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Sub Zero Refrigerators


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I hadn't considered the heat given off by commercial reefers. I live in a place where everything is airconditioned. I want it for the size of the shelves and the sturdy shelves which will hold a lot of weight. Also my kitchen is sort of separate from the rest of the house. The more I look at the Continental, the better I like their features.

The Sub-Zs I had were a problem from the start. Twice the refrigerator compressor had to be replaced and the freezer once. There was condensation that apparently dripped down onto the floor and caused mold to grow. I kept smelling something like mildew and couldn't find where it was coming from until the units were moved for repair. That is when I decided they were no longer welcome. I live it a desert. It is very dry and I moved here to get away from molds and spores to which I am allergic. Bringng them with me via the Sub-Zs was not a good thing.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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We've had the same Traulsen for just over 20 years. And just replaced the gaskets on it for the first time a few months ago. The noise/heat isn't unbearable, I've lived with it long enough and never heard anyone complain about how loud it was, and the same goes for the heat it gives off. It may just depend on the model. Ours is a freezer/fridge combo w/drawers. There are two drawers below the fridge, and one below the freezer (ice maker/ice drawer). I would def. recommend them!

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I remember raving about this sometime last year. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT buy the SZ model 680 S, it is a big stainless piece of trash. We got one last year and due to where we live had to get a whole different door because of the high humidity here (3 places on this island require such modification) which you don't find out about until it makes weird condensation on the door front. THEN they say, "oh where do you live on the island ........ that area and 2 others require a different door front" which takes 4 weeks to get..........Then the crappy ice maker only makes 96 cubes a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I called to complain about that they said "we're in Wisconsin and don't use alot of ice........" Well I was brought up going to WI to visit friends and relatives and they used plenty of ice. Besides this the storage capacity is very small on both sides and would be great if you were single or didn't like to cook and only carried out food and had leftovers. Why we got this is another story and never again would I buy their product with a built in ice maker, that probably was the whole wrong answer. Now when I redo the kitchen I have to put in an ice maker and still be stuck with this crappy small SZ. Good luck to you DON'T BUY the 680S!!!!!!! A hui hou :sad:

"You can't miss with a ham 'n' egger......"

Ervin D. Williams 9/1/1921 - 6/8/2004

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We've had the same Traulsen for just over 20 years.  And just replaced the gaskets on it for the first time a few months ago.  The noise/heat isn't unbearable, I've lived with it long enough and never heard anyone complain about how loud it was, and the same goes for the heat it gives off.  It may just depend on the model.  Ours is a freezer/fridge combo w/drawers.  There are two drawers below the fridge, and one below the freezer (ice maker/ice drawer).  I would def. recommend them!

Is this in your home or restaurant? I looked at Traulsen's website and coudn't see anything with both fridge/freezer and 30" wide. Their dual-temp models seem to be 48" wide.Do you happen to know the model number?

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise. --- Henry David Thoreau
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We (meaning my part time employers) use True 24" under-the-counter stainless steel fridges in all three of our coffee houses for the skim milk, cream etc. (whole milk is in six gallon poly cubes in the "cow" on top of the counter).

Even our newest one (only 10 months old) is moderately noisy - much more so than my cheap Whirlpool home fridg that's twice the size. But they do seem to hold up well.

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And the heat. My God, the heat. These things throw a ton of it. So unless you're going all the way with a split system (compressors outside) I would advise against a commercial refrigerator in the home.

Juanito, thanks for a very good point -- especially since this fridge is in a kitchen with an Aga cooker, which already produces a lot of heat. We'll go with a domestic model, I think.

Jonathan Day

"La cuisine, c'est quand les choses ont le go�t de ce qu'elles sont."

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I have the sub-z stand alone fridge with the glass door and the stand alone dual freezer drawers(matches cabinet paneling), I have never had a problem maintenenc with either one in 5 years. THe freezer is a little small and sucks for making ice, I normaly just stock it from the basement chest freezer(not sure maker currently I am in cape cod maybe 200$ or under from P.C.Richards). I love my chest freezer its great for storing frozen stock, soup, demi, egg whites, etc... I like just having a larder to pick from(helps me sleep at night) :biggrin:

Edit: the glass door is great for "window shopping" at 3:00am

Edited by M.X.Hassett (log)
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FrigoI have two experiences with Sub Zero. My mother in law has one and it has leaked from the day she got it and no amount of time from a service man seems to cure this problem. Also, for some odd reason, when she moved it to a new house it was impossible to switch the door configuration, so now her refrig opens the wrong way! That seems ridiculous for such a pricey appliance, doesn't it?

Second - I work as an assistant at Sur La Table in the cooking school. We used to have lovely, capacious Amana freezer on the bottom fridges. Sur La Table made a deal with Wolf/SubZero and now we have a sub-zero. It's a smaller model. The downsides:

We had to throw away 2/3 of the food in the fridge when we switched over - no room!

We now have to run next door to the kindly local restaurant for ice as the ice maker sucks! It makes very little ice and makes it veeeerrrrryyyy slooooowwwly.

We used to be able to put 2 half sheets pans with recipe mise en place side by side (the long way) on a single shelf. If we needed to we could have had six complete mise en place in there. Now we can fit barely 1 half sheet pan per shelf.

I would never in a million years buy a sub zero for my home.

And the wolf ovens suck too, but that's a different thread.

Also, a really cool thing is that whatever fridge you get you can get 3rd party customized panels for your fridge.

Check out:

Frigo

They do custom stuff, not only for your fridge but also for dishwasher, etc.

Stainless steel and beyond! Think chalkboard, wood, your favorite sports team logo.....go wild.

Stephanie Kay

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I've been in the kitchen remodeling business for 30+ years and about 15 yrs. ago the design people started to sell the built in look to people and sub zero was the only one with a 24" deep product to keep flush with the rest of the cabinets. Well it didn't take to long before I started to hear back from people with there complaints. The big problem I understand from engineers is that because of the inherent design of the unit it dosen't lend itself to work as well as other systems(compressor at the bottom in most all others). I've worked on $ 50 thous. kitch. and 2 or 3 years later the owner is changing frigs. because of problems. I know that I would never even put one in if I got it for free.

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I've been in the kitchen remodeling  business for 30+ years and about 15 yrs. ago the design people started to sell the built in  look to people and sub zero was the only one with a 24" deep product to keep flush with the rest of the cabinets. Well it didn't take to long before I started to hear back from people with there complaints. The big problem I understand from engineers is that because of the inherent design of the unit it dosen't lend itself to work as well as other systems(compressor at the bottom in most all others). I've worked on $ 50 thous. kitch. and 2 or 3 years later the owner is changing frigs. because of problems. I know that I would never even put one in if I got it for free.

I also love the Amanda bottom freezer but it didn't have a water & or ice dispenser for the door because of the bottom freezer unit but that's the only reason I didn't put one in when I put in my on new kitchen last year.

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I bought my Maytag "Wide-by-Side" and a smaller fridge (mostly for garden produce and for cheese) as a temporary fix until I could decide exactly what I wanted as I was trying to decide if I wanted regular appliances or modular pieces such as drawers, etc.

As I stated earlier, I had a bad experience with Sub-Zs. I got them to replace a huge 25 year-old Kelvinator side by side, 32 cubic feet total capacity and I think it was the biggest regular residential appliance made up to that time. They don't make them like that any more. It was sturdy, weighed a ton and the only thing that ever needed replacing was the door gasket. It had wire bins that tipped out in the freezer, instead of shelves, except for the rack for ice cube trays and stuff did not tumble out onto the floor (or my feet) when the door was opened.

It was avocado green, as were most of my appliances at the time, and exceot for the color, I wouldn't mind having it today.

There were a lot more refrigerator manufacturers back then and I think the competition was good as they really had to produce a great product to get the public to buy. Now it seems we have to take what is offered and much of it stinks.

Just my opinion...

Coldspot, Norge, Hotpoint, Westinghouse, Admiral and etc., all made great refrigerators that lasted for years and years. Now we are lucky if they make it past the warranty period.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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