Fresh Monniker > writes:

>Quality and value will sell. As I understand, DCS started because
>they saw that there was money to be made undercutting the old guard.

According to the salesrep for DCS at the HBAL show in Houston in 1996,
when we chose our DCS 48" dual fuel range, DCS used to make some of
the high-end ranges for Thermodor, such as the aforementioned 48" dual
fuel range. There were some disagreements between the two companies as
to how to evolve the product line, so Thermodor decided to make them
themselves (or perhaps contract the manufacturing to someone else) and
DCS went into direct competition against them.

>Bluestar is winning orders even with no advertising and minimal
>distribution.

They may not do much consumer advertising, but they do quite a bit of
'trade' advertising.

>(BTW, KA appliances can be fine. We are specifying two of their
>dishwashers as our cost-no-object choice. A Whirlpool icemaker is
>also as good as the best - same inside.)

If you're talking the clear ice under cabinet icemakers, IMHO Whirlpool
makes very unreliable equipment. We installed two of them, both lasted less
than 5 years before they needed major repairs, and we just replaced one
of them completely because it was $750 to fix it--again--and $1000 to
replace it. (We replaced it with a U-Line because Whirlpool has
discontinued that particular type of undercabinet icemaker, and my
refrigeration repairman thinks U-Line makes much more reliable and
easier to service equipment.)
--
Mike Nolan