We are in the beginning stages of a new home build and I would like your opinions on some kitchen appliances.

I'll start off with ranges. We decided against double wall ovens and a separate cooktop. We are looking at 48", 6 burner with griddle dual fuel ranges. There are pros and cons to each of the ones we are looking at. We are leaning toward Wolf but are concerned with the blue enamel liner chipping and Wolf cannot tell me if the problem has been resolved or not.

For the ice maker, I want a reliable (if there's such a thing) under counter. Looks will not be important as it will be hidden in the butlers pantry. I will also plumb for a gravity drain. I'm leaning toward
https://www.homedepot.com/p/KitchenAid-18-in-35-lb-Built-In-Ice-Maker-in-PrintShield-Stainless-Steel-KUID308HPS/308703970. It seems to have better warranty and service compared to some potential better quality brands such as Hoshizaki, Manitowoc, and Scotsman. I feel like the last three cater more to commercial than residential.

I would like your expert opinions and suggestions. Thank you

Make sure you factor in enough money to run a big ass gas line to your range.

For the ice maker, I wouldn't do anything built in if I could help it... You'll replace it at some point, and you'll be locked into finding one that fits the opening you have.

I don't know how the city water tastes where you are, but maybe a reverse osmosis system to feed it and give you good drinking water.

KarlAg05 said:

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We are in the beginning stages of a new home build and I would like your opinions on some kitchen appliances.

I'll start off with ranges. We decided against double wall ovens and a separate cooktop. We are looking at 48", 6 burner with griddle dual fuel ranges. There are pros and cons to each of the ones we are looking at. We are leaning toward Wolf but are concerned with the blue enamel liner chipping and Wolf cannot tell me if the problem has been resolved or not.

For the ice maker, I want a reliable (if there's such a thing) under counter. Looks will not be important as it will be hidden in the butlers pantry. I will also plumb for a gravity drain. I'm leaning toward
https://www.homedepot.com/p/KitchenAid-18-in-35-lb-Built-In-Ice-Maker-in-PrintShield-Stainless-Steel-KUID308HPS/308703970. It seems to have better warranty and service compared to some potential better quality brands such as Hoshizaki, Manitowoc, and Scotsman. I feel like the last three cater more to commercial than residential.

I would like your expert opinions and suggestions. Thank you

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We are building a house currently and this all sounds pretty close to what we are wanting. Not sure where you are building, but we are using factory building store in college station. They will usually have some sort of rebate or deal going on.

We are getting LG appliances (most reviews i have seen have them higher on the reliability scale). For our 48" rangetop we are looking at a thermador. They make great products.

KarlAg05 said:

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We are in the beginning stages of a new home build and I would like your opinions on some kitchen appliances.

I'll start off with ranges. We decided against double wall ovens and a separate cooktop. We are looking at 48", 6 burner with griddle dual fuel ranges. There are pros and cons to each of the ones we are looking at. We are leaning toward Wolf but are concerned with the blue enamel liner chipping and Wolf cannot tell me if the problem has been resolved or not.

For the ice maker, I want a reliable (if there's such a thing) under counter. Looks will not be important as it will be hidden in the butlers pantry. I will also plumb for a gravity drain. I'm leaning toward
https://www.homedepot.com/p/KitchenAid-18-in-35-lb-Built-In-Ice-Maker-in-PrintShield-Stainless-Steel-KUID308HPS/308703970. It seems to have better warranty and service compared to some potential better quality brands such as Hoshizaki, Manitowoc, and Scotsman. I feel like the last three cater more to commercial than residential.

I would like your expert opinions and suggestions. Thank you

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I haven't priced ranges in about 4 or 5 yrs (and the wolf enamel issue was a few yrs old then).

I like Wolf but came to learn that there were many other offerings without the "Wolf" brand mark up. I don't know how many others off dual fuel as opposed to gas but we ended up going with Capital for ours.

Electric v. Gas oven and open v. closed burners will always be heavily debated by each side.

Have a blue star range now and putting one in our new build. Love it. It's a serious cooking machine if that's what you want.

For the ice maker, I can definitely do one that's not built in and that opens up my options for better machines.

I will look into Capital as well. I like Blue Star for the cooktops but they only have gas ovens in their ranges and we prefer electric for that.

Thank you for the replies so far.

Blue star make dual fuel with electric oven.

Dang, not sure how I missed that. I'll look into Blue Star again. Thank you for letting me know.

I put in a Blue Star range and really like it. Mine is all propane and the broiler is great. The oven also cooks very evenly.

For the hood, I used Dacor because I didn't want a huge logo on it. It also has LED lights. A couple of years ago, many vendors still used halogen.

For the frig, we went with a Kitchenaid built-in. You can get whatever brand you want, but built-in is the way to go. You will not regret it.

GrimesCoAg95 said:

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I put in a Blue Star range and really like it. Mine is all propane and the broiler is great. The oven also cooks very evenly.

For the hood, I used Dacor because I didn't want a huge logo on it. It also has LED lights. A couple of years ago, many vendors still used halogen.

For the frig, we went with a Kitchenaid built-in. You can get whatever brand you want, but built-in is the way to go. You will not regret it.

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We have the 48" dual-fuel wolf, 6 burners plus griddle.

We've only had it a few months in a new home build, but we love it. Coming from our old builder grade GE the burners are incredible. Definitely scorched a few dishes until we learned that medium on the wolf is 7 of 10 on the old GE.

We haven't approached using all 6 burners. To be honest, I do most of my searing in cast iron. But I have made the best smash burgers of my life on the griddle.

I wish I did the 4-burner w/double wide griddle instead, but I'm not kicking this one out of bed

Ditto for the built-in kitchenaid fridge. I wanted the subzero, but w/all of the puts and takes in budget when building we stuck w/the kitchenaid because we got a really good deal from the builder compared to what I've seen online for the same model from noted low price dealers. So far the Kitchenaid has been great.

Good to hear about the built in Kitchenaid refrigerator. We are looking at the same one with the panel ready doors. Now my wife is talking me into the 60" range to have 2 full sized ovens/double griddle and delete one wall oven that we were going to have in the pantry.
I'm still open for suggestions on the brand of range and good and bad experiences with them.

We're doing the Frigidaire professional stand alone fridge and freezer. Can't wait to have all that space.

I thought long and hard about the 6 burner range but I have never filled the 4 I have, I really just need one power burner at 22.5 btu and a few others to keep stuff warm. The big guys do look damn good though

We skipped the built in fridge but may add it in a few years, that was an easy way to save 7k

If you go with a 60", you should check out the french top option. They are very cool. Wolf and Bluestar offer them, but I am not sure who else does.

As for the ovens, we have a 36" 6 burner Bluestar. It is obviously a single oven, but it is huge. The only time I wanted a second oven was Christmas. I was cooking a prime rib, and we had sides and desserts to make too. I should have just put the prime rib on the smoker.

Going to just chime in on the ice maker. We have had an Opal since it shipped (I was an early Indiegogo adopter) and its been phenomenal. Just keep it clean which is not hard to do other than remembering. Marvin Zindler would have had my arse on every Friday.

I use distilled water and the external tank has been a godsend. It makes Sonic ice which is my preference.

I would NEVER install a built in ice machine. Only very wealthy people have working built-in ice machines, just FYI.

KarlAg05 said:

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Good to hear about the built in Kitchenaid refrigerator. We are looking at the same one with the panel ready doors. Now my wife is talking me into the 60" range to have 2 full sized ovens/double griddle and delete one wall oven that we were going to have in the pantry.
I'm still open for suggestions on the brand of range and good and bad experiences with them.

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If I remember right, most of the components are going to be the same across the board with the main difference being how they bend the sheet metal. Customer service is something to consider and that can extend to who you buy from.

When we were in the market preferences would often eliminate certain brands. Bluestar, for example, were all gas, open burners and didn't offer 60" versions.
Others offered dual fuel and sealed burners. Some offered colors while others were only SS. Now it looks like most are offering dual fuel options, open or closed burner and colors.

One thing Capital does with their 60", to try and differentiate themselves, is they offer a 36" and 24" oven as opposed to two 30". Appeals to some since a 36" will hold a full cookie sheet.

flown-the-coop said:

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Going to just chime in on the ice maker. We have had an Opal since it shipped (I was an early Indiegogo adopter) and its been phenomenal. Just keep it clean which is not hard to do other than remembering. Marvin Zindler would have had my arse on every Friday.

I use distilled water and the external tank has been a godsend. It makes Sonic ice which is my preference.

I would NEVER install a built in ice machine. Only very wealthy people have working built-in ice machines, just FYI.

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We purchased an Opal Nov. 2018. Love the ice but it stopped working @ 8 months. It was still under warranty so they sent us a new one. (It was an easy, efficient process.) So far so good but it's developed some noises that make me think the compressor is going to fail any day now.

It does crank out some awesome ice. We don't have the external tank because there's only 2 of us but I can see where it would come in handy for larger families and parties.

I think there's still kinks to work out but for less than $500 it's been worth it.

We bought an Opal for Christmas w/the side tank. We've only used it a couple of times but it is pretty damn awesome.

Do you use it as your daily ice machine or just bust it out periodically?

Blue Star rangetop / cooktop, Miele for the other appliances minus a microwave drawer, and Prestige for a vent hood.

I still haven't seen a dual fuel range from Blue Star.

Well damn...maybe I'm wrong. I could have sworn they had a dual fuel option.

Adam Ag 98 said:

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We bought an Opal for Christmas w/the side tank. We've only used it a couple of times but it is pretty damn awesome.

Do you use it as your daily ice machine or just bust it out periodically?

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I use it daily so mine has been plugged in continuously for several years. I did notice it had a weird sound at one point and it went away. In the new house, it sits in a butler pantry so we never hear it.

They need to make a model that allows for a water line. Keurig had an attachment for this at one time (8-10 years ago) that they could adapt pretty easily.