Miele and Gaggenau are two of the premium brands in the appliance world. They are more expensive with very high quality and good reliability. In fact, both companies are among the least repaired brands we sell. Both at one time manufactured bicycles as a core part of their business. They are also very old companies. Miele started in the late 19th century and Gaggenau actually traces their roots to 1683.
Gaggenau
Gaggenau live kitchen kitchen display at Yale
Gaggenau is a German company but is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bosch company, who also manufacture Bosch and Thermador. This is pretty common in our industry as these smaller companies like Jenn-Air and Wolf are purchased and reinvigorated by much larger ones. Gaggenau focuses on quality first and offers the longest warranty at 10 years if you buy an entire Gaggenau kitchen. Gaggenau is a very distinct, high end and modern look.
Miele
Miele appliance gallery at Yale
Miele is a family owned German company who manufactures an astounding 96% of all the parts in their products. Nothing is contracted out like most other brands. Miele has a more universal look and a lower price point. Between the two, Miele sells many more appliances. Most of the Miele appliances sold in the U.S. are made for the U.S. market only. For example the 30” Miele wall ovens are only sold in the United States.
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For 36” wide gas cooktops, Gaggenau uses five brass burners instead of two for Miele for better temperature control. There is a very high 17K BTU output burner in the center as well as two more high output at 13.6K BTU burners. At 17K BTU, the Gaggenau gas cooktop is one of the most powerful. The center burner is a three ring burner and all of the other burners are two ring burners, which means all the burners can simmer at 500 BTU with a low of 300 BTU on the middle burner. The inner ring is a very small burner for simmering. The outer ring is the big burner for cooking and boiling water. When the simmer feature is in use, only the center ring comes on. When cooking, the inner and outer ring come on at the same time to bring water to a boiler more quickly by heating the inside and outside of the pan. Gaggenau is the best constant simmer in the industry. Thermador is technically better at 200 BTU, but it turns on and off.
Miele is also very good with two front burners at 16.5K and 15.3K BTUs. The rear burners are 12,000 BTU. The two front burners are brass and the rest are aluminum. The two front burners are also two ring, so that you can simmer with a small pan as low as 620 BTUs. To go even lower, Miele offers a simmer plate to ensure that excess heat is diverted away from the pan.
Overall, I like the Gaggenau simmer and 10-year warranty, but it costs $1,200 more at $2899 versus the Miele cooktop at $1,600. Gaggenau also has the option of front mounted knobs. This is an even more expensive option at $3,339. The knobs are actually installed into the cabinet below and are connected with wires within the cabinet.
So you do have a better simmer and warranty but at a much higher price.
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