Sub-Zero refridgerators are quite pricey. Anyone out there have one and do you think they are worth the cost?
Saleslady today claimed that food lasts for weeks longer in a Sub-Zero fridge. What are your thoughts?
Back story, we are building a new house and planning the kitchen outfit. Sub-Zero and/or other built in models versus a Kitchenaid or somesuch. It’s about $9k for the Sub-Zero versus less than $3k.
thanks in advance.
Normally, refrigerators stick out a few inches and (my understanding is that) the built-in models like from Sub-Zero are shallow enough that they are flush with the countertop. We had a Sub-Zero fridge at a company I used to work at, and what I noticed is that there wasn’t a lot of space inside. So, for instance, it was too shallow to put a whole pizza or a vegetable tray in there.
So if you want that flush look and you’re building from scratch, why not design a deeper opening for the refrigerator, so that any fridge can be flush with the counters?
Edited to add that $6,000 is a lot of money and could certainly more than cover the cost of a modification to the wall.
I think CR rated them quite low.
I say go with the sub-zero freezer and hope that some day in the future, science will be able to cure that pot roast.
They have a bad reputation as far as repairs. Pretty much the impression I get about them from all the cooking geeks is that they’re built for looks, not for serious cooks. Here’s an eGullet thread about them, a few years old, but it pretty much mimics everything I’ve ever heard about them.
I’m also in the market for a new fridge, and I’m going with a standard brand - Whirlpool or GE or something like that.
Some of the standard manufacturers have product lines that look like Sub-Zero. Take a look, for instance, at the GE Monogram line.
You can get this particular feature in much cheaper refrigerators. Look for any counter-depth fridge.
Incidentally, they’re still a lot more expensive than a normal fridge unless you get a really small one with lost volume. I was very annoyed to discover that “counter depth” was a frou frou luxury feature for people who didn’t want the fridge extending beyond the counter, and thus commanded a big premium. I have a small kitchen and simply needed a shallower fridge for the whole kitchen to function.
Warning! Anecdotal info:
Our subzero fridge and freezer (two separate appliances) are still going strong, having been acquired in 1986.
(kitchen designer for 15 years plus)
IMHO, almost all of the complaints about Sub Zero are from ppl who can’t or don’t want to pay the price. I’ve installed or spec’ed SZ in literally hundreds of projects. I had ONE compressor fail which was replaced under warranty.
By contrast in my last house, I used a SZ fridge that I took out of a remodel. It was installed in 1965, had never been serviced, and now, ten years after I reinstalled it, it still works fine.
Can you get a cheaper fridge? Sure. You also get a more expensive one, check out Northland for some really nice units. The separate compressors and air flow for the ref and freezer sections is a very useful and welcome innovation, I wish I had it in my current fridge.
That’s what we did.
No, food does not last longer in a more expensive fridge. Seriously, how could it? The temperature in each stays equally cold within a fairly narrow range so long as the door is kept closed. The only reason Subzeros might keep food longer is that they are opened less as they are often bought by people designing kitchens to impress rather than to actually cook in and those homeowners tend to order in most of the time, rarely actually opening the fridge. (My brother’s kitchen for example - all top end appliances, and a completely dysfunctional work triangle, which bothers them not at all since they rarely cook.)
I grew up with Subzero, two big side by sides. They took up a huge amount of frontage for fairly little storage. When we moved into this house which had similar and functional Subzeros in it we gave them away rather than use them in the renovation. Much better to recess the wall behind the unit to get the flush effect, have the same storage capacity, and have more usable counter space and more cabinet space: I have a cook’s kitchen; not a showpiece. Now the range! That’s another story. Splurge and get a big sucka with a mother of an exhaust fan. We have the grill in the middle in ours.
Yeah, I have several clients who, as far as I can tell, have never cooked in their kitchens. They all have the Subzero and the irrationally designed kitchen layout, counters in materials that no sane cook would ever use and a set of beautiful pots and pans that have never seen a burner.
The temperature fluctuation could be narrower. The temperature could be more even throughout the refrigerator. The refrigerator could recover from shocks, such as frequently opening the door/keeping it open or putting hot food inside, quicker.
I’m not saying Sub-Zero does these things. If I was a refrigerator engineer, these are how I would try to design a better refrigerator to help food last longer (though even those gains might be marginal at best).
Dseid, did someone say that food lasts longer in a SZ fridge? I’ve looked through the thread twice and can’t find any reference. What I will say in general is that a well designed crisper drawer that maintains humidity at a set level without transferring that to the rest of the unit will help vegetables stay fresh longer than just tossing them on the bottom shelf with the milk and OJ.
gaffa, what counter would no sane cook ever cook on? I’ve cooked on laminate, granite, corian, marble, soapstone, and butcher block and haven’t lost my mind yet AFAIK 
I’d be very happy with a mix of soapstone and butcher block in my kitchen. I like corian to work on but it just feels too sterile to me, I’m not a kitchen=laboratory kind of cook.
Now maybe some people don’t like marble because it stains and scratches but I happen to love the patina that develops, same goes for soapstone. If someone is using their knives on any stone top well, they deserve to buy new knives every year!
It was in the OP.
Good points and acknowledged. The other problem I must admit to, in a family with multiple kids, including a teen at all times (for the past eleven years and for eight more), is how careful one needs to be to make the door shuts all the way. My current fridge has split upper doors (freezer drawer below) and I will often come into the kitchen to find one of those doors not all the way closed - which results in a lot of wasted energy and also in the rear items getting very cold as the compressor is constantly running, and the front items having gotten warmish. Of course with a teen at all times we rarely have the opportunity to discover how long food will last before it goes bad! (I like using my fresh veggies within a few days anyway.)
I still vote for recessing behind the fridge and gaining the frontage for counter and cabinet space.
Thank you Dewey for pointing MikeG to the op.
Wow, how did I miss that???
Appliance salespeople are the ones who liked selling used cars but didn’t want to walk outside anymore. In Chicago, I have one appliance salesperson I trust.
The saleslady explained that the weeks long food inside the refridgerator shelfl-life is because the SZ has 2 compressors and 2 dehumidifiers. this is a feature in the high end Miele and some German brand I can’t remember the name of. Lower end fridges have 1 compressor.
For those that own the SZ, in your ancedotal experience, do the veggies and other perishables last significantly longer? Eg, head of lettuce stays good for 2 weeks type of thing?