[DINK]

I have spent a lot of time reading all of your posts about which appliances to purchase for kitchen use. My budget will not allow me to buy the top of the line appliances, so I am looking for any input that can help me choose between KitchenAid, GeProfile and Jennaire products.

My husband and myself do a lot of entertaining and spend a lot of time together in the kitchen, so getting the most bang for our money is the goal. I am looking to purchase the following and could use some advice.
42-48" Refrigerator
30" Double Wall Oven
30" Warming Drawer
Dishwasher (want a Bosch or Miele)
Microwave

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Mezzaluna]

There hae been discussions on all of these before, so I recommend you try using the search button.

Having said that, here are some thoughts.

Fridges: I think these are a highly personal thing, kind of like a woman's handbag or a pair of shoes. I've been hearing poor reliability from SubZero, though. There is one in the kitchen of my temple (I spend a lot of time there) and it's been repaired twice in 6 years- once for the seal and once for the motor. Its shelves are 12" deep, a real pain when you need to refrigerate trays of food. Check for things like that.

Wall oven: be sure to get one or both s convection ovens. Self cleaning? Goes without saying- GET IT.

Microwave: I have a Sharp Convection/Microwave and like it a lot. It's really large inside- large enough that most of my meat platters will fit inside and not impede the carousel. It makes succulent roast chicken and cleans up easily.

I have no opinion on the other items; there will be others who can tell you about these and add to my thoughts. (Some will refute them )

Good luck!

[panini]

I am very happy with my kitchen aid double wall oven. The both have conv or conventioal options. Hidden elements are great. Bakes well. You can also build a kitchen aid dishwasher yourself. I got one with no bells and whistles, ss in and out for under 600.

[mudbug]

You may also find helpful information on specific brands and models here

[MikeLM]

Dink-
It's an interesting challenge. We just completed a total rebuild of a condo kitchen and went through what you're looking at. It going to wear you out.
Sorry.

Our kitchen is pretty small- 8 feet by 13 feet, so every inch counted. We couldn't use gas in the kitchen, so we're all-electric. We didn't have the budget for prestige brands (no $7,000 fridges) but could afford the best items of popular appliance lines.

We wound up with a Kenmore three-door 24-cf bottom-freezer fridge which is just 36" wide, so you can go something bigger. The Kenmore unit was well-reviewed by Consumers' Report, and was about $1900.

We got a KitchenAid 30" wide double oven; top oven convection and both ovens self-cleaning. It's also about $1900. I like to make jerky in the convection oven which has a special setting for that.

We selected the Bosch dishwasher because it is essentially noisless and does a great cleaning job. It was $1000. However, we've had three service calls in the first year; Consumers' Report says it's liable to need more service than average. As long as it works, we think it's great.

We got a 30" GE Profile smooth-top ceramic glass electric cooktop - no knobs, just touch controls. It looks cool and works very well. It has taken some getting used to but is a very effective unit. It takes relatively high maintenence. You have to be very careful to keep it clean, as you can weld spillages into the glass top if you're not attentive. We're getting used to it, and don't find the care out of proportion to the way it looks and cooks. It was about $1000, too.

The cooktop is only about 3 inches deep (EXCEPT FOR THE POWER UNIT AT THE BACK RIGHT HAND CORNER) so we have a shallow drawer under the cooktop with all the cooking utensils - spatulas, tongs, scrapers, large spoons, etc. immediately at hand. It's the feature of the kitchen my wife and I like the best, probably.

I capitalize the power unit part since I was only told the cooktop was 3" deep overall, and built the drawer to match. When I uncrated the unit, I had to take the drawer back to the shop and cut out a notch to fit around the power unit. The drawer concept still works just fine.

We put a GE Profile microwave/ vent unit over the cooktop. It was around $425. We seldom use most of its programming capabilities. It makes great popcorn.

You need to shop aroud and also consult the internet. I've mentioned before that Homeclick.com has great products and prices. Also, if your're doing plumbing, faucet.com has good prices on, like, Grohe.

Good luck and, hope you don't lose your mind doing this. My reason was tottering as we finished the remodel.

Mike







e

[DINK]

I finally got the majority of my kitchen appliances purchased. I decided to go with Subzero for the fridge, wanted the 48 or 42" side by side without ice, but was limited to a 36" slot, so I got the Frig Top and Freezer bottom unit all stainless. The trade off on the fridge was to accommodate 2 dishwashers in the kitchen, which was very important to me with the amount of cooking we do and entertaining. So I purchased the full size Meile Incognito SS, and the 18" slimline. Got the Master Chef 30" double wall ovens by Meile and the 30" warming drawer.

I kept my current cook top since I purchased it a little over a year ago. I like the look of it and it cooks great (for now anyway)... It is the 36" GE Profile flat surface cooktop without knobs, all touch buttons. The plan is to replace it eventually with a gas cooktop. We are replumbing the kitchen for a gas line to be located at the new cooktop location. Unfortunately where I live we do not have access to natural gas, so LP it is for us...

As for the hood(s) we are going with Vent-a-hood, just have not determined which one for over the cooktop. But the goal is to get one to accommodate a 36" gas cooktop. For our indoor BBQ grill we are going to try to just purchase the insides of the Vent-a-hood unit and do our own facing to match the grill background. The grill is a Regal I SS unit. They seem to be really nice with a lid to keep the heat in while cooking and can be purchased with a lot of accessories.

So I guess we are finished looking at appliances now, but the remodel is slowly taking place. The good thing is that the appliance store is going to hold my appliances until we are ready to have them installed. Which might not be until June now... The best part of all this is that because I ordered the appliances in December, I did not have to pay the 6% price increase in Jan 2005! Now we are trying to get a new roof put on from the hurricane damage. The roof leaks of course right into the kitchen, so we are on a list waiting...

Thanks for your inputs, and the previous postings from others.

[Dagger]

when we did our kitchen we bought sears fridge and microwave. The fridge is only 18" cu. ft. cause of the space it had to fit in and it's so quite. Some times have to check to make sure it's working it so quite. It also was the only 2 door fridge that has a cold water dispencer inside. Until now i only say side by sides with this which are to small for anything. The fridge is so good we needed to turn it down to #2 instead of #3 it works so well. The microwave was only $59 and it cooks great and comes in white, black or stainless steel finish. You don't always have to spend big bucks to get quilty but the fridge i would buy if we had the room would be with the freezer in the bottom. We have a Amana in the Florida house and it's great but buy the door not the draw cause you losse a lot of storage space in the draw model. Dishwasher is a Maytag with the tower in the middle. It's a great idea since when placing pans in it you don't have to worry about blocking the spinning arm.