When it comes to top-of-the-league refrigerator brands, you simply can’t overlook a Sub-Zero.
Prestigious restaurants list it down as their first choice when it comes to keeping ingredients fresh, and homeowners love it for the “it” factor it gives their kitchen.
But it also doesn’t come cheap. A Sub-Zero is a luxury, but one that can last you for decades if you’re smart about it.
If you’re looking to learn about what makes a Sub-Zero worth its price, look no further. This article might even convince you to buy one!
What makes a Sub-Zero fridge worth its price?
A Sub-Zero fridge is worth investing in for food preservation, design flexibility, longevity, convenience, and resale value.
They’re built to last for more than 20 years, are equipped with technology that ensures the freshness of your food for days, and are a real-estate-listing must-have.
Sub-Zero fridges have been an established name in the market for decades, and it’s all for a good reason — these fridges can walk their walk.
As a brand, Sub-Zero’s prestige goes way back to the 1940s, when it first entered the market with a refrigeration system that can preserve food at ultra-low temperatures — hence its name.
Since then, the brand has gained its reputation for being a standard in both design and performance. But if you’re still not impressed by its background and survivability in the market, allow us to present you with our list of pros to a Sub-Zero fridge.
It all boils down to five distinctive qualities we’ve mentioned above: food preservation, design innovation and flexibility, longevity, convenience, and home resale value.
1. Food Preservation
Sub-Zero fridges have the sharpest edge when it comes to long-term food preservation.
They were initially pioneered by Sub-Zero founder Westye Bakke to refrigerate insulin for his son’s diabetes, and to date, the brand remains a benchmark for quality preservation technology.
They have quality temperature control that can stabilize low temperatures longer than other refrigerator brands.
It’s not unusual for your typical refrigerator to fluctuate between temperatures to ensure that it doesn’t overfreeze and ruin the quality of your food.
But with Sub-Zero’s high-functioning refrigeration and purification system, overfreezing will be the least of your worries.
Sub-Zero fridges feature three specialized functions to regulate their air circulation and guarantee the freshness of your food over time. With their technology, you’ll save an average of $1,500 in food alone!
Integrated Air Purification
Sub-Zero units are built with a computer-driven air purification system that NASA also uses in their space shuttles. If that doesn’t sound impressive enough for you, let us tell you what it does: it automatically scrubs the air in your fridge every 20 minutes!
While we’ve developed the habit of storing all kinds of food inside our refrigerator, in reality, certain kinds of foods spoil faster if you place them in a storage place next to other items.
Apples, for example, produce ethylene — a naturally occurring chemical compound involved in the ripening process of similar fruits.
Ethylene gives your apples that sweet and musky odor to them, but if you place it next to vegetables that do not produce it on their own — and are thus sensitive to it — like broccoli or cauliflower, it could spoil your veggies faster and make them taste bitter.
Sub-Zero’s integrated air purification system filters the air inside your fridge so that it stays moist and free of compounds and bacteria that can cause premature ripening. This gets rid of any musty odors from other foods as well.
With a Sub-Zero fridge, you can place any fresh produce items you have next to each other and won’t have to worry about their sensitivities or shelf life!
Vacuum Sealed Door
You might not think much of your refrigerator doors, but did you know that they play a huge part in keeping optimal temperatures inside your appliance?
More specifically, the seal around the doors prevents warm air from entering and cold air from escaping. This helps maintain the appliance’s temperature settings and keeps condensation from forming unnecessary frost and ruining the quality of your food.
In other words, a low-quality seal on your refrigerator door can lead to premature spoilage, overfreezing issues, or sometimes even temperature issues such as your appliance having a hard time keeping cool.
Meanwhile, Sub-Zero fridges have air-tight, vacuum seals on their doors that, coupled with their topnotch air purification system, can stabilize low temperatures without using extra power or energy.
Sub-Zeros have a reputation for being able to keep temperature settings within one degree at all times, and it’s thanks in part to those vacuum-sealed doors. They can even stand a power outage without thawing!
Dual Refrigeration
A conventional refrigerator would have a single compressor to regulate cold air in all of its compartments — from the fresh foods drawers to the freezer.
While this is enough to get the job done of chilling your items, refrigerators with only one compressor tend to face the same issues: long-term frost problems, odors traveling from one compartment to the other, and the like.
Sub-Zero fridges combat these issues with their dual refrigeration system. This means that each unit uses two separate compressors and sets of evaporators to maintain temperatures in each compartment.
This also means that with a Sub-Zero fridge, you can set different temperature settings for your fresh food compartment and freezer without having to worry about either compartment overfreezing.
You won’t have to worry about odors traveling through drawers and tainting your food either.
The use of dual refrigeration means that the air doesn’t get recycled throughout your entire fridge. The air circulation in your fresh food compartment stays in the fresh food compartment, and the same goes for your freezer as well.
Premium Water Purification
Not all Sub-Zero units have a water dispenser system, but if you’re looking at a unit that has one, we’ve got news for you: its premium purification system doesn’t just stop at air regulation — it extends to water filtration as well!
Where regular refrigerators use carbon filters to remove pollutants from their water supply, a Sub-Zero fridge uses a microbiological water filter.
This type of technology is best known for its ability to eliminate finer bacteria that can be resistant to common filters. With Sub-Zero’s water filter, you’re guaranteed fresher and safer water.
Moreover, a Sub-Zero’s water filter can last longer than other carbon filters. Typical filters need to be replaced every six months, but Sub-Zero filters can extend that lifespan to a year depending on the volume of your water consumption.
2. Design Innovation and Flexibility
When you think of a refrigerator, you might think of a full-height appliance with a fresh food compartment and a freezer. It’s the conventional design.
But Sub-Zero challenges that conventionality with its design innovation and flexibility. It offers various models in different sizes and flexible installation finishes.
You can choose to have a Sub-Zero fridge installed completely flushed into a cabinet opening so it doesn’t stick out like regular fridges, or you can have it installed slightly protruding from your counters.
Either way, a Sub-Zero is built to match the depth of your counters so that the appliance blends seamlessly with the rest of your kitchen interior — it’s one of the benchmarks of the brand.
Furthermore, Sub-Zero lets its users customize their own designs. You can configure units to suit what you want and need.
Overall, Sub-Zero offers nine customizable exterior finishes you can choose from: stainless steel doors, glass doors, French doors, customizable handle options, and many more.
These options extend to any compartment or type of fridge you want — whether it’s for your freezer, an under-counter fridge, or even wine storage.
Do you want a smaller freezer with double doors and double the storage for your fresh foods? You got it!
It even offers outdoor refrigeration for dedicated weekend barbecue party-goers!
3. Quality and Longevity
A Sub-Zero is synonymous with a long-lasting refrigerator. An average fridge can last you about 13 to 15 years, but a Sub-Zero is built and guaranteed to last for no less than 20 years.
If you take care of the unit enough, it can even last you 30 years!
On top of that, Sub-Zero offers one of the most competitive warranties in the market, covering up to 12 years with the first two years being all-inclusive. If you’ve had it factory installed, the all-inclusive warranty extends for up to three years.
That’s three years’ worth of all parts and labor costs covered in case you run into any defects.
What’s more, a Sub-Zero’s patented sealed system — which is made up of compressors, evaporators, condensers, dryers, and tubing — is under warranty for up to five years.
4. Convenience
In tune with its sleek designs, a Sub-Zero is also powered by nanotechnology that makes maintaining the unit easier and more convenient.
You can say goodbye to leaking issues as each of a Sub-Zero’s shelves is modeled to catch and collect spills so they puddle in one corner, instead of trickling down onto other levels of the compartment.
You can also access the unit remotely through your smartphone or tablet via an exclusive Sub-Zero Owner application. This allows you to monitor, control, or edit your appliance settings even if you’re away from home.
5. Home Resale Value
Investing in a Sub-Zero doesn’t only mean you’re investing in a lasting installment in your kitchen, you’re also investing in the value of your home.
This brand has made itself a household name in both the appliance market and real estate. Listings never fail to mention if a kitchen comes with a Sub-Zero fridge, and in some cases, it can even be the decisive push that seals the deal!
The kitchen is one of the most expensive rooms to renovate in a new home, hence future homeowners are looking for first-rate appliances in it. And what finer asset is there to keep an eye out for than a brand that defines luxury and caliber?
Sub-Zero Designs in the Market
Sub-Zero offers three types of full-sized refrigerators that users can customize to meet their preferred specifications.
You can choose from a classic built-in refrigerator, a Sub-Zero Professional for a more commercial look, or a Sub-Zero Designer for a more integrated finish.
As we’ve previously mentioned, Sub-Zero lets you mix and match columns and shelves, but you don’t have to do them with bare bones. The brand offers three standard refrigerator styles that you can tweak to suit your tastes.
These model styles can determine how the fridge unit will be installed in your kitchen, and even how much it will cost.
For reference, here are three standard styles you can choose from:
1. Classic Sub-Zero Built-In Refrigerators (BI)
Much like its name, a classic Sub-Zero built-in unit — most commonly known as BI — is a simple yet elegant style that goes well with any kitchen interior. BI units have incorporated the original design for Sub-Zero fridges since its foundation.
They come in four layouts: French door, over-and-under (fridge with bottom freezer), side-by-side, and columns.
BIs are typically designed to stick a few inches out of the cabinetry even when you have them built-in.
2. Sub-Zero Professional
Sub-Zero’s Professional series introduces refrigerator units that are designed to have a fashionable, commercial look. Think of fridges in luxurious restaurant kitchens — that’s what having a Sub-Zero Professional in your would feel like.
Professional units feature triple independent evaporators, each for the refrigerator, the refrigerator drawers, and the freezer.
Unlike BIs, however, a Professional unit comes with a weight warning. One of these beauties weighs up to 800 pounds and thus requires a lot of floor space and even reinforcements to handle its bulk.
3. Sub-Zero Designer
A certified favorite among homeowners who love being creative with their kitchen designs, the Sub-Zero Designer series gives users the liberty to style their own units.
The Designer series allows users up to 30 different configuration choices, with the fridge’s finished look being easily integrated into the rest of your kitchen cabinets.
Unlike BIs or Professionals, a Sub-Zero Designer does not have any protruding hinges or grills, which makes it easier to camouflage among your cabinetry. Once installed, you wouldn’t even know it’s there at first glance!
Designers typically come in either a column layout — which allows you to have an all-fridge or all-freezer unit — or an over-and-under style.
How much is a Sub-Zero refrigerator?
With all its upscale design options and highly proficient technology, a standard Sub-Zero refrigerator averages around $7,000 to $12,000.
A Sub-Zero’s price will depend on the configuration of the configuration of your selected unit.
Undercounters or refrigerator drawers usually cost about $5,500 — but that’s just a drawer. You’d of course want a full-pledged refrigerator — those start at $7,000 to $7,500.
Moreover, a Sub-Zero Professional unit might cost more than your average BI or Designer, solely due to its size and weight. And because they require extra manpower to be handled, they average about $600 to $1,000 in delivery fees.
Here’s a quick rundown of how much each style of Sub-Zero unit might cost:
Style | Cost |
Undercounter (Fridge Drawers) | starts at $5,500 |
Column Freezers | starts at $7,900 |
Column Refrigerators | starts at $8,300 |
Bottom Freezer | starts at $8,500 |
French Door | starts at $11,000 |
Side-by-side | starts at $12,600 |
A Sub-Zero refrigerator’s price might seem discouraging, especially given that it’s almost thrice as expensive as a fridge unit from any other brand, but it’s a solid investment.
For 20 years or so, you’re guaranteed quality food security — not to mention the stellar design and various options a Sub-Zero comes in!
All in all, you’re not just buying a refrigerator when you buy a Sub-Zero — you’re also saving future funds that would otherwise go to general repairs or even a unit replacement after a dozen years.
You’re even putting a good price tag on your home!
So if you’ve got the budget for it and are eyeing a Sub-Zero fridge, we say go for it so you can experience what the brand is all about.