Hi Stan! Thanks for the input! The CSO is going to be the plumbed Miele version, but you are confirming what I suspect, which is that 69" is probably too high and the coffee maker is probably too low. For me, the convenience of having a plumbed coffee maker is huge because I'm always in a rush to make coffee and fly out the door in the morning. Do people dislike the Miele coffee maker? I will definitely need to read up on this.

My Miele CSO is installed at 40-58" height, and has been in use for 3 years. Based on my experience, YMMV, I wouldn't consider a 51-69" installation. You say that you expect to use the CSO frequently. Is that because you already have one and this is a replacement/upgrade, or new to your cooking and based on your expectation?

The reason I ask is that this is truly a workhorse machine, and using it to its best potential will lead to more, more, and more uses as you experience all it can do! That said, as you begin to prepare more complex meals, you will be opening and closing the door, adding items as your cook cycles progress, and the height will become a real disadvantage. Removing the hot pans and hot fluid trays from that height will become tiresome, and you may then begin to shy away from even using it, or just using it for the simplest one-step tasks. Then your lower oven will also become a disadvantage, if you begin to use IT preferentially, because you compromised to put it so low. Again, YMMV, I don't want to be a downer, but you asked for advice, and I fear this design will compromise both of your ovens.

Perhaps in your life the coffeemaker is the most important appliance in the kitchen (there are many of us!), and this 3-stack design gives the coffeemaker the most prime location.

If your CSO is plumbed, you won't be filling and emptying the water reservoirs for each session, but you will still have to raise and lower the control panel for cleaning and descaling. Keeping the inside walls, floor, and roof of the oven clean with wipe-downs after use will also be more of a chore at that height. I'm envisioning you on a stool (at your 5'4" height) more and more if you stay with the learning curve of the CSO, and I strongly encourage you to make full use of it! (If your unit is not plumbed, then the 69" top could likely become a serious problem for you to fill and empty the reservoirs.)

In addition, the Miele CSO comes with a nice variety of large and small, solid and perforated trays, racks, and probes, (you may also add more accessories as you use it more), and my experience is that having all those items, as well as trivets and potholders, in drawers immediately below the oven has been so very helpful. My advice is that it's unrealistic to think you can store all the racks and trays in the oven itself, especially if it's in use nearly every day (as I hope for you).

In my own design, I ended up eliminating the Miele coffeemaker altogether, and I've never regretted it because it led to such easy function of the CSO. My double ovens are in another location, and that has been functional, too, as activities at the ovens don't interfere with each other. I can program the CSO to come on and go off on my timetable, and walk away until it prompts an intermediate step, if any.

Every kitchen has its own layout constraints, and so without knowing what yours are, I'd suggest moving the coffeemaker and the 30" oven to another location, even if it's the side by side arrangement you mention. How close are the oven landing zones?

Oh, one more thought, do the Miele specs allow installation at that 51-69" height re warranty? I'm wondering if the longer length of the plumbing run would be within their allowances. (When I bought my unit, the plumbed version wasn't available in the USA yet.)

Apologies for the long post here, and I hope it is somewhat helpful in your choices. Best of luck in the tradeoffs we all face in layout issues. Hope you will LOVE your CSO!

ghkim, after I hit submit, I remembered an important test I did when designing the usability height of my CSO.

The door projects 12.5 " when opened, and the top rack sits another 10.5" above that. You might have someone hold a half-sheet pan at 51" to simulate the open door, imagine it HOT, and try to reach over it to remove a hot tray at 61.5" high and 12.5 " recessed, then pivot to your landing zone without brushing the door. Likewise, experiment with loading a full tray at 61.5" over the 12.5" projection of the hot open door at 51".

It might help you choose.

If you have to do the 3 stack, you'd be better off with coffee maker on top. It's a little high, but I'd rather have that a little too high than the steam oven.

i'm seriously considering abandoning the built in coffee maker altogether now. anyone have a suggestion on ideal height for the CSO?

smiling, i don't have a CSO now, just anticipating that i will use it much more than the 30" oven since it is smaller and faster. thank you so much for those measurements! i will definitely be using them to figure out what height to use.

is there such thing as a non-built-in plumbed coffee maker? alas, i suppose i will resign myself to filling a coffee maker daily with water. any suggestions on an awesome countertop coffee maker?

Jura makes a series of highly rated countertop coffee machines with both water and bean hoppers: https://us.jura.com/en/homeproducts/machines 

compare Jura machines

The "S-9" might meet your needs because it has a 96 oz water tank (that's 3/4th of a gallon). I think it's programmable to come on and warm up for you so it would be one touch as you head out the door.

I agree that you want your CSO to be at comfortable height for you. Ideal height for my CSO is 58" measured from the floor to the top of the CSO. I am just under 5'4", and my oven has a side swing door, so that may have an impact on ideal height. When I was deciding on height I went to various appliance showrooms where I saw the ovens installed at different heights, and was able open doors/pull out trays/touch the inside back wall to determine what would work best for me. Is that an option for you?

ETA: I'd go with a countertop coffee machine. We have a Saeco (which coincidentally makes the Miele machines).

I love both my Miele steam oven and coffee maker but I use the coffeemaker WAAAY more- I would never give it up now..

seems like countertop height is around the right height for the CSO. would it be crazy to put the coffee maker above the CSO? i don't love the idea of so much steam going up into the coffee maker, but maybe i'm just being paranoid. upper cabinet height seems reasonable for a coffee maker since you don't have to reach into anything. any thoughts on this kind of stack?

The bottom of my CSO is above counter height, and I wouldn't change it. I love that I can look into the oven and remove items without bending down. This is especially important to me because I use my CSO a LOT. My regular oven is just below the CSO, so even higher than what Lily'smom has suggested, and I would not want it to be much lower. If you want to be putting one of your ovens at or below counter level, why not just get a range?

A microwave drawer works great under the counter because, well, its a drawer. You open it up and reach down into it. The controls are angled up (at least with a Sharp model) not on the front.

Many of the glossy photos on the Miele website show ovens and coffee maker arranged in a row -- not a column -- with the oven controls at mouth to eye level which means the racks are roughly at chest to shoulder level. To me this is close to the ideal height: you can easily read and use the controls; you can easily look into the oven, and you can easily reach into the oven without bending down or reaching up too high.

So for someone 5'4" high I'd do roughly: 4" toekick + 8" drawer + 30" convection oven + 18" CSO. This puts the top of the CSO at about 60" (roughly eye level). Sorry but I think a coffee maker would need to go somewhere else.

Also if you are buying Miele call the Concierge line for assistance on placement. They are great. I called them about a dozen times pre and post sales and they were great to work with. They almost always answered the phone within a few rings (no voice mail); usually knew the answer to my questions; and when they didn't know an answer told me they would call back in an hour (and actually did!).

ghkim, I have a "brew express" coffee maker that can be plumbed into your water line from the refridge water supply. I believe if you google it sears & amazon carries them. There is a built into the wall model but I purchased the counter model that is low enough to sit under my cabinets and its pretty narrow so it sits back and doesn't take up much space. The coffee basket loads from the front so I never have to slide it out, it doesn't steam up under the cabinet, and has some nice features (timer, full/half pot or single cup options). Just a suggestion if you don't end up going with your original plan.

My wolf steam oven is at 63" (top of oven) above floor. I'm 5'5". It's a great height but I have a tough time cleaning the back of it. I have a single wall oven underneath and storage drawer under that.

I highly recommend doing a full scale mock-up for any appliance placement when openings are being considered. Especially stacked. I removed an old double wall oven but first made a cardboard mock-up taped to the front with exact measurements and openings to see how the doors would feel opened and shut. Where the knobs and handles and panels lined up. With the new steam oven and side door wall oven in the garage, (for months),i took my time and tweaked it until we got around to get an electrician in to run elec, etc.

Could not be happier with the outcome. I can't imagine a steam oven so high up that you cannot see down into the pans. It is often a dance in timing with multiple pans in and out. Not always but it does depend on your cooking style.

My left opening wall oven is on top at eye level to the glass door. We can both see clearly what is cooking. Steam oven is about a split difference with the counter height. No bending over at all and easy to slide trays in. Easy to clean.

If under a counter is the only solution that would be fine also. I would so dislike it up high. We use both ovens equally. Depends on the season really.

When we first bought this home i designed a coffee/breakfast station to be built into a wall by the breakfast table but after the first year here that was not really necessary. Cute functional idea but our kitchen ended up a better design than we initially thought. 1962 Dutch architect designed.

One of the TV chefs did a gut renovation kitchen and mocked up his kitchen with plywood on sawhorses, blue tape on the floor, cardboard boxes stacked, sink shape cutouts that he moved around to get a feel for the 'flow' of cooking family meals...

54" will be just fine

So thankful for this thread! I just noticed that my kitchen designer had our CSO in at 71". WAY TOO HIGH. We are lowering it this weekend/ just caught it in the nick of time as this section of the cabinetry went in. She should have shown us her drawings and warned us to measure and told us that it was unusually high -- nobody would think to double check a designers work.