A Bosch KIR81VFE0 built-in fridge costs 772.62 euro. The Siemens KI81RVFE0 costs 1,061.28. We downloaded both EU product fiches and compared them line by line: out of 109 lines, three change, the brand name, the model code and the address of the website where you download the label. Everything else, from the 310 litres to the 35 decibels to the 114 kWh a year, is the same figure written twice.
We at PortosEunostos took every Bosch and Siemens model in the OpportunityCommerce catalogue, downloaded 230 official fiches and compared them automatically. Twenty families of identical appliances came out, and thirteen one-to-one pairs. Across those thirteen, the Siemens costs more than the Bosch thirteen times out of thirteen. The interesting part is not that, it is where the difference comes from.
The short answer
Bosch and Siemens are two brands of the same company, BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, and they say so themselves: the supplier address printed on both brands' EU fiches is the same, Carl-Wery-Str. 34, Munich. In some categories, above all built-in refrigeration, the same appliance is registered twice under two different codes.
When that happens, comparing the two brands is not comparing two machines: it is comparing two prices. And in roughly half the cases we measured, the higher price is not set by the manufacturer.
What twins actually means
The product information sheet is the document European regulation obliges the supplier to publish alongside the energy label. It carries the measured data: volumes, consumption, noise, classes, temperatures, length of warranty. It is not marketing, it is the one page the two brands cannot write differently if the machine is the same.
Across the thirteen pairs we isolated, twelve differ only on brand, code and web address. The Bosch SMH4EVX08E dishwasher and the Siemens SN73EX06VE, for instance, are identical on 56 lines out of 59: 14 place settings, efficiency index 37.9, class B, 0.645 kWh and 9 litres per eco cycle, 3 hours 55 minutes, 44 dB. The price differs by 198.08 euro.
How many pairs really exist
The phenomenon is not everywhere. Of the 230 fiches we read, the twins sit almost entirely in built-in refrigeration (sixteen families) and partly in dishwashers (four). Across the 75 oven fiches and the 56 cooker hood fiches we found no identical cross-brand pair at all, and the washing machine sample in the catalogue was too small to say anything.
| Appliance | Bosch | Siemens | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in fridge freezer 54 cm | KIN96NSE0, €860.28 | KI96NNSE0, €1,258.00 | +€397.72 (+46.2%) |
| Fridge with freezer box 54 cm | KIL42NSE0, €742.61 | KI42LNSE0, €1,045.50 | +€302.89 (+40.8%) |
| Built-in larder fridge 56 cm | KIR81VFE0, €772.62 | KI81RVFE0, €1,061.28 | +€288.66 (+37.4%) |
| Under-counter wine cooler 60 cm | KUW21AHG0, €1,528.80 | KU21WAHG0, €2,048.50 | +€519.70 (+34.0%) |
| Fully integrated dishwasher 60 cm | SMH4EVX08E, €592.42 | SN73EX06VE, €790.50 | +€198.08 (+33.4%) |
| Freestanding multidoor 90 cm | KFI96AXEA, €2,514.82 | KF96DAXEA, €3,316.22 | +€801.40 (+31.9%) |
Prices recorded on 22 October 2026. Across the thirteen pairs the median gap is 306.54 euro, that is 34.6 per cent, ranging from 22.1 to 46.2 per cent.
Where the price difference comes from
This is the figure that made us rewrite the piece. Next to the selling price the shop also shows the struck-through list price, the one recommended by the manufacturer. Compare those instead, and the Siemens costs only 10.8 per cent more in median terms. On one pair, the KUR21VFE0 and the KU21RVFE0, the two list prices are 0.7 per cent apart: effectively the same price.
The gap opens on the shelf, and it is a shop policy rather than a manufacturer one: on all thirteen pairs the Bosch is discounted by exactly 30.0 per cent off list, the Siemens by 15.0 per cent (22.8 in a single case). Do the arithmetic: 1,103.74 times 0.70 is 772.62; 1,248.57 times 0.85 is 1,061.28.
Broken down that way, the median gap of 306.54 euro is about 45 per cent manufacturer list price and the rest is the discount tier the retailer applies. Paying for the Siemens is not mainly paying for the badge: it is paying for the fact that in this shop that badge is discounted by half as much.
For scale: at the Italian ARERA tariff for the fourth quarter of 2026, 0.4343 euro per kWh, the 114 kWh a year of that fridge cost 49.51 euro. The 288.66 euro between the two codes buy almost six years of electricity for the same appliance.
When a twin is not a twin
An identical EU fiche does not mean an identical product: the document measures energy, volumes and noise, not everything else. So we also compared the two manufacturers' technical sheets, entry by entry.
On the most expensive pair, the 90 cm multidoor, the difference is real: the Bosch KFI96AXEA has a dispenser with a refillable tank, the Siemens KF96DAXEA has a direct water connection with a filter. Anyone who wants plumbed water has no choice, and 801 euro stop being purely about the badge.
On the built-in fridge the declared difference is far smaller: two bottle racks on the Bosch against one on the Siemens, and six hundred grams of weight. Everything else only changes name: VitaFresh becomes hyperFresh, Total No Frost becomes Total noFrost, AquaStop becomes aquaStop, EfficientDry becomes autoOpen dry.
How to spot a twin in three moves
1. Look at the barcode. All 276 Bosch and Siemens models we catalogued carry an EAN starting with 424200: same company prefix, same owner.
2. Move one letter. On fridges the Siemens code is the Bosch code with the third letter moved after the two digits: KIR81VFE0 becomes KI81RVFE0, KUW21AHG0 becomes KU21WAHG0. The rule held on ten of the thirteen pairs, and it does not work for dishwashers.
3. Put the two EU fiches side by side. They download free from the manufacturer's site and they are one-page PDFs. If the numbers match, you have finished comparing: only the price is left.
PortosEunostos advice
On the product. Before paying for the badge, look for the twin code and open both fiches. If something you actually need changes (the water connection, a shelf, a function declared on only one of the two) the extra spend makes sense. If nothing changes, you are buying a logo that on a built-in appliance stays hidden behind the furniture panel.
On the seller. Check real availability, not just the price: of the thirteen Siemens twins we looked at, none was in stock for immediate delivery, while nine of the Bosch were. And remember that the discount on display is a shop policy, so it changes from shop to shop: that is exactly why it pays to go through a comparison site first.
The Portos choice
If the appliance you want has a twin, buy the one with the deeper discount: you are buying the same machine. If there is no twin, or if the two technical sheets diverge on a function you will actually use, then it goes back to being a comparison between products and the higher price can be worth it.
What makes no sense is choosing between Bosch and Siemens on hearsay. In this catalogue, across these thirteen pairs, hearsay costs a median of three hundred euro.
See the specifications and availability of the Bosch KIR81VFE0 and the Siemens KI81RVFE0 listing on OpportunityCommerce, or compare prices and availability for built-in fridges on SniffaPrezzi.
Sources
EU product information sheets (delegated regulations 2019/2016 for refrigeration and 2019/2017 for dishwashers), downloaded on 22 October 2026: KIR81VFE0, KI81RVFE0, SMH4EVX08E, SN73EX06VE.
Official technical sheets: Bosch KIR81VFE0, Bosch KFI96AXEA, Siemens KI81RVFE0, Siemens KF96DAXEA.
Prices and availability recorded on OpportunityCommerce, Bosch and Siemens on 22 October 2026.
Electricity tariff: ARERA, fourth quarter 2026, 0.4343 euro per kWh.
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