I do service for Thermador and Gaggenau, amongst others, and have installed both. One thing you may notice with the Gaggenau handles is they have the Gaggenau logo on them located on the stand offs. It's really not that noticeable unless I point it out to the customer.

We too have the Therm columns, 30'' fridge and 18'' freezer dating back almost 4 years now. In general we like them a lot. They provide rock solid cooling. Love the dual compressors and the bottom location so there's no obtrusive grillwork above the doors a la SZ. The configuration is great, much more useful than a traditional full depth fridge. They have not been perfect though. Early on, the glitzy movable upper shelf in the fridge stopped working--I think we stripped out the gears. I never dealt with it, as it was a feature of absolutely no use to us. We had to replace the entire ice maker unit (under warranty). We had to replace one of the glass shelves that sits above the produce bin when the plastic mount broke off (under warranty). Overall I'd buy them again, especially considering what was available to us when we did our renovation--we were looking for fully integrated units, and the SZ units only came in one width for freezer and fridge, which gave us too much freezer storage and not enough fridge. The BI's (if my memory is correct) still had the exposed grills above the doors which did now work with our design. I am still a bit nervous about longevity, given the little issues that have arisen, but knock wood, so far no major issues.

The problem with the doors is that they aren't plug n play like the installers are used to. May not be so much an issue with custom panels since the cabinet installer generally puts those on, but with stainless, they are shipped separately. That protects them in transit and the initial part of the installation when so many SS doors and side get dinged or scratched. When mine were installed, they shipped all the brackets and seals separately too. The guys said it was a lot different than the typical built-in fridge that was more like a DW -- plug it in, slide it back and set a couple of screws. If it needed panels, the cabinet guy would come back to do those. Mine are stainless, so it was a lot different. The fussed a bit over the installation since it was the first they'd done, but they took the time to look at the instructions and do it right. My contractor's guys didn't want to look at installation instructions, the guides to make sure they got wiring placed correctly, etc. They got to do a few things over. My fridge was installed once and correctly. I've had it 2-1/2 years now and love it. I say you salesman has installers that can't bother to read directions or try anything new. If it is different, you don't need it. So he thinks. nutherokie, if you have problems getting anyone to install them, the instructions are quite detailed and complete. A couple of folks here have done them DIY and they looked fabulous. I know I've seen them in a light wood, contemporary kitchen that was DIY installation, but I can't remember the name of the owner. Good luck -- you'll love the columns.

Every install is a little different. If the units are already delivered, cabinets are done correctly, are square and your getting the standard S/S doors the install only takes me around 90 minutes. If the units need to carried up flights of stairs, the cabinets are installed badly or are not square. If the panels are Highly Customized, etc. the install can take longer. As to cost there are other contributing factors that can make the costs go up. Is the installer picking them up and delivering? How far away is the delivery. Is it in a high rise building or condo where the elevator use is restricted to certian hours? Were the custom panels built correctly? Of course each of these items will make my price go up. The main thing I can't stress enough is that the instructions MUST be followed . I learned that on the 1st set I installed and I haven't really run into any problems since. If it's the 1st time for an installer I would say the actual install will be 2-3 hours if they follow the instructions. It will be much longer and more frustrating if they don't read and follow the instructions. For your part make sure your cabinets are correct and the power and water lines are in the correct place as per the instructions and spec sheets. Also read the instructions yourself so you know they are installing them correctly.