Nice bit of "Jenn-air" history, hvtech42! My only disagreement with it would be to "Lump all the JA products together" in the "History Lesson". I have no experience with the JA cooking products, (cooktops, ranges, ovens~~~etc). But I do have a lot of experience with a Jenn-air Fridge and in fact, I've done a lof of research on them. Back in 2006, I was looking for a 48" built in fridge. Back then, I only had 3 choices, (or at least that's all I could find in stores and on the net). One was GE, since I had a GE S X S full sized fridge I was going to replace, (I could not get icemaker parts even during it's one year warranty)!!, & It leaked and rusted out the sides of the fridge~~sooooo~~~~GE was out of the running, (back in 2006). The other choices were SZ and Jenn-air. Apparently SZ was having evaporator problems back in 2006, (some say it was a copper problem, others say it was caused by copper tubing and aluminum fins on the tubing)~~~~anyway~~~SZ was rated "Dead Last" in reliability by Consumer Reports~~~~yeah I know, but I took time to research the evaporator problem and found out enough about it to scare me off! Jenn-Air "S X S as well has built ins" have been rated the #1 fridge for reliability by readers of Consumer Reports since 2006, and today I believe it is "Tied" with another manufacturer for the #1 position, SZ is about 4 points below, (So not significant, at least to me). The Jenn-Air of 2006 was "Way Ahead of it's Thyme". It offered conveniences and attributes that even most fridges today don't offer. It was one of the first to use the variable speed compressor, very quiet and efficient and great temp control. It has digital readouts and settings for 3 different areas of the fridge, (Meat Keeper, Chrisper and main compartment). It has a 4th digital readout and control for the freezer. It has crank up and down shelves---luv those, so handy when encountering a tall bottle or whatever! The fridge also has built in Diagnostics The disgnostics will check the speed of every fan in the fridge, it will check compressor speed, check the flap operation between the fridge and freezer, all in all about 31 diagnostic test~~~~~sooooo~~~~if I ever have a problem with the fridge, I should be able to pretty well "Nail down" which part is causing the problem and make sure the appliance repair company has it, BEFORE they come out and have a "Look SEE" as they do with most fridge repairs. So, great history lesson, but I think you have to (at the very least) split the JA Fridge from the JA cooking appliances to really see "The Whole Picture"! Unfortunately, today, 2014, it looks like Whirlpool may have removed a lot of the things I really like about my JA Fridge, The crank up/down shelves, The 3 different temp settings for different areas of the fridge, and I would bet money they removed the "Diagnostics" Too!! Gary

Air source heat pumps don't make sense in areas where winter temps frequently fall below 32 degrees. Once you get below freezing, you will be running the auxillary heat a lot. If you decide to go the air source route, you will want a second stage gas fired auxillary heat. I live in the mid-atlantic region in the mountains and selected GT. That choice was coupled with a blown cellulose insulation package. My other choice was a propane heat/electric AC with a foam insulation package. Both options were roughly the same install cost. Both would have provided similar energy efficiency. At the time we selected, propane was 3.75 a gallon and rising (with no end in sight) so we went with GT. The delta cost for the GT system (above the cost for a HE propane heat and electric AC system) was $15,000 for the heat pumps and loop plumbing (including pumps) plus $17,000 for digging the pit. The pit excavation should not have cost as much as it did but it is a 12 ton system and the hole was gigantic (120' x 48' x 6'). We live on a mountain and hit a bunch of boulders that required special equipment to get out. Rocky soil also required a 1' base of stone dust to cover the loop piping. The total cost for the GT HVAC system including all ducting was $50,000 plus the pit excavation cost of 17K. It is a large investment and I would only recommend it if you plan to live in the house a very long time. My heating bills are great - maybe 300 dollars maximum a month during peak winter for an 8500 square foot home (5900 living and the rest a condiitoned but unfinished basement). Make sure that whatever equipment you choose can be maintained by more than 1 very qualified HVAC company who has many years of GT experience. In my area there is only 1 GT company who has over 20 years of experience but I am stuck with them for maintenance. There have been times when I wanted to fire them but cannot. Local competition is a good thing. Also - if you build a tight home make sure that you consider ventilation and dehumidification in the HVAC design. I wound up adding both a whole house dehumidifier and energy recovery vent after we moved in becuase we had basement moisture issues as well as stale air in the winter. Tight homes are great for energy efficiency but can create health issues too. It is easy to deal with as long as you plan for it. Good luck with the build.

Here is my report as promised: I made my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and brought a batch of cookie dough balls to the store. The KA demo lady never did show up, so I just experimented on my own. First I turned the oven on regular bake at 350ú to see if I could hear the fan. The air conditioner fan in the store was very loud, and I could hear no oven fan at all on regular bake. I got impatient waiting for preheat, so turned the oven to convection bake. I could hear the convection fan, but it was very quiet, especially given the air conditioning noise. Convection bake preheat went much faster. Maybe ten to fifteen minutes. I proceeded to cook the two cookie sheets in the oven, on the 2nd and 4th racks. The recipe is normally 375ú for ten minutes, so I did 350ú for 9 minutes. I should also say that I used my regular flat, air insulated cookie sheets, which some say not to use with convection, as they keep the bottoms from browning as much as they would with a regular cookie sheet, which is supposedly not necessary with convection. The cookies came out perfectly, rose well, crunchy outside, chewy inside. The cool down fan continued after I turned the oven off. Still very quiet. However, the salesman told me that the demo oven is over four years old and that it was the oven that came out after that which had all the noise complaints. He also said that they had all been corrected in the factory for all new ovens, not by a complete redesign, but by whatever running corrections they are able to do as they go along. So I am still not 100% confident that I have heard the real thing. However, I am going to go ahead and order the oven, as the fan on this one was completely unobjectionable, at least so far as I could tell, and the cookies were excellent. Two other things the salesman suggested: Use the bottom oven preferentially when using only one oven, as it is further from the electronics and will improve the control board life span away from the heat. also, Never use the self clean, no matter what the oven, because the extreme heat is so bad for the electronics. He recommended instead heating a shallow, jelly roll type pan of water with baking soda on the bottom of the oven for an hour at 300ú, then wiping down the whole with a cloth. Not as effective as self-cleaning, but safer. That's all folks!

We have mostly GE Profile appliances, except DW & MW, and so far are very happy with them. Our DW is KitchenAid and our MW a Sharp MW drawer. When we moved into our house 13 years ago, we purchased all GE Profile appliances except MW...Refrigerator, DW, & Electric Convection Range. Our MW was a Sharp. We also purchased a GE, not Profile, washer & dryer. Our experiences were: Range...wonderful...still going strong when we demo'd in January of this year and is now being used by a family we donated it to. DW...not so good. That's why we bought a KA with the remodel. We have somewhat acidic well water and it corroded the DW. We then got a Maytag and it also was still working fine at demo and is also now being used by another family. Refrigerator...the icemaker did die, but the rest of the refrigerator was fine...we're keeping it as a 2nd refrigerator. New kitchen appliances: GE Profile Electric Cooktop GE Profile Warming Drawer GE Profile Trivection Double Ovens (top is Trivection, bottom convection) GE Profile CD FD Refrigerator w/water in the door Sharp MW Drawer KitchenAid DW The only appliance we've been less than thrilled with is the KA DW...we have to use the heavy duty wash to get consistently clean dishes. All the GE Profile appliances are working just fine.