I don't think you can go wrong with either. I can't speak to the side by sides. We have a Liebherr fully integrated french door model and love it. Have had a small problem with the rubber around the doors sticking but not that big of an issue. My sister has a subzero all refrigerator and loves it as well so I think both are great products. I believe Liebherr is the only company however that makes it's own icemaker. The rest buy them from other suppliers and install into their freezers. I can't speak to the 48" of either but just wanted to mention how happy we are with our Liebherr. Good luck.

On a built in the shelves are going to be much more shallow. To me this is a really good thing. I was forever losing leftovers in the old GE freezer on top 20 c.f. model. My new Miele 36" fridge/freezer easily holds way more than the old one and its rated at 18 cf. But if you want a door dispenser, you probably have to look at something like GE monogram - I don't think either SZ or Miele do that. How about undercounter drawers for more fridge space? My friend put one in for beverages near the table and that worked great for them. Kept her 4 kids out of the main big fridge too.

We have a Model 532 Side-by Side Sub Zero from 10 years ago. It has been trouble free except for a poorly attached water inlet hose when it was delivered. I had specifically told the plumber to NOT turn the water on to the ice maker until we moved into the house. Will guess what...moving day was a mess due to the water in the kitchen. This problem was solved by simply re-attaching the plastic hose that had been dislodged by the appliance delivery guys. So...check this yourself before the refrigerator is moved into place. Other than that initial installation incident, we've had no problems at all...not even a burned out light. However...a couple items to mention. My spouse does prefer a freeze below the refrigerator as we had in the previous house. I am tall, so I much prefer the side-by-side. The one design aspect with the Sub Zero we dislike (and this is likely true of all side-by-side 48" systems), is that extremely wide items (pizza boxes, HUGE turkeys) might not fit in the freezer. For example, Costco pizzas are in a box that is too big for the freezer.

Here's a picture of our built in and paneled JA Fridge. It is not "Integrated", per se but is flush with the cabinets surrounding it. I designed the depth of the cabinets so the fridge would be flush wiith the cabinets. It was never our intention to hide the fridge, We like the look and ease of cleaning the wood panels, which in the 8 years + , we've had the fridge, is/was tons of less work than trying to keep our old GE Stainless Steel fridge looking "presentable". We love the SXS as we are just as apt to access that which is in the freezer as that which is in the fridge, so we keep the food, most accessed, at the "perfect height" for us, be it in the fridge or freezer. Since we tend to use a lot of ice, having the icemaker at a "convenient height" is really an asset. My wife's twin sister, when they did their kitchen remodel chose a regular depth , freezer on top model, maybe 36" wide or so, it does stick out, and you see it from her family room, as it I sits along the dividing wall between the family room and the kitchen, "TO ME", that looks terrible and at the very least I would have enlarged that wall to cover up the area where the fridge sticks out. But, as they say, "Different Strokes for different folks"! >Gary This post was edited by dodge59 on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 12:05