For many years all I had heard about was the wonders of the subzero: wonderful drawers, excellent cabinets, great treatment of produce. All that is true. But the downside -- a very, very badly designed freezer and ice maker -- requires me to conclude that our purchase of this freezer was a mistake. Here's the details:

* Cooling: This is why you buy the ref in the first place. Here it gets an A1. Whether it's summer or winter the unit works great and adjusts on its own.

* Food Preservation: Excellent. Before owning this unit we had 3-4 different "top of the line" refs that quite frankly weren't. The fruit and vegetables would spoil after 3-4 days. The SubZero is amazing in that you can put a cut up tomato in the drawer and go back 2 days later and it's in pretty much the same shape as before. Lettuce doesn't wilt. Freshness personified.

* Roominess/design. Pretty good. The major drawers are ample in space. The shelves are nice: not too deep but wide enough that you can fit a lot in them. The downside is that the door and the unit don't work well if you put a lot of things in the ref. Large milk, juice or wine containers often don't allow the door to close without major air traffic controller work.

* Cleaning: Much of the unit is easy to clean: the drawers, doors, etc. But the freezer (more on this below) is very hard to clean and because of the poor design of the pull out drawers it requires cleaning a lot.

* Look and feel: It's a nice looking unit. It doesn't have a magnetic door so no more posting of pictures or invitations on the door. Makes for a neater kitchen look but you might realize that you'll have to buy a bulletin board.

* Freezer: Yuk. Bleh. Terrible. The Worst. What else can I say? Let me count the ways I HATE this freeezer:
(1) You need to lift weights to open the door
(2) The pull-out drawers are poorly designed. Nothing seems to go into the space easily. It seems to have created by a computer and never tested by real people. Food often falls out of the unit, through the drawer and onto the floor. A terrible, terrible design.
(3) Ice maker. Without getting too technical, a cheap plastic piece that lets the freezer connect to the ice maker has broken at least 4 times. We had to buy replacements and then re-install. The installation is a bear: you have to take the freezer drawer out (it takes two of us) and then put it on. The freezer drawer has scuffed up the floor, and made a mess of things. Worst of all once we fixed it, it breaks again soon. the result: either the ice maker doesn't produce ice or it over-produces. For $3,000-$4,000 you think they could get this right. We've talked to the company and they've basically said, "tough". (If the company wants to change their mind after reading this they can email me at katiebells@mindspring.com. (I thought we had bought a long-term service agreement but the local vendor in Baltimore, Cummins, says we didn't and won't help us out here either).

BOTTOM LINE: If you're going to spend $3000-$4,000 on a freezer it should be great. This is Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde experience. A wonderful refrigerator with an absolutely terrible freezer. Worst of all: SubZero has demonstrated to me that they are a company that just doesn't seem to care.

UPDATE: October 2005. Several years later the SubZero continues to cool our food well. In fact, the refrigerator amazes me at how well it keeps fresh produce fresh. However the freeezer's extremely poor design still disappoints. We regularly have to remove the whole freezer tray -- weighing 50 - 60 lbs? -- and reinstall. It's not something I thought I would ever have to do when I bought this. The local vendor in Baltimore -- Cummins remains single-mindedly unhelpful. There are now many options available to consumers. I wouldn't recommend this as one.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): $3,500