So far it seems like Sub/Zero has good reviews. pllog- you raise a good point in that I do live in a smaller city and service in general will be harder. To give an idea any showroom that i visited was at least an hour away. rima-wa- looks like you had a good experience with Mile service. I originally was looking into Gag oven but scratched that idea entirely since there are NO displays in any showroom in my state at all! Imagine servicing something like that. On a final note Wolf is about to put a Combi Steam/Convection oven on a few of our showrooms here. Since I was initially really interested in this feature maybe I should start looking in thais direction. Still there are features in the Miele oven that I really liked. Plus I think I was going to get a few pieces off the showroom floor and from the Close out section that would have priced out some of these Miele appliances a bit better. Another reason I wanted to make sure Miele service was strong

Can't speak for the SZ models but we purchased the Miele units (fridge and freezer) and are THRILLED with them. Ours have custom panels and do not look at all like appliances. In fact most newcomers to our kitchen ask where the fridge is and when they open it is is a definite WOW! Here's a previous post I made on the Miele units: We initially installed GE monogram all fridge freezer units. Needless to say (and if you need to know details you can find them on the forums or email me for details) these units needed to be replaced within a very short space of time. Our only choices as the kitchen was custom built to fit the specs of the GE units, were to go with new GE models (no way no how), Miele or Sub Zero. Our experience with Miele had been fantastic so we went with those. The fridge and freezer are everything we anticipated. We had one installation issue. Both the fridge and freezer were shown in the specs with a 90 degree door. While this is true for the fridge, it is NOT true for the freezer due to the extra insulation in the door. We could not open the door far enough to allow the draws to open unhindered. Miele was great and authorized a replacement freezer for one with the hinges on the oppposite side. I believe they have changed their spec sheets on the freezer as well - or at least I hope they have. The original misleading photograph is still on their website. Some things I have discovered as we live with these models They really are shallow BUT you can get a LOT in them. If you have a large platter too big for the shelves, it will probably fit in the drawer. (I've stacked them in the draw using glasses between "layers" and it's worked fine.) The blessing of a shallow fridge and freezer is that it is impossible to lose food in the back. We also switched to glass storage so we can easily see what's in the fridge. Where we used to throw out lots of food that we had no idea what it was, we are now finding that there is often "nothing to eat" or at least that's what my kids tell me :) As previously mentioned, the door shelves are shallow. You can fit a half gallon in the door but not a gallon. Because the compressor is at the bottom, the top shelf can be rather high. We're all tall so it doesn't matter so much but if you're short... Another advantage of the bottom compressor is that if you plan to panel the fridge, it is one panel. Ours is so integrated most people think it's a pantry and not a fridge at all. The freezer in the butlers pantry is the same sleek and streamlined look. Also as mentioned, the ice maker is TINY. We haven't had the freezer over a summer so not sure how that will pan out but we have needed to purchase ice for parties. Both the fridge and freezer have full extension drawers. This makes it so easy to sort and store produce and to find them. We've dedicated one draw for fruit, another for veggies and the smaller drawer in the fridge is for deli. Our freezer is now organized with each section in the drawers holding different frozen goods. I also found some Rubbermaid plastic containers that fit on the shelves with no wasted space and improve the "holding" capacity. I can fit a lot in those open containers and it doesn't fall out when you open the door. If I was organized enough, I could plan it out and put ice into one to collect for parties :) Food lasts longer without a doubt. I have some rhubarb that I just used today to make cupcakes. It was still crisp and fresh and had been in the drawer for at least two weeks. I notice celery lasts longer too. Both the fridge and the freezer hook up to your computer network through wireless technology. Ha you might say but last week when I was out of town, dh grabbed something from the freezer on his way out the door and it didn't close properly. He was on the train when he got an email saying the temp in the freezer had dropped and the alarm had gone off. He called a neighbor who came into our house and closed the freezer properly for him. That probably saved us a $1000 right there! I am not sure how long they will last but past experience with Miele has been positive. We reinstalled our Miele DW from our old kitchen that is almost 10 yrs old. Our previous Miele DW was 20 yrs old and could have been fixed and gone another 5 years but we chose to replace it. Our second Dw is also Miele as are our DO. Wasn't planned that way but that's what we ended up with. After going with cheaper (and never let anyone tell you GE is cheap) and having products not last a year, we're hoping these are our forever fridge and freezer. They're pretty expensive but we hope they are worth it. So far so good.

BK - you are just flat out wrong wrong here. SZ makes their own fridges in their own factories, and about the only thing that is of Whirlpool design is the $50 ice maker unit that 60+% of the industry uses ! They fabricate their own steel and plastic cases, source their own, copper and glass, spray their own insulation , designed their own ethelyene filter, and on and on. Whirlpool wasn't even in the fridge business until a decade after SZ was producing theirs , and the only reason Whirlpool got in it was because of a merger. and, we all know about mergers. SZ has and these units in real homes for twelve plus months already , so they kinda know what is flawed with them. These also aren't just some half baked platform off the drawing board like your Maytag example. Further , Maytag ceases to exist because they were boneheads. Their Neptune debacle blew a hole in the ship, and the Amana acquisition enlarged it. And guess who picked up the pieces folks? Yep, BK's white knight and general do gooder, Whirlpool. Happy, I know it's a tough decision for you right now with this model change especially since they are different sizes. I would go for he new design, simply because that 7xx platform is almost twenty years old now and the 36" one is not the best size anyway. Have you considered one of the 36" ers from one of the Miele, Gaggenau, Thermador cousins? They are all top quality and roughly the same price as that 736. Available now and first of the year no changes, proven platform with nice features, and they integrate very smoothly.

No, it isn't a terrible idea providing you are aware of a few caveats and limitations. I have an all fridge unit with the glass door in my kitchen. There will be NO warranty as it will be installed in a residential kitchen. IMHO, it's worth the risk as these units are about one-quarter the price of a SubZero. The actual refrigeration unit is fairly simple and can be serviced by anyone who works on refrigeration. They are not quiet if that's important to you. Having two units would probably be fairly noisy. True does manufacture several units that can be installed with remote compressors to mitigate the noise.