High end appliances. Your experience.

[Tony Pic]

I know there was best fridge thread. I'm curious about everything else.
The high end range/oven/micro/dishwasher sets like Thermador, Viking, Jennairre, Z line, Monogram, Cafe. I have been reading reviews online and they range from great to POS. I was looking for some green screen advice. We are about to break ground on a home in Harper and are picking out appliances. The wife loves to cook and I don't mind buying her nice stuff as long as it is good stuff.
Shiny things are not always good things.
Thanks in advance.

[dclifton]

Idk about fridges but i would think a good SS gas range and oven would be worth the money. Something like subzero /wolf is where i would be looking.

[TeamAmerica]

Realistically it may be different brands by appliance (cooktop vs fridge etc).

We've had a couple high end versions of GE profile and some kitchen aid stuff that has latest a long time. No personal experience with the brands you mentioned.

[CEO]

Wife loves Thermador, not a fan of Viking. Heard her talk about Wolf, but can't remember her opinion on those.

Order as soon as possible. They have houses that closed almost a year ago that still don't have their appliances. Taking well over a year and seems to be getting worse.

[Joe H]

We have thermador and very happy after 8 years

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[TreyRo]

Mom and Dad have a wolf oven/range.... Seems to work great although I don't know how old it is. I think they built their place 7 years ago.

[WilliamL]

Viking 6 burner in my new house and really like it. Last house had the Viking range and was extremely solid. No issues. Would buy either again. Made in USA, I think Mississippi

Viking VTR5366BSS

[powderburner]

We remodeled our kitchen a few years ago we went with GE Cafe' for fridge, microwave, oven, dishwasher.

I love everything but the dishwasher. It works great but the basket/drawer has cheap *** rollers that fall off all the time and then melt.
Washes great.
They have options for Wifi and ect but that crap is a selling point that never gets used.

[Adgerc15]

I worked for an appliance mfg for nearly ten years. My input for what its worth.

Buying a quality set will go a long ways if your wife likes to cook. Consistent results and quality cooks are the norm. My thoughts on the brands you mentioned.

Thermador - Bosch-Thermador is a quality product without a super premium price (in most of their lineup) and I would recommend it or buy for myself.
Viking- struggle for years with quality and warranty work, I would avoid. Not the premier brand it was 20 years ago today.
Jenn-Air- Whirpool family of brands. Consider it in line with their Kitchen-Aid product. Looks great but many products lacked high end features and the quality of some other brands. I would avoid.
Z line- Avoid this brand altogether.
Monogram/Cafe- Both mfg by GE and I will say that both are great products. In my experience the Monogram line was a robust product with limited options but the Cafe like has allowed them to expand assortment between the two. Warranty and service/parts availability will be a plus with these brands if ever needed.

Wolf-Sub Zero is top of market for a reason. You can get the name brand appeal (great for you or resale) and the warranty/service is best in class. Cove dish has really rounded out this lineup. If you have the budget you won't regret this family of products.

I'd encourage you to check our Electrolux brand as well. Swedish company with a large North American mfg footprint. European design and features with a great look. Service/warranty in house so they are quick and easy in most cases.

ac

[Landrover]

We have been in our home for 12 years now.......wow, that was fast.....lol! My wife has a chefs kitchen and we had access to all the brands at discount due to being in the restaurant business. She went with the Jenn-Air package and have been super happy. It saved us a ton, she got what she wanted, she got the look she wanted and not even 1 service call.

[Arrowsmith]

We have a Thor Kitchen gas range (propane conversion). It's a little over 3 years old. We had to have the gas safety valve replaced under warranty. That was kind of tricky since we live out in the middle of nowhere. A sevice company from Amana, Iowa (2.5 hours away) drove down and did the repair. I have had to replace the oven igniter also (out of warranty). I bought the OEM part online from Thor Kitchen and did the repair myself. The Thor range cooks awesome. I hope we have bugs worked out. Of course both glitches happened right before two different Thanksgivings.[emoji3525]

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[chadt1234]

We recently replaced our Jenn-air pro line cooktop with one from a company called Kucht. So far it's been great. The wife loves it more than the Jenn-air and she like the Jenn-air better that the Thermador we had in the last house. Not sure about their other appliances (I think its just stoves and cook-tops), but we have no complaints. Customer service is also top notch. I did the install and they had a guy Facetime me through it all.

[CastAndBlast]

We have everything Thermador for the past 6 years. I have been very pleased with everything. The only repair we had was self inflicted. We cook 5 out of 7 days generally.

[Gclyde28]

Sub Zero makes the best fridges and freezers. But, they also don't offer "builder pricing" unless your builder is buying an absolute ton of sub zero products. We build around 10 very high end houses a year and don't even sniff getting close to purchasing enough to qualify for the discount.

When you get into the cooking side of things is where I feel things even out. We use Thermador a lot on our custom homes because we get a decent discount we can pass along to our clients on what we feel is a good product. We don't have problems with Thermador refrigeration products either if clients want to save a little money but if you are looking for the best, I think industry standard would default to SubZero for refrigeration.

Bosch owns Thermador (or vice versa) so those products are going to look a lot alike, just at a different price point. We have a Thermador cooktop and dishwasher, and Bosch fridge and Ovens in our home. The fridge and dishwasher were panel ready so you can't even tell the difference anyways unless you open them up to read the brand.

I wouldn't consider Cafe on the same level as the others. Our supplier tries to steer everyone they can away from Viking because they say they get more call backs on that brand than the other brands out there.

Just a heads up, if you have the same troubles as we are currently, finding dishwashers right now is going to be tough. You may have to be more flexible on what brand that is just based on availability. For some reason that is the item with the longest lead time, if they will even give you one.

[Geraldg6]

They break just as much as other price line appliances. But when they are working it is easy to see why they are cost more.


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