"Does this line of reasoning make any sense?"

No, not really. :) You're trying to convince yourself to splurge. Which, if you can afford it, doesn't really matter. If you can't though, that's another story. A kitchen has to have a working refrigerator, no matter the budget point. The only way a SubZero makes a difference in your home value is if you are in a high end bracket where it's expected and you have a Frigidaire instead. Then, dollars are subtracted. It won't make a difference at all in how people view your home if you have it in a bracket that it's not expected. Unless you get an avid cook. Even then, no one will add dollars to their offer.

What WILL make a difference is a good layout that functions well. And choices that relate well to the home's bones. If this is a MCM, then putting in an Edwardian scullery will be an off note. If this is a Colonial, then slab cherry doors wouldn't work either. It's less about the "popular" look than choosing things that are fitting to the setting. It's like filling your closet with clothes that look good on you, even if they aren't the trendy "dropped pant" look. (Does this even look good on teenagers??)

We have bought houses three times. I have never once taken the brand of the appliances into consideration in the purchase.

Having had one, I would not put one in if I knew I was going to be moving in less than about 10-15 years. There are other high quality options.

I also had some maintenance issues in the $1000+ totals over the years, so I am thinking twice about going with Subzero in the impending remodel: I am leaning toward Liebherr. I had a love/hate relationship with my SZ, mostly love, but I was a little afraid of it. They also discontinued that size this year so the person who has to replace it is stuck with a full kitchen remodel or trying to cobble in something else.

Around here for sale purposes you'd be expected to have a Sub-Zero or other built-in refrigerator. It's the "built in" part that will "sell" the kitchen here, not the particular brand. When we started our remodel, we asked our realtor what to do and he said given the choice, go for mid-level cabinets and high-end appliances. Since we won't be in this condo more than 5 or 6 years, we put in a Thermador builtin fridge and a Bosch induction cooktop.

We have bought houses three times. I have never once taken the brand of the appliances into consideration in the purchase.

This. The real-estate ads here like to tout Thermador this, Miele that, but I've never walked into a place I liked and said to myself either "OK house but that SZ puts it over the top for me" or "great house but GE appliances, no go".

Do a SZ if you love its features and it works for you. Otherwise I'd save that splurge money for something that would make you happy (dreamy tile? expensive countertop? pro range?)

we are doing a sub zero, wolf, miele package after first saying no way are we going to go with such expensive appliances. but 1) we are thinking of resale in the next 5 years and 2) we drool over those appliances in all the photos we see. so we basically want them and have talked ourselves into getting them using the rationale of resale. now while i don't necessarily think someone will decide to buy/not buy our home based on the brand of appliance, i do think a built in fridge and high end appliances lend to the overall aesthetics of the kitchen and will just look nicer. and if the difference between high end vs. mid range appliances is 10k, then i do think we would be able to recoup that in a sale just based on the "gourmet" "upscale" "chef's" kitchen description that the high end appliances will give it. the house is small and kitchen is the focal point from the living and dining rooms so i think in our case, the appliances are a more important factor than they would be if the kitchen was off on its own.

and funnily enough, we are in the process of selling our co-op. we had a talk with a potential buyer the other day and he asked what brand and condition were our appliances. of course i thought that was completely wacko given that there's no way any co-ops/condos in our area have sub-z level appliances so who cares what our appliances are? with less than 10k you can replace them all.

I agree that it is probably more of a built-in or not built-in factor than a brand issue -- and that is probably a neighborhood/price point factor. If you go built-in, the price variations aren't that great (assuming you don't for the glass door pro, etc.) and when you get to that point where it matters, anyone who doesn't like your brand can afford to change out all the appliances. If you have a built-in, that's pretty easy to do. If you don't, it's a remodel of one level or another and that may hurt -- you may get a quick sale but at a reno-ready price.

If you are not in the market where built-in is expected, some buyers may think it's a plus (Ooooo -- big, fancy fridge to impress my friends and family) and some will see it as a negative (expensive repairs, budget breaking to replace or remodel, would rather have another foot of counter space, etc.).

Not your forever home can mean you'll be there a couple of years or ten or twenty. Do you really know? Are you trying to rationalize something that isn't in the budget or justify something you want to splurge on? That's really a personal choice. If you aren't in a neighborhood where built-in is expected and you aren't at the top of that neighborhood, you really have to decide whether you want built in enough to pay for it and are willing to take a chance that the average buyer in that neighborhood will be more afraid of repairs or replacement of an uber-fridge than they will buy the house for it. Kitchens and baths are said to sell houses, but not fridges (or not - they kill the deal too). As far as style goes, you don't need built-in to have a HUGE style upgrade.

I wonder how much it really matters...I mean, when you sell this house in 5-10 years a used refrigerator is a used refrigerator. I am not sure how excited I would get walking into a house and say "oh look at that built in Sub Zero from 2002."

If you enjoy them and have the $, then do it. But I agree with other posters--no buyer that loves your home will turn it down for the appliances if they look reasonable (i.e. not white Hotpoint)

I just don't understand the value - I mean, what does it do? Keep your food colder? Even the old fridge I'm getting rid of in my reno does that ok. Why do they possibly cost so much? I agree that there are non-built-in solutions that are very stylish and offer a great upgrade and probably save you, oh, $6,000. To me, the sub-zero is kind of an ego thing.

Having redone a kitchen for resale I can tell you that there is no way to tell what will help sell a home and what will not.

What does help is having tastes that align and a big help is having a house that's done enough so the new buyer doesn't have much to alter.

That said, I rarely see a kitchen I would love to own. I've got over 300 kitchen photos on my blog and I can count the ones I would actually want on the fingers of one hand -- and still have fingers left over.

I will say this. There is a big difference I found in having a refrigerator with one compressor and a refrigerator with separate compressors for the fridge and the freezer. We had two places for a while and one of each. The food stayed fresher longer in the Liebherr with 2 compressors. And the freezer was fabulous because it's own compressor kept the temperature stable -- no air was drawn from it to help cool the fridge.

I'm no spendthrift, believe me. But I learned from 2 renos that my largest regrets were not over what I did do, but what I didn't do (because I was being frugal).

If you want the SZ go for it. You'll enjoy it and it will be some sort of selling point. My kitchen is 10 but if we put the house on the market tomorrow I still have Viking and Miele appliances and a sink faucet that no one could afford to purchase as it's tripled in value. If only the house would triple LOL!

Disclaimer: I own 2 Sub-Zeros and am a big fan.

LizPel, there are a couple reasons they are so expensive. First off is that they are made in USA and they spend a ton of time and money testing the fridges. They have dual compressors while most fridges have just one. They have a great warranty too.

But they are also pricey because they are the leader in the built in market. Not a lot of companies have brand recognition like Sub-Zero. I feel that when people see a kitchen with a Sub-Zero they think (and I think this is generally true) that the remodel was expensive and most likely done well. If they had the money to spend on Sub-Zero, they have enough money to spend on custom cabinetry and stuff.

Just my 2cents.

Lizpel, I'll just add to jgopp, I was amazed when we got our SZ, the appliance guy told me to put a head of lettuce in the SZ, and a head in the other brand we were moving to utility room. I could not believe the difference in how much longer the SZ kept it fresh! Dont know if lettuce would be justification, but, like jgopp said, two compressors, and the built in is worth some. I will Never do anything other than built in/counter depth again. That alone is priceless to me!
Oh, and to OP, look on craigslist and stores with scratch and dent! We got ours at half off, full warranty, for a minor dent in the back right, never seen.

Will your kitchen have beautiful floors, natural light streaming in through a lovely window, and a great layout? IMHO, those are the elements that make a kitchen FEEL good, and that's where I'd put the budget. As a buyer it is a lot easier to replace the appliances than to deal with shortcomings with any of those issues.

I'm doing a kitchen now. 20% of the budget went to bringing wood floors into the kitchen to be continuous with the living/dining area! I pulled down walls to improve sightlines and allow the natural light to flow. There is now counter seating at the island, and double the counter space. I am really pleased with these choices and I can totally live with the tradeoffs - IKEA cabinets, DIY finishing the custom cabinet fronts, cheapo Samsung fridge. Those were the tradeoffs required for our budget.

SubZero still has the cachet, but there are competitors now. Fifty years ago, they were about it for built-in, and it was much more recently that they got competition for the dual compressors. If you don't have that, you'll really notice the difference in the freezer. A LOT. They also have the freshness filters, which some of the higher end European ones do, as well, but they all work differently.

A big part of the price difference, however, besides what the market will bear, which is at the bottom of all pricing, is reliability. Icemakers are the weakest part of any refrigerator, and call for the most repairs, but they are reparable. If you maintain a SubZero (e.g., vacuum the grille), if today's units are anything like the past ones, and I haven't heard that they were slipping, the fridge will last decades. A 2002 SZ isn't even through half its projected life! My mother is on her second one in fifty years. :) The earlier ones were only good for twenty years...

OTOH, since you're in a less high house in a transitional neighborhood, you could just as easily frame in a standard fridge and make it look elegant and unassuming.

I got Miele columns because I couldn't make the sizes for SubZero work for me, and I wanted all fridge and all freezer anyway. And, yes, my old Kenmore fridge from grad school days also kept food cold. It's the little details that make the difference. The lighting. The quality of the shelves that don't chip or crack, and supports that don't break. The drawers that actually do something rather than just saying "crisper". The smells that aren't there. The corners and back wall where the lettuce doesn't freeze. Lots of little things like that. And the fact that, given the possibility of a few repairs along the way, the thing will last 30+ years, with on the mark customer service, and you have why people will pay more for the SZ.

But it's only a must where it's a must. In those kinds of places, if you don't go all out on your remodel, you'll be better off keeping the kitchen as is, except for what you need for your immediate comfort, because it's going to be ripped out anyway, and they'll pay less for thinking they need to remodel, not more because you already did it.

As a former SubZero owner, I would say that dollar for dollar I would rather spend on the Subzero than on a pro-style range or on another Miele DW. (nothing wrong with Miele DWs).

I don't really think it's an ego thing, because an awful lot of people either don't really know what they are, and if they do have no idea what they cost, because you aren't allowed to list SubZero prices on the web. So the people who are Looking for it in a house they buy are Expecting it, and aren't going to be extra impressed by it. They would buy one themselves.

They really do keep food fresher longer,and I really like the fit and finish of the interior. That said, you can throw out a lot of food to make up for the 4-5000K difference between it and another more ordinary fridge.

I don't know if I will ever Own another one because this time there may not be the budget for it, and the last time I had size constraints (that I no longer have), which made the extra cost of the SubZero worth it.

Other refrigerators also last forever. My parents have a Montgomery Ward model from the early 80s in their garage that never breaks or requires any service. I can't imagine how much energy it uses.

In our reno we are yanking some cheapo Tappan model that previous owners installed and was made circa 1995 that still is running fine.

OP--it's a luxury item. Do you need it to live a happy life with fresh, cold food for many years to come? No way. Is it better than the basic models? For sure, both functionally and aesthetically. Just decide if you can afford it, don't decide based on resale.

We bought a Volvo last year that cost $10,000 more than a less high-end car like a Honda that was equipped the the same. It was also $10,000 less than a similar Mercedes with exactly the same features. The Honda probably would have been most reliable of the three. We all choose what we like and what we can afford. I don't really care what the three of them will be worth when I trade this car in in 5-10 years.

palimpsest: Sub-Zero now shows their prices online. I think there was a ruling which made it so that manufacturer set pricing without a public guide illegal. You can see all their prices on the website.

"that the remodel was expensive and most likely done well"

I completely agree with this. Almost all of us have a budget and what is important to us. For me, it was the appliances because that is what makes the kitchen "work" and what I use to cook every day. At the end of the day my appliances (Sub Zero french door fridge, Sub Zero beverage center, Bosch built in coffee maker, Viking Double Oven, Viking Microwave and Viking Cooktop) ended up costing $20,000 (I really shopped around!) and my cabinets were around $30K, So I guess I did mid level cabinets with high end appliances. I agree with Jgopp, the high end appliances will make one assume I spend a fortune on my cabinets when I did not considering the size of the kitchen. (The cabinets are Kraftmaid Cherry btw).

I didn't pay any attention to the appliances when we bought our home 15 years ago, because I just assumed we'd have to replace them all, so why make that a factor? The neighborhood, schools, floor plan, flow, bones, etc are the real factors to consider.

When we completely gutted and remodeled our kitchen this year, the one appliance we kept and reinstalled was an old subzero all-fridge, obviously more than 15 years old because it was here when we bought the house. Nice that it's still going, but honestly it was not a factor in buying the house.

jgopp, --I see that they do now post the prices at least on their own website. However, at appliance sites like AJMadison, Gerhard's, and Ferguson's still do Not make pricing available online. It is available if you make an Inquiry, but it's not Posted under the description.

So, if you are shopping for a Subzero specifically, and go to their site, you can find out exactly how much they cost.

But, if you are doing shopping online and looking for a GE or Bosch or whatever brand, you will not see how much a Subzero costs by accident as it were. So I think a lot of people who are not interested in that sort of thing have absolutely No Idea how expensive they are compared to the typical fridge. At least that's how most of my client's who've seen one somewhere react when they find out how much they are.

since you didn't say, I'm going to go out and ask - what is your kitchen budget and what is your house worth?

that needs to be taken into consideration.