N.B. there is no way to tell about the long term reliability of these as they are very new to the market from a new factory. It has a warranty like all other built-ins and is backed by one of the best networks. If you want a "safe" choice better get a Sub Zero. If other things matter to you then the BSH offerings + Miele have some nice attributes.

On the other hand, Sub Z has been around a long time and people love them.

Fori, It depends to some extent on your local agents. Gaggenau, the firm, isn't all that helpful or responsive and their manuals are beautifully, but very densely written. They need to be decoded, almost. But their L.A. area local service people are fabulous and friendly, and the distributor has a lovely showroom where they have classes and demonstrations, and are also very helpful.

Miele has their own showrooms, where they also have lessons, demos, etc., and knowledgeable and helpful staff. The corporate entity has a great reputation for service and responsiveness to consumers, and their manuals are more step by step with good illustrations.

If you're not near any showrooms, that part doesn't matter, however, and it's down to your appliance dealer and the service techs where you are. It might be worth interviewing them.

Our experience with Miele had been fantastic so we went with those. The fridge and freezer are everything we anticipated. We had one installation issue. Both the fridge and freezer were shown in the specs with a 90 degree door. While this is true for the fridge, it is NOT true for the freezer due to the extra insulation in the door. We could not open the door far enough to allow the draws to open unhindered. Miele was great and authorized a replacement freezer for one with the hinges on the oppposite side. I believe they have changed their spec sheets on the freezer as well - or at least I hope they have. The original misleading photograph is still on their website.

Some things I have discovered as we live with these models

They really are shallow BUT you can get a LOT in them. If you have a large platter too big for the shelves, it will probably fit in the drawer. (I've stacked them in the draw using glasses between "layers" and it's worked fine.) The blessing of a shallow fridge and freezer is that it is impossible to lose food in the back. We also switched to glass storage so we can easily see what's in the fridge. Where we used to throw out lots of food that we had no idea what it was, we are now finding that there is often "nothing to eat" or at least that's what my kids tell me :)

As previously mentioned, the door shelves are shallow. You can fit a half gallon in the door but not a gallon.

Because the compressor is at the bottom, the top shelf can be rather high. We're all tall so it doesn't matter so much but if you're short...

Another advantage of the bottom compressor is that if you plan to panel the fridge, it is one panel. Ours is so integrated most people think it's a pantry and not a fridge at all. The freezer in the butlers pantry is the same sleek and streamlined look.

Also as mentioned, the ice maker is TINY. We haven't had the freezer over a summer so not sure how that will pan out but we have needed to purchase ice for parties.

Both the fridge and freezer have full extension drawers. This makes it so easy to sort and store produce and to find them. We've dedicated one draw for fruit, another for veggies and the smaller drawer in the fridge is for deli.

Our freezer is now organized with each section in the drawers holding different frozen goods. I also found some Rubbermaid plastic containers that fit on the shelves with no wasted space and improve the "holding" capacity. I can fit a lot in those open containers and it doesn't fall out when you open the door. If I was organized enough, I could plan it out and put ice into one to collect for parties :)

Food lasts longer without a doubt. I have some rhubarb that I just used today to make cupcakes. It was still crisp and fresh and had been in the drawer for at least two weeks. I notice celery lasts longer too.

Both the fridge and the freezer hook up to your computer network through wireless technology. Ha you might say but last week when I was out of town, dh grabbed something from the freezer on his way out the door and it didn't close properly. He was on the train when he got an email saying the temp in the freezer had dropped and the alarm had gone off. He called a neighbor who came into our house and closed the freezer properly for him. That probably saved us a $1000 right there!

I am not sure how long they will last but past experience with Miele has been positive. We reinstalled our Miele DW from our old kitchen that is almost 10 yrs old. Our previous Miele DW was 20 yrs old and could have been fixed and gone another 5 years but we chose to replace it. Our second Dw is also Miele as are our DO. Wasn't planned that way but that's what we ended up with. After going with cheaper (and never let anyone tell you GE is cheap) and having products not last a year, we're hoping these are our forever fridge and freezer.

They're pretty expensive but we hope they are worth it. So far so good.

I'll do you better - I have experience with all.

It's not even close: Miele is better by a long shot.

Re platters, they showed me at the Miele showroom that you can move the top drawer up like a shelf and use the space underneath as a shelf for platters. Pretty cool, and no maneuvering into the drawer!

BTW, just to clarify, we have seperate all fridge and all freezer units.

Okay, I'm looking at the picture and trying to remember. It might be the shelf above the drawer that went up, and then the drawer followed. I wish I could remember if he took out the drawer first and just can't. But it left that white part where the indicators are to be the platter shelf.

Maybe they decided that putting stuff on that was screwing it up so added the screws?

Dang.