If you were getting new kitchen appliances...

what would you choose for your refer...I'm talking built in.
cooktop
double ovens
dishwasher
Of course, I'd like answers backed by recent experience, or at least some answers backed by research you've done

I love all the appliances in my 12 year old kitchen and I would buy them all over again...but wondering what you all think....because I know they should have improved over the last 12 years.

We're a couple of years past our research stage, but for the dishwasher I would definitely go Miele if you want to spend the bucks and Bosch if you want to save some bucks. The research we did on these put Miele at the top of our list for quietness and reliability. (Also, we have a washer and dryer made by them and the quality is excellent.)

We have several friends who have Bosch dishwashers and they love them. I believe they're significantly less expensive than the Miele units.

We redid our kitchen a couple of years ago, so we purchased new appliances. I dont have gas, so I only use electrical stoves (Rats, I am still trying to figure out a why to get a propane tank nearbye)

- Refrig: We bought a JENN-AIR Slim model, Side by Side. Not really all that happy with in. In three years I have had 5 service calls, mostly minor but still a nuisance. They have a plastic
shelf on the door that is suppose to be for Milk and Eggs. More often than not, it Jams, so you cant open the door. And by now, I HATE Side by Sides!

- Oven - GE PROFILE . For a electric range and oven, I like it... It cooks true to its temperatures. Only negative is we purchased one with a black top. Since I cook every day and I am not
a clean cook, everything shows on the cook top.

- Dishwasher - First was a Sears Kenmore.... God Love the Kenmore! It never gave us any problem that I needed a repair person for. I had to make some minor repairs with about $25 worth of parts.
But it is a bit loud. We have our eyes on a Bosch

I bought a Caldera cooktop about three years ago when I remodeled Mom's kitchen. I wish I still had it! (I moved after Mom died.)
The GE refrigerator was Ok, nothing wonderful. The Frigidaire refrigerator in my "new" house is a POS.
I had a GE Profile oven in Mom's kitchen. After half a dozen repairs in the first 4 months, I talked to the salesman at University Electric in Santa Clara, and the oven was replaced within a week. The second oven worked fine.
My current house has a Frigidaire range and it's ok. It's gas, and the burners are fine. The oven's thermostat is way off and I use a thermometer in the oven to set it.
The Bosch dishwasher in Mom's house never gave me a moment's trouble. The Frigidaire in my current house (it was brand new, whereas the range and refrigerator were not) is another POS. It takes forever to run - almost three hours for "quick wash" which doesn't get the dishes clean, and the "normal" wash takes about the same amount of time. It's noisier than the Bosch, and even though I had the "basic" Bosch model, it's much harder to figure out how to make the Frigidaire work right. And if I belly up to it (and it's right in the work area, of course) sometimes it decides I pushed the Start button. Grrrrr.

John

Ovens: Viking
Stovetop: DCS
Fridge & Dishwasher: Sears Kenmore

Our appliances came with the home we purchased 2 years ago.

The range is a Jenn Aire hybrid. Gas (propane) cook top with 5 burners and electric double ovens. Love it. Had to replace the heating coil in the lower oven once, but that is little more than routine maintenance considering the workout the range gets with Norma's bread baking and such.

Amana Side by Side fridge. No problems yet, but don't see anything so special about it.

Dishwasher is an Amana also. It's a POS. Doesn't clean all that well and the motherboard has fried once.

I have Decor wall ovens. The first time I used them was for roasting trays of tomatoes. After several trays of tomatoes had gone through the top oven, I noticed the black finish inside the oven had dulled in places and had a gray scar where the tomatoes had splattered. I've never been able to get rid of that gray. I even called Dacor and they said I was the first one to ever complain about such a problem, which is a pat answer these days. Because of that I don't think I want Dacor again, unless that problem has been resolved. I love the looks of the new GE Profile ovens and was wondering if any of you that have had the same problem with your ovens, or the GE Profile?

I had no trouble of any kind about the interior of my GE Profile ovens. The bad one kept blowing out its circuit card. I ended up keeping a spare in the cabinet, and the guy who came ordered another spare.
The electric oven doesn't broil very well - it's hard to get enough intensity of the heat. The gas oven in my Frigidaire (despite its wonky thermostat) broils very well.

John

My mother had a relatively new Decor wall oven. The temperature was always off by at least 7 degrees and she had it adjusted several times.
The glass window cracked twice, which they did replace and the bulb inside, blew almost after a month, but it also damaged the socket, which Decor did not warranty.

I wouldnt go for Decor.

Did it 4 years ago. Love my Miele DW , warming drawer and oven [ specifically for the double rotisserie]
I dreamed about the BlueStar gas cooktop for years [ only had electric for 15 previous years] but totally ADORE the 2 hob
induction burner on the island. Will never do gas again and as soon as I can, will get a Gaggenau all induction cooktop.
A French-door arrangement Leibherr fridge will replace the GE Monogram side by side. It is OK but I really need the platter
space and the Leibherr is so well designed

We completely remodeled the kitchen about three years ago. All new appliances. The Bosch oven I don't care for that much... still have trouble removing the wire shelves. Also the Bosch dishwasher. The soap dispenser broke after about a month and it takes forever for a cycle to complete. We have a northland frig with hideaway handles which I like. My view of a frig is that it is nothing more than a food storage locker so no water feature and not even an ice cube maker... just storage.

I guess this brings to mind when I was very little... just a tadpole size... I remember our stove was one of those huge cast iron stoves that you had to build a fire in it. We had a frig but I don't think it actually generated any coldness because we would have a large chunk of ice delivered every so often. Water for laundry came by way of a large rain barrel we kept along the side of the house.

And now we have all the conveniences we need... new gadgets... new technology... new everything. As I am getting closer every day to the time I will exit this planet I just feel that none of this really matters that much. Perhaps the native americans had it just about right... live in a tepee and hunt buffalo.

Tim

We replaced our dishwasher with a Bosch 6 years ago and I've hated it every day of those years. Although quiet, it's regular cycle is long and it doesn't dry worth a hoot.

Drew

Yesterday, I decided to go looking at high end appliances in our locally owned appliance store. This store has been family owned for over 47 years, is a favorite of the local contractors these days, and this was very evident by all the side by side refrigerators (which I'd never own) and stainless steel appliances (such a time consuming material to keep looking nice). It has been only 12 years since I bought high end appliances for our kitchen and I was blown away with what has happened since. I looked at Bosch and a few other brands of dishwashers. My husband discovered that he could put his hand on the front of the door and rattle the front of the stainless material. It was loose on all of them. The only one that was solid was Kitchenaid. The high end Dacor cook tops are using less stainless around the edges and a rough or brushed stainless for the surface the burners sit on. It looked cheap to me and I was not sure how that rough surface would clean up.
I looked at a counter depth Kitchenaid refer with french doors and freezer on the bottom. It had the feature of being able to use cabinet panels on the doors. I like the french doors because they take up less room when opened. Plus it is about half the price of a built in unit with the motor on top.
The Kitchenaid ovens had some interesting features. The inside of the ovens was the blue speckled ceramic stuff like the old roasting pans were made out of years ago. I was told it cleaned up well. It also had a hidden lover burner under that blue surface, which I thought was nice. I find that lower baking burner to be a troublesome when wiping up the residue from cleaning. The back side of the door was also a sold glass piece from top to bottom. No more nooks and crannies to wipe up and clean out like my current Dacor oven has on the back of the doors. All and all, I felt the quality of the appliances have dropped while prices have gone up. This store did not carry gaggenau, had only one Thermador cook top with the star burner, with the higher end appliances being something you would have to order sight unseen, other than looking at brochures.

Today my Bosch oven decided to strike out on its own... I could not turn the oven off so finally turned it to its lowest setting...oven warming... still the fan and heat came back on.

I just pulled the circuit breaker and shut it down... Sigh... another repairman making their way to our home...

Tim

Today my Bosch oven decided to strike out on its own... I could not turn the oven off so finally turned it to its lowest setting...oven warming... still the fan and heat came back on.

I just pulled the circuit breaker and shut it down... Sigh... another repairman making their way to our home...

Tim

Sometimes the fan on our Viking oven will come back on even when everything is turned off. This is a feature to cool things down when the oven has been running at very high temps.

Karen -

When we were in the research stage of this, we ended up going out to the Bay Area to check out some of the appliances as those were the closest places that actually had them in stores. I think it was worth it.

I forgot to mention this earlier, but for more info than anyone could ever use on appliances, see the GardenWeb forum at
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/appl/

Funny that Jenise hasn't posted in this thread. She's been continuously renovating a kitchen for 10 or 20 years now, right? I'm sure she has so much to say...

Funny that Jenise hasn't posted in this thread. She's been continuously renovating a kitchen for 10 or 20 years now, right? I'm sure she has so much to say...

Hey, she has nothing on us. We've been planning our kitchen renovation for almost ten years. It may be 2040 before we actually get it done!

I've been waiting for Jenise to chim in, and wish she would.

We replaced all our appliances with new stainless steel models about 5 years ago and can report on the following:
Viking Professional 6 burner stove top. Excellent, great heat control, sturdy, easy to clean and no repair issues so far.
Amana SS Refrigerator (upper single door fridge, freezer under): Excellent performance. No repairs so far. (We had another Amana fridge prior to this one that is still going strong in a friend's house at 30 years of age!)
KirchenAid top of the line dishwasher: Yikes, what a mistake. Yes, it's large inside and looks good. And it is reasonably quiet. Two major issues so far--an electrical failure that could have burned the house down if I hadn't noticed smoke coming out of the dishwasher, and a failure of the water pump, which kept the water pressure too low to wash properly. $600 worth of repairs but now it's working well (fingers crossed). I would probably buy the Miele if this one fails again.
Oven: KitchenAid. Again, not a good choice. The control panel, touch screen and timing system all failed during the past year. Unfortunately not all at the same time, or I would have replaced the oven instead of paying about $700 for repairs. I would buy Viking ovens next time.
I still have a built-in Panasonic SS microwave/convection oven that works great after 8 years and a Thermador warming drawer that looks good and has been working well for 30 years.

In addition, my son and his wife recently (within the last 3 months) remodeled a kitchen and put in upper-mid-range stainless appliances, which I've tested myself. So far the results are mixed:
KitchenAid 5 burner stove top: good performance and heat control. The large center burner is very handy.
Frigidare microwave with oven below: No complaints so far. The oven has good temp. control and is large.
Samsung French door fridge with freezer under: I don't like it. The French doors aren't really useful because you pretty much have to open both of them to get at things in the fridge.
KitchenAid warming drawer: no complaints so far.
Frigidaire top of the line dishwasher: quiet and works great so far.

After a 200 dollar service call... still no results. The oven still just keeps heating up. I had to trip the circuit breaker again to keep from burning the house down. They are returning on Friday to install a new control panel (another 272 dollars). If that doesn't work then my only choice is to buy a new oven. The problem there is that everything is built in so i have to find an oven with the exact same dimensions. I am not anxious to buy another Bosch again.

Anyway, I have one of these small toaster ovens, roughly about 10H 20L 10D. It says that you can heat it up to 500F. I am not so sure that I could throw a potato in there and bake it for a hour or two. Has anybody any experience with these small units. These look like they would come in handy at times but once again I don't want to burn the house down.

Tim

Anyway, I have one of these small toaster ovens, roughly about 10H 20L 10D. It says that you can heat it up to 500F. I am not so sure that I could throw a potato in there and bake it for a hour or two. Has anybody any experience with these small units. These look like they would come in handy at times but once again I don't want to burn the house down. Tim

We have a Cuisinart Exact Heat, Convection Toaster Oven Broiler. It is a fantastic unit. Since we have only a single wall oven, this unit gets a lot of work, and it does it very well. There is no problem baking potatoes, or bisquits, or chicken in it. They cost around a C note.

Carl,

I bought a Cuisinart exact heat toaster oven which is a lot bigger than my little one I had. So far it handles everything really well. I can see that on a functional basis it works quite well.

My wife will insist on replacing the bosch due to the remodel of the kitchen. Lets see... they now are saying that we need another part priced at 281.25. Also they revised their original quote for the other part to 3 70.10. Added to the 200 service call that is around 850 dollars. The toaster oven was on sale and only cost me around 140. O well... one does what one has to do so we will have them repair the oven and then move on to the next malfunctioning piece of hardware.

Tim