Sub Zero Refrigerator?
 

Wife and I are looking at a Sub Zero 736tc, 36" fridge. It should run us around $5500. This is a built in, dual compressor model.

http://www.subzero.com/IntegratedRefrigeration/736TCRefrigerator

Any good/bad to say about Subzero? I have heard mixed reviews. Some folks have had them for years and they work perfectly, others have had problem after problem. I find it hard to believe that Sub Zero is just getting by on reputation, but.....

Any alternative suggestions? The wife is a vegetarian, so we need as much produce storage as possible.

I expect the probelms were the installation, ie improperly ventilated, than the unit. My parents had a subzero which was designed to blend in to the cabinets. The problem they found was that it didn't have enough capacity.

$5K seems expensive for a refrigerator to me. I have a very nice GE Profile Arctica which I think was about $2200.

We have one we bought in 00. Works well we had one small problem when it was
still under warranty. The repair guy mis diagnosed it so it took 2 visits. If you poke around (while cleaning the condensers etc) it seems to be built better then most appliances IMHO

Two compressors, mounted above the unit - best Fridge ever and worth every penny.

Best there is imo, fwiw.

Ok, this is a little off topic but kind of related.

I had some friends that had a new house built with a Sub-Zero fridge. Janice told me "Our new fiidge is Sub-Zero". At the time (many years ago) I had never heard of Sub-Zero so I assumed this was a new slang term for "cool". I even used the phrase a couple of times before I saw the brand label inside the fridge one day.

It was so sub-zero.....

We like ours. Trouble free. Great product. Ours is about 10 years old.

I have heard stories though about people with newer units having lots of problems.

Don't know what happened there. Maybe they're made in China now.

A brilliant brand in my view is Liebherr from Germany. Check them out if you can. Great product.

We still install them all the time. They alll seem to hold up fine. I have install the little less expensive ones (they are trying to make money at the lower end of the market like Benz) and I think they are not worth the money. Other wise you should be fine. The older ones are built better but use more energy. they all try to get on with energy star bull *****.

I'm a vegetarian and our GE Profile refrigerator (was $2k 4 years ago) works great! Water and ice thru the door, too!

I am with Red Beard. Have a GE Profile and would buy another without hesitation. My in-laws are on their 2nd Sub Z in their home, because theirs is counter depth the capacity is less than stellar and if they have not added features, you can't get crushed ice from the door dispenser, drive my father in law nuts that he gets it from my fridge for about half the price. They also have a number of drawer freezer units and a fridge on their boat that have not faired well. They Sub Z rep has them pull them off and bring them to the shop to do any warranty repairs as they are only covered on land.

My son worked for an appliances installer /repair service back when I was lookin for a fridge. His boss told me to stay away from the Sub Z's. He said they were one of his biggest repair problems. Pretty much said they are overated POS's.

Guess everyone has a different opinion on things.

Had one with the ex in the old house. Small, very expensive to repair. Over 5 years, three major repairs. The oak fronts were heavy and the darn hinges had to be replaced. Like others have posted, you pay for the extras. Seems to be more of a status symbol than an efficient tool. Never again.

On the nice ones, one thing you have to remember is to let the door's sealing mechanism do it's thing before opening the door again (you should be able to hear when it stops). Constantly cycling the doors and/or re-opening right after closing will shorten the life of the sealing mechanism.

I have one in my house. It was installed in 1989 and has only had the seal around the door replaced about 4 years ago. I just blow out the motor area once a year and it works great.
Much better than any other Fridge I have used as far as keeping things fresh longer, good temp control, etc.

Jim

My ex brother in law sold high end appliances, so I am familiar with the line. Sub Zero use to be the "it" appliance to have in you upscale home. It also came in bigger sizes then conventional ones. Back then, the only option you had was Sears Kenmore or Frigidaire. Since then, everyone and anyone has come out with newer high end units in any size imaginable. Sub Zero may still be king, but there is plenty of competition out there.

Can you explain the "sealing mechanism?"

We've had our Sub-Zero since '91. It's been trouble free, and I've cleaned out around the compressor area annually. It is starting to accumulate ice in the refrigerator section in the back. It's not bad so I haven't checked into this yet, but it is concerning. Overall no complaints.

We have a liebherr. Great fridge.

Sub Zero makes a great product...
There is no d in refrigerator.....
I have bought pails of Chevron refrigeration oil and apparently Chevron misspells refrigeration too....

LOL. I was wondering how long it was going to take for someone to comment. Once you post a thread, you can go back and change the title, but it won't change it in the thread list. Your humiliation is preserved for all to see.

We have a Sub-Zero for the last 10 years. You can see our Miele Oven and the Miele deep fryer and Grill in this picture.

For what we paid for this kitchen I could brought a 993.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1241482513.jpg

Liebherr is their real competition. Now, there's Thermador. Haven't heard any feet back from anyone yet. Kitchen Aide or GE well you can call it competion only about 1000-1500 bucks less.

I did a kitchen remodel two years ago. I wanted a large refrigerator for my family of 5. I called Subzero up and asked why they cost significantly more than other refrigerators. The answer supprized me. The customer service rep said without missing a beat "we build them to last 20 years." This was the tipping point for me. Bought it and didn't look back.

That's cheap.

+1 :(

We will be in $100K on the kitchen. That does include hanging some beams and sprouting some walls, its more than just an install, but....yikes!

Hell my first house only cost me $140k.

Oversized, overrated pig-at-the-trough style fridge. Goes well with the 5000 square foot pig-at-the-trough style house.

i.e., don't buy one if you have kids.

My parents have a Sub-Zero in their house. Built in, wood grain doors, etc. Part of the original kitchen from when they built the house. I don't recall there being any serious problems with this fridge in the the 25 or so years they've had the house.

(Why does 'fridge have a "d" in it, but not refrigerator?)

We have a 48" subZ side x side. When the freezer door is closed, its like a giant suction mechanism. You hear it and the door actually gets pulled in a fraction of an inch. Almost impossible to re-open the freezer while it is sealing, but it only takes about 20-30 seconds to run its course.

Bought it two years ago when we did a MAJOR kitchen renovation. Just vacuum out the compressor areas up above 2x a year.

This is just a theory but here goes....

When I was growing up in the 50's in TX (yep, I are that old) we didn't call them refrigerators, we called them frigidaires and many still do. Frigidaire was a brand which I think was one of the dominant brands in those days and was a part of GM for many years. The common vernacular for a refrigerator was a "fridge" .... "fridge" comes from the word Frigidaire, not refrigerator. I have no idea where the "d" came from however other than it sounded like there was a "d" in the pronunciation.

Frigidaire is still strong. They make a lot of Sears appliances.

I don't think refrigerators lasting long is an issue with most makes. I have a *****ty fridge that we took from our first house that was old 15 years ago and it is still chugging away in our basement. I personally have never had a refrigerator die on me. They usually just become outdated with features or just look dated.

I have a fridgidaire (sp) "Gallery" model. It keeps the freezer at -10F, the cooler at +38F with no more than +/- 5F cycles (I monitor it with a digital thermometer). It is stainless steel, looks nice and doesn't guzzle electricity. What more do I need?

I have a hard time getting excited about the "performance" of a refrigerator. A stove or oven, now that is a different story.

I buy lots of stuff from Pacific Sales and one of the sales guys there always call their (high end) procucts adult toys. If you realy think about it, A stove cooks your food just like another stove would, why does one need a $6000 to do it. Come and think of it, do we really need a 911. A turbo at that. different things makes different people happy. I get wood over the older 10+ years, Wolf range and the modern day Thermerdor products. They are really work of art.

Not really. They're tools, and working with well engineered tools is a completely different order of pleasure/efficiency/satisfaction than working with rubbish. Talk to any serious cook about his home kitchen.

How timely - I am shopping fridges also.

We need a counter-depth unit, stainless, and due to space concerns I'm looking at freezer below w/French doors up top. Tough to find counter depth with 20+ cu ft capacity.

Most of the other appliances in the new house kitchen are LG. I saw this LG that looked pretty good but can't find reviews so I'd love to hear from anybody who has or knows about LG brand...

http://www.number1appliance.com/lmx21981st.aspx

Also saw a counter depth Electrolux but um aren't they the vacuum people?

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/EI23BC55IS.html

So refrigerator has no "d" but fridge has a "d". Just to keep it all straight :)

Oh no I couldn't agree with you more. We design and build high end kitchen and baths. That is 50-60% of our business. I have the nice tools in my kitchen as well. No craftsman tools there, only snap-ons. I was trying to answer about the performance of a ref. to the other poster.

Kitchen aide makes what you are looking for. Stay away from LG according to my vendor. In my opinion, Kitchen Aide is a better bet then the Electrolux. Just a better bang for the buck.

THanks so much for the heads-up on these.

This one might fit the bill nicely: http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/KFCS22EV.html?mv_pc=nt

It seems many bottom-freezer units have probs with ice in the door. Makes sense since the ice unit is so far from the actual freezer. It's a feature I'm waffling about - I kind of like the convenience, but prefer the clean look of the front without. What's your experience with ice dispensers on the bottom freezer units?

I disllike the look also with it on the door. Its just as easy grabbing a few ice cubes with your hands. We don't use ice much so it didn't really matter. I don't have a Kitchen Aide at my house but I have put in a good few into client's home in the past few years. I never heard any complains.

Keep in mind that a 3' wide counter depth ref is a lot smaller then a standard depth ones. The only complain I have is that the fruit trays are short and you can't cramp too much in there like the good old ref we all grew up with. With myself and wife, it was plenty. Now with a one and three old, forget it. We had to put another one outside. Milk takes up a lot of room.