When our kitchen was redone in 2006, I didn't know about Miele, so we went with a GE Profile dishwasher, range and OTR microwave. The range and microwave worked fine, but continued to have issues with the dishwasher. Got it exchanged under the Lowes warranty for an Electrolux. It wasn't any good and was repaired 5 times in 3 months, so Lowes refunded us back. Was then without a unit for 2 year until we got the Miele in 2010. We went with the stainless front, since we decided as appliances needed to be replaced, we go with stainless so they would all match. BUT if I were redoing my kitchen now - I'd get the panel ready Miele so it would have the wood cabinet facing on it.

For more input, at least preliminarily, as I have not had more than 2 months with our new appliances: The major appliances in my old home have not needed any service calls. Seriously! The Wolf oven heats to the programed temp (checked with an interior thermometer regularly) and retains the temp well with little or no heat leakage. I do not experience hots spots. The cooktop burners go from the highest high to the lowest low (and simmers without the annoying clicking sound on other units). My only question for Wolf initially was the long preheat time but we figured out it was because I was leaving a pizza stone in there permanently to even out the temp but found out that it was not necessary and that was actually increasing the necessary time to come to temp so "my bad." I love the Wolf. Vent a hood exhaust is awesome! I love, love, love the Miele dishwasher. It has the best capacity of any washer I have ever used. Service for 16, easy! I thought I would hate the silverware rack but I came to love it. I have NEVER needed a service on this unit. Cleans great. Very quiet. I wish there was a "short cycle" for quick jobs though. I am a strong proponent of the GE Advantium and it's flexibility but understand that newer technology have come to market since that might be superior? I cannot speak to that. Works well as a microwave and a "toaster oven" and does not need preheating or heat up the kitchen. It has a larger capacity than a traditional microwave so it doubles as a second oven. It has never needed a service either. I do like my Miele coffee but understand that the nature of the beast is that the units do not last as long as other appliances. It was necessary to replace our original after 10 years but this new one is even better than the last. The plumbed feature makes everything much easier. I joke with friends that it does almost everything but milk the cow. We had a glitch with the subzero undercounter wine fridge but I was told it was a manufacturing defect for that particular year. All repairs to the compressor in it's early years were covered even after the warranty expired. No trouble since and the 2 zone cooling works great. New kitchen: Viking 5 burner cooktop - flame capacity (High and low) is limited and fluctuates depending on the burner I choose. Location of burners are not as conveniently located (there are larger and smaller plates) and are not organized so that you can actually have 5 pots on at the same time. Viking hood not nearly as powerful Thermador oven: currently operating approx 25 degrees under what it says on the temp indicator. hot spots and some features not working correctly. There is no light and I cannot find where the bulb would be located to replace it. I have not had time to look online or contact Thermador directly. Thermador micro - hot spots and less intuitive programing than the GE. We wind up just using "add 30 sec" feature. I miss the halogen light feature if the Advantium Layout of the Bosch is just dumb! consequently we need to run it more often because it fills up often. Dishes require a lot of pre-cleaning. It is equally as quiet as the Miele however. I'm replacing the Jura Impressa espresso entirely asap. I find it necessary microwave the Latte/cappuccino to make it hot enough. Small water, milk and bean capacity makes it so you can only make 2 coffee's before needing to refill. Features are antiquated but I have been told newer units are better. I haven't decided to do a built in or countertop as of yet. I hope that helps. I will be researching here again when it is time to start from scratch in our new home.

Thank you all for great info! Wolf's cold spots in the middle is a little bummer. I wouldn't expect this kind of design on 5 way bridge cooktop. The elements suppose to be made by French company Jaeger Hiflux. Their Crescendo model is quite different from what I have ever seen in induction cooktops. Check this out.. http://www.jaeger-sas.com/#!induction-en/cl7w Anyway since Wolf has no flex in bridge mode then we might take another look into 36" GE Cafe model which was #3 on our list. It has only one no flex bridge mode, but it's much cheaper than Wolf or Miele. That model has many positive reviews including #1 on CR rating (99 out of 100). On both GE & Wolf we like simple, clean interface. GE is better with 17 vs 10 levels on Wolf. On GE minus side is power sharing (not quite sure how much problem is that in real use) and only 1 year warranty vs 3 year on Wolf. However much bigger problem on GE Cafe is SS color. My DH says that specific color is clashing with our choice of Silestone Kensho countertop (light gray). I don't see it as bad but we might loose it on that argument. No question the decision between Miele vs Wolf vs GE Cafe is giving us more headaches than any other appliance.

So, time to chime in here. I went with the Blue Star 36" induction cook top 2 years ago. Looks great, LOVED the knobs, worked fantastic... for about 18 months. I'll note that unlike their other products it only has a 1 year warranty. First, the two rightmost burners started indicating they were overheating when the central burner was in use (and the rightmost were not). I reset the system at the breaker per the manual and it rand great for three weeks with a hitch, then the central and right top burner cut out entirely. Three days later they came back, but wouldn't heat above level 7 (out of 10). I had (or so I thought) the good sense to get an extended warranty, but after getting a service guy out here the warranty company informs me it will cost more to fix than I paid in the first place, so they're going to cash me out. Blue Star may be good in other areas (no experience here), but based on my experience with this one, I don't think they have enough time making this product to reach their usual degree of reliability. Addendum: looks like Blue Star (when I bought it) had a narrower cut out (18") than anything currently on the market, including their own product. At least it looks like they're learning from past mistakes...