look. Honestly, no complaints here, either with this model which is nearly silent, nor with the free DW that we received with a range purchase in our other home. My wife (who really only opined about the DW and aesthetics of some other appliances) thinks the world of both DWs and is glad we did not go ahead with the FP dish drawers again.

Overall, we are very satisfied customers of JA (thus far) and hope to remain as such. We're getting pestered with offers for extended warranties and I am seriously considering these given past experiences with other manufacturers and concerns about reliability. I remain puzzled by the fact that JA is not more in the vernacular when it comes to appliances, even when I hear from salespeople that people are indeed purchasing JA packages. Maybe JA's past reputation is the reason...maybe Thermador, SZ, Wolf, etc just have too much cache. But look at my review on the Obsidian fridge...I thought that internally, the SZ looked like any cheap fridge; people just marvel over the inside of the JA fridge and the layout meets our needs nearly perfectly.

I'll try to upload photos when I get a chance.

Sorry I was wrong about the third rack issue; I didn't even look at the Korean manufacturers! I was also looking at the time for a traditional American dishwasher with a grinder and a third rack, which I think doesn't exist (correct me if I'm wrong, though!).

happyrad - I am a little skeptical of the salespeople when it comes to JennAir. Both of my local upscale appliance dealers have really pushed JennAir, and I suspect some valuable sales bonuses are at work there. I don't think the brand is bad at all today, but I'm always a bit skeptical when I feel like I'm being pushed toward a particular brand, rather than a particular product.

Valid point. But I really, really trust my appliance salesperson and he did not push us in any specific direction. BC we had prior experience with JA, we were somewhat biased to revisiting JA when we did our big kitchen remodel, but we looked at everything from GE Cafe to SZ to thermador and when all was said and done, the pricing, look and feature set of our JA package could not be beat.

Incentives can be structured as direct bonuses for a salesperson. He/she makes a sale and gets paid. Potentially this can be a big amount monthly. They will put their own wellbeing and that of their family ahead of the customer's. You can't rely on any recommendation a person in this situation makes.

I can only add that I was very pleased with the one time I have contacted JA Customer Service. I have a JA outdoor grill (actually a rebadged Nexgrill) that I have owned for more than 10 years. It is used on average once a week all year long (snow, rain does not stop me). It came with a lifetime warranty on the grates and cast iron burners. Two of the burners finally started to show some small heat cracks last year. I called CS and they said no problem and sent me what I needed with me only paying the postage. I was very pleased with their service and the grill.

As someone who sells appliances I don't think you are being fair. While what you say MAY be true, most salespeople will recommend products that they feel comfortable with, both in terms of price and reliability. It is generally never worth while to push a bad product on a consumer, regardless if it pays more or less. I can tell you the difference between a Jennair and say a thermador or wolf is not that great that it would sway someone to recommend a product they believed was not a good product.

The other reason dealers will push Jenn-Air over another brand, may be distribution. If there are fewer dealers, it makes it prevents that customer from going online or down the street and shopping it to 100 other guys. This isn't indicative of a bad or good product generally, just a salesperson selling to their dealership's strength. If you go into a big box store, the same thing happens, but they have specific models that are unique to them with slight differences.