ths.gardenweb.com

is great for appliances. Two years ago they had literally hundreds of postings on liebherr when you could only import them from Canada

http://ths.gardenweb.com/search/nph-ind.cgi?term=liebherr

http://ths.gardenweb.com/search/nph-ind.cgi?term=thermador+refrigerator

I haven't had experience with these two brands but I have a Conserve, another tall, skinny, 24-inch deep stainless refrigerator. We love it. You can find them at RCN at Broadway and 99th and you can see a picture if you put "Sugar Shack" into the AT archive search. It's in our slideshow for the "Smallest-Coolest" contest.

When living in Europe, landlords would proudly advertise that the house or apartment they were offering had "an American refrigerator". Unfortunately, we ended up with a European one and regretted it. The freezer never got really cold enough, the regrigerator had huge temperature variations. I asked about this and was told that energy constraints and bad engineering were to blame. I'd say it was a good idea to avoid European refrigerators altogether. And good luck getting it fixed.

Sharon-

What's "RCN"? Googled it and checked the White Pages, and nothing came up. Is it a general kitchen store?

Just a quick message re: the ConServe refrigerator at RCN... it's actually RCI Discount Appliance Inc at 2599 Broadway. I went there today (Dec. 30 2006) and they still have the fridge etc.
(I know I'm responding to messages that are over a year old, but it's still relevant.)

I've had the conServ for about 7 years and it has been great. Stay cold, freezer is amazin except that you need to defrost. Definitely recommend it
ann

The Liebherr is available in NYC at Krupps and it can be had online at homeclick. com:

http://www.homeclick.com/showpage.asp?catpath=Appliances%2FRefrigeration&manufid=771&i=cat&cm_ven=Google&cm_cat=Appliances&cm_pla=Leibherr&cm_ite=Liebherr%20refrigerator&cm_typ=General&cm_rnk=1&cm_mid=&cm_wid=H

The built-in model with ice maker is about $2300, not too bad for a small footprint full-feature refrigerator, that is also frost free. Many are NOT frost free, so be careful on some of the others mentioned.

I'm getting this Liebherr as soon as I can scrape the money together to redo my kitchen!

Just to be warned. The Liebherr, has great promise but what it lacks is customer service. The machine is loud, and very hard to service. I have a C1651 that is a 30" model. Owned it for one month and have yet to have it work. So far one service call resulted in a fix that only lasted 24 hours. Now they are replacing both compressors. Tell me would you want a fridge that is built in your house a second time? The technician gave me some good advice, stay away from Liebherr. When you call customer service you are calling not Liebherr but ADCO, a company contracted by Liebherr, then ADCO contacts out a service call. All this means is you are not talking to people who care about helping the brand, just controlling costs. Liebherr is well suited for the commercial market when its strong, but a competition with other appliance companies is proving fruitless. Personally I can not wait to swap mine out for a Sub Zero.

Gigi - don't buy a Liebherr - they indeed look good but the engineering is terrible. It will cause you months of agony and frustration. I sadly know from personal experience

There is much to like about Liebherr refrigerators but also much to hate. My refrigerator door fell off, crushing my finger. Two hand surgeries later, Liebherr has still not responded to any of my inquiries. What they did do is send a repairman to the house who had never worked on a Liebherr refrigerator before and the asked me (with post-surgery bandaged hand in clear view) to help him lift the door. Liebherr then sent a representative to inspect the door with the intention of blaming us for the problem. Representative saw that this was ridiculous. Still no response from Liebherr. They ended up having a nation-wide recall of the refrigerator doors. But still no response to us. What a disappointment and what disregard for a customer!

Warning do not buy Liebherr refrigerators. I have a 4 year old SBSES 7051. This is an $8000 purchase in Australia. In four years everything has broken. The door handles have broken off several times, all the bottle shelves in the doors have broken off (with bottles in them), the shelves have collapsed, the freezer drawers have fallen apart, the "Biofresh" cabinet fans sound like aero engines when a warm dish is placed in the cabinet. And it emits loud bangs during the night. Worst of all the service support in Aussie is next to useless. We expected a top quality German engineered device that would last at least 15 years. It is an expensive dud that the Germans should be ashamed of. Look at some other product reviews from Australia to see that the problem is common. You are fortunate in the USA to have the best domestic refrigeration company in the world - unmatched. SubZero. Be proud to be so much better than the Germans.