Product review (4 stars): Initially, difficult to get used to, but now happier with purchase
I'm vacillating between 3 and 4 stars, but we certainly like our Bosch better than others who have written about it. The first point I'd like to make is that most reviews of larger appliances are really comparisons between what we had and what we just chose.

We moved down from a 25 cu ft GE Profile (counter-depth) that was 15 years old, and the only reason we did was that it was white (and a little noisy) and didn't go with our new kitchen decor. This wasn't exactly my idea, but I got dragged from appliance store to appliance store, and when I saw this one, I gave it my "seal of approval." The handles were less obtrusive than all the rest, and that for a galley kitchen was the clincher.

Pros: We've had it over a week, and time will tell, but so far it's extremely quiet, and it's good looking. It holds all our food because my wife got very efficient and economized the space, and we're only two people. We've measured temps on both sides, and each was right on the mark to the degree, 0 and 39. It makes ice cubes very well and quickly.

Other things took a few days to get used to, and have gone from "Cons" to "doesn't matter." This includes the poorly designed ice and water dispenser. The water dispenser is well toward the front and for those used to putting a glass to the back of the dispenser compartment, you'll be cleaning the floor as often as we did in the first 3 days. On the other hand, our floor had never been so clean. As for ice, you should place the glass up against the to of the dispenser, push the button, and you won;'t get any shavings on the floor. To be fair, when it came to crushed ice, our GE used to spit out ice on the floor as well.

Cons: The shelf sizes are badly designed. The bottom shelf on the refrigerator door is almost useless. Maybe some sliced cheese and that's about it. I think it's just 2" deep and that's because, with the door closed, it abuts the vegetable compartment.

The refrigerator door has to be completely open to open some of the drawers all the way. The top shelf is okay for large bottles once you toss the completely useless and space consuming wine rack. There is one door shelf that will hold a gallon jug of milk, but right now we're wondering where we're going to put a Thanksgiving turkey. 22 cu ft either ain't what it used to be, or the extra 3 cu ft our GE had was space we never really appreciated.

If you just want a few ice cubes ADDED to a drink, and you don't want to splash water or soda by adding cubes through the dispenser, you have to pull out the ice cube bucket to get to the cubes. On the GE, there was a door that you could open to the ice bucket and just stick your hand in to get a few cubes out. We miss that door. Well, I miss that door. It's always been too high for my wife to see what she's doing. Is this really a "Con?" If you do this more than two or three times a week, yes. If not, then forget about it and move on to the real pros and cons.

We couldn't figure how to stop the alarm from going off and keep the panel lights on, but I suggest that, if you read the manual CAREFULLY, you'll get the answer. You can lock them out or on as the case may be. And so I'll add the manual as a CON. It must have been translated from the German because there are a few things that take some "interpretation" to understand.

The water filter is outrageously expensive ($70 retail, $50 through Amazon companies) and is supposed to be changed every 6 months. Our water is hard, but of good quality, and I won't be changing the filter but once a year if that. This is ridiculous. Our GE filters had to be changed every 6 months and cost $34 for two! I changed those every 8-12 months, and the water tasted fine.

Bosch gives you all of one sample cleaning cloth, and it does a fantastic job. No fingerprints show, but after application, use a T-shirt to clean off the oil residue. And note that the application of any cleaner makes the front of the appliance appear or actually be darker. Still, we will be buying the wipes and even after the two grandkids come to visit, we'll be able to simply wipe off whatever smudges they leave behind. (Our 2.5 year old grandson was born with 12 hands, so we're also looking for a good glass cleaner. P.S. A house cannot be kidproofed against a 2 year old little boy.)

Last, I'll be calling Bosch for an explanation as to whether this is stainless steel or clean steel (google, don't wiki this). A magnet will stick to the doors and that means clean steel. Clean steel will rust if scratched through, and I shouldn't be paying $2,400 for clean steel! IF manufacturers are using the terms interchangeably, then the practice should be stopped. And since our salesman knew the difference. but conveniently couldn't find his magnet, he should be stopped as well. We were assured that this was stainless.

Would we buy this again? Probably. Our favorite brand became LG, but there are people who hate LG. Others hate GE, and other love KitchenAide. We can't buy one of each and see who's wrong. Sometimes I think that reviews - even one like this - only tend to confuse. And some make you wonder how people could think that a refrigerator-freezer was going to play Beethoven's 5th every time you open the door.

All and all, we're getting happier about the purchase, but there are still some things that would need improvement and absolute correction for us to be "delighted." Let me put it this way: we're not unhappy with the purchase. That's 4 stars max. On a scale of 1-10, it would be a 7.5 or an 8, and those are pretty high marks, but we haven't had any of the problems the other reviewers have had. Maybe buying through "the mail" isn't such a great idea. If anything goes wrong, not only do we have the seller 5 miles away, we have the service center just 20 miles away in San Francisco.