We have the Thermador 30" Freedom Fresh Food Column (aka refrigerator) and 30" Freedom Freezer Column (aka freezer) and LOVE them! We've only had them installed for a month so I cannot answer about long-term reliability, but the way we actually came to them is because the service centers we called all said they weren't having issues with them. We'd heard horrible things about Viking and not-so-kind about SubZero (although not on par with Viking). We'd also looked at Northland (energy hogs and serious reliability issues) and GE Monogram (couldn't get past the big light hanging down, taking room away from the top shelf), and the Kenmore Pro (so teeny but a great price). Ultimately, we chose the 30" Thermador and I have to say we're glad we did. 30" is the right size for our kitchen, although they do hold less than the old-fashioned 48" side-by-side we'd had .... On the bright side, we can see everything (!) and nothing is getting lost (& stinky) in there. They are incredibly quiet. We did look at the Gaggenau but didn't feel like paying more for stainless interiors -- I like a bright, white interior (as amirm wrote). So far, so very good!

Prompted by the latest posts here, we paid a visit to our local distributor who in the past, has been super helpful and nice to deal with. They did not have the new columns yet. But did show me some of the capabilities in their freezer bottom unit. Note that I am just passing on what we were told :). The Mastercool controls look both cool and not so cool :). On the positive front, you get to set the temp and humidity of each bit electronically. I seem to recall on the Bosch, etc it is those plastic sliders. Those sliders donÂt seem all the functional to me as they are easy to bang into/change. On the down side, she had to touch the controls multiple times to get the system to detect. A real switch to control them would have been better than a touch control that is fussy. The main thing my wife liked, and someone should verify that Bosch series donÂt do, is that you there is a bucket where the ice falls into that can be slid left and right. In doing so, you can then use the entire larger slider under it to fill with ice for parties and such. On doors being easier to mount, she said that once the panels are mounted to the door grid, they are hung and then can be adjusted in that way using some mechanism on the door. She said the time to do this is 75 minutes (!). With the other units, she said the panel needs to be taken on and off to adjust the panels and that is what takes a lot of time. The door panels had heavy stainless rails into which the glass buckets hung. You could push the glass bucket up and remove them without removing the slides which hold not. Seemed nice to have them be this way. On wifi connection, in our case, it is a useful thing in that it can detect unit failure or door being left open. We will be having the unit in our vacation house and hate to come to it after a month of being gone, just to find everything gone bad due to unit failure. Not a huge deal mind you, but useful. I asked if there is a charge and she said "not currently." Not sure what that means as far as them charging in the future. I asked her the cost and she gave me an MSRP of $12,000 for dual 30 inch units. I seem to recall that the Gagg was less than $10K so this is quite a premium for the few features. Availability apparently is pretty poor for the freezer. She said someone just ordered a set and the freezer is scheduled for October! Yikes. Overall, it seems that they have done some homework on refining everything around the core of the unit. I donÂt feel that they have created enough value to go beyond the Gagg unit. But for people where price is no object, I think they should seriously consider Miele. We are not quite in that category although close when it comes to our kitchen remodel :).

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.