[redforever]

Go for functionality every time. What good is a pretty kitchen where everything matches if that same kitchen is not functional? I have a place in Calgary and a place in Priddis and not one of my appliances are the same brand. Well, actually my Samsung washer and dryer are a set and I have had not problem with them at all.

I swear by Miele dishwashers. They are quiet and excellent at cleaning. Outside of perhaps a bit of a touch up on pots used for potatoes or pasta, my dishes merely get scraped and go in the dishwasher without rinsing...and they come out perfectly clean every time.

For ovens, get one that will be compatible with the size of your roasting pans, cookie sheets, etc. I never shop for an oven without taking along the cookware and bakeware that I can not live without. If they don't fit in the oven, I don't buy that oven. Beware of Jennaire ovens...they are notoriously small. I have a 30" Thermador built in oven at Priddis and a 30" Kitchenaid built in oven in Calgary. The Thermador is superior. I also have a 36" Wolf built in oven in Calgary and it is great, even comes with a pizza stone attachment.

I have a Sub Zero fridge in Calgary and an LG fridge in Priddis. I prefer the crispers and the door width for milk storage of the LG.

I have a 6 burner Viking induction cooktop at Priddis and a 5 burner Miele induction cooktop in Calgary. The Viking is superior. I prefer the actual knobs on the Viking compared to the touch top of the Miele. But the Miele has a bridge element that the Viking does not and I wanted that.

Induction cooking is more than just how fast it can heat water or how fast it cooks. It is all about temperature control period. It has extreme high end heat as well as very low simmering at the other end of the heat spectrum. Cooking with induction keeps your kitchen cool. The handles of your cookware will not get real hot. Spills are super easy to clean up as the actual glass cooktop does not heat up like radiant cooktops do. Spills will not burn and stick on and need to be scraped off. Just wipe them up with your dishcloth. The only heat that the induction cooktop will get is what is transferred from the bottom of the cookware. And cooking with induction is by far the most energy efficient.

Yes, you need cookware that is induction compatible but North America is finally starting to catch up to Europe and induction cookware can now be found just about anywhere. If a magnet sticks to the base of your cookware, it is induction compatible. Cast iron works as do those old fashioned speckled enamel ware roasters. Someone mentioned that the bottoms of cookware have to be flat. True but tell me, what good cookware does not have a flat encapsulated base these days? However, I can make gravy in those enamel ware roasters with no problem and they have a ridged base.

Someone mentioned that you might break the glass top if you dropped something real heavy on it. Let me ask you...who has ever done something like that? And I would wager that if you dropped something real heavy that it would damage any cooking surface.

No, I can't char peppers on my induction cooktop but I can do that on my gas barbecue or broil them in my oven. Charring peppers is low on my list of things I do on a regular basis with my cooktop.

And my personal motto for buying appliances is buy top end or go cheap. I have found that mid-range lacks many features and does not last much longer than low end either.