My #$*#@!*& Viking Stove
Meryem Primmer
Well, I've been trying really hard to love my Viking stove and overlook
a few minor glitches that I thought would be solved by gentle breaking
in and lots of TLC, but it seems this stove has some real problems.
The trouble started when it was installed on 8/22/96 - the right front
burner was DOA! The service person replaced the electronic ignition
at no charge - but not until making a few snide remarks about verifying
that it had been installed correctly (which it had been).
After a few weeks I discovered that the left back burner would not
re-light if it was hot. I thought I could ignore the problem and it
would go away. It didn't.
It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I started baking in the
oven. I suspect that the temperature control is out of whack because
everything takes a LOT longer to bake than it should, e.g., a loaf of
beer bread took 1 hour 15 minutes (and was still not done enough) vs.
50 minutes in my old oven. Ditto on cakes. Even after turning up the
oven temperature an additional 25 degrees, things STILL take longer to
bake than they should. As a comparison, on Christmas day I baked a
loaf of beer bread in my Thermador electric oven; it baked in 55 minutes!
I figure I could get an oven thermometer to check out the oven, but after
shelling out $2700 for the stove, I don't feel I should have to spend
even more money for a thermometer to check it out.
On top of all that, while cooking Christmas dinner, the back left burner
went totally bonkers on me. I had stuff cooking on the left front burner
when all of sudden - totally of its own accord, the ignition on the left
back burner started clicking as though it was trying to ignite. I hadn't
touched the knob! I moved the pot to the right front, but the back left
continued to click. The two back burners seemed to work OK when I turned
them on without the front burners being on, so now I couldn't use either
front burner because the back left burner had gone nuts!
So now I was cooking on the two back burners and things seemed to be
going OK, until I attempted to adjust the flame on the back left buner
and the KNOB CAME OFF IN MY HAND! I put the knob back on, but
something's wrong with it. It's loose and lop-sided and won't stay on.
So this morning I bit the bullet and called the service number.
Guess what! They're closed for the holidays!!
Grumble! Grumble!
--
Regards,
Meryem (Thanks, I needed to vent) Primmer
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Joan Mathew
mer...@core.rose.hp.com (Meryem Primmer) wrote:
><snip>
>It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I started baking in the
>oven. I suspect that the temperature control is out of whack because
>everything takes a LOT longer to bake than it should, e.g., a loaf of
>beer bread took 1 hour 15 minutes (and was still not done enough) vs.
>50 minutes in my old oven. Ditto on cakes. Even after turning up the
>oven temperature an additional 25 degrees, things STILL take longer to
>bake than they should. As a comparison, on Christmas day I baked a
>loaf of beer bread in my Thermador electric oven; it baked in 55 minutes!
>I figure I could get an oven thermometer to check out the oven, but after
>shelling out $2700 for the stove, I don't feel I should have to spend
>even more money for a thermometer to check it out.
I won't argue with you at all about the point on the cost of the stove
vs. you having to check it, etc.; however, I can tell you that my
Viking oven has always been, from day #1, exactly 25 degrees off.
Unfortunately, circumstances at the time prevented me from testing it
properly within a reasonable time period, and so I have just learned
to live with it. I already had an oven thermometer, and as long as it
was consistent throughout all the temps (it is), I just figured I
would let it go at that.
>On top of all that, while cooking Christmas dinner, the back left burner
>went totally bonkers on me. I had stuff cooking on the left front burner
>when all of sudden - totally of its own accord, the ignition on the left
>back burner started clicking as though it was trying to ignite. I hadn't
>touched the knob! I moved the pot to the right front, but the back left
>continued to click. The two back burners seemed to work OK when I turned
>them on without the front burners being on, so now I couldn't use either
>front burner because the back left burner had gone nuts!
That's very interesting that you bring this up, because my stove has
been doing that for several months now and it's making me nuts. My
husband has tinkered with the flame height on the burners and also
swapped the igniters with other burners. He also tried to adjust the
airflow. None of that has worked, and so the problem continues. The
only thing that works for me -- sometimes -- is to turn on the burners
which are clicking, leave them on HIGH for a few seconds, and then
turn them off. Sometimes that gets them to stop, although they still
tend to go nuts of their own accord. I am getting to the point where
I want to call a serviceman out here to get the ^#*^# thing fixed. On
my stove, it's the left rear and middle rear (I have a 6-burner stove)
burners which go nuts when I'm using the front left burner, or any
combination of those three specific burners.
>So now I was cooking on the two back burners and things seemed to be
>going OK, until I attempted to adjust the flame on the back left buner
>and the KNOB CAME OFF IN MY HAND! I put the knob back on, but
>something's wrong with it. It's loose and lop-sided and won't stay on.
Although the knobs do come off for cleaning purposes, they shouldn't
be wobbly. Are you absolutely positive you put it back on straight?
There's a little spindle sort of thing that it slides on to.....if
that's not the answer, then I'm afraid I can't figure out what's
happened on that one.
If you or anyone else has further suggestions, then I would love to
hear them! I do not relish the idea of calling a serviceman and
paying that high price for what is undoubtedly a simple fix; however,
I do want to use all 6 burners of my expensive stove that I've waited
for 7 years to own.
Incidentally, this "clicking" problem didn't start until the stove was
already about 18 months old, so it had already been used a bit.
Joan
cma...@airmail.net
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8098/
Todd Matthews
Couldn't agree with you more!!
The Viking Stoves/Ovens at the culinary school I attended here in New York
City were a disaster!
The ovens consistently ran anywhere from 25 - 50 degrees hot or cold.
Also, the knobs would strip about once per month (with proper use). I
would never recommend a Viking oven to anyone.
Todd Matthews
crea...@panix.com
David Missert
Joan Mathew wrote:
>
> mer...@core.rose.hp.com (Meryem Primmer) wrote:
>
> ><snip>
> >It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I started baking in the
> >oven. I suspect that the temperature control is out of whack because
> >everything takes a LOT longer to bake than it should, e.g., a loaf of
> >beer bread took 1 hour 15 minutes (and was still not done enough) vs.
> >50 minutes in my old oven. Ditto on cakes. Even after turning up the
> >oven temperature an additional 25 degrees, things STILL take longer to
> >bake than they should. As a comparison, on Christmas day I baked a
> >loaf of beer bread in my Thermador electric oven; it baked in 55 minutes!
We have had our Viking about eight years. Cooks fine, but does EXACTLY
what you described. Oven is precisely 25 degrees too cold (measured by a
professional thermometer) so we simply mentally adjust and set it to 25
degrees higher than called for in the recipe. Also had sporadic
clicking from an igniter; had it replaced six years ago and it has
worked fine since. Good luck!
DM
Washington DC
Peggy Harden
Call Viking service at 1-800-467-2665. Ask for Wayne or Terry. They are
extremely helpful and patient with the homeowner wishing to diagnose a
problem. This happened to me with my oven taking forever to bake and my
infra-red broiler quitting altogether. The problem turned out to be a
failing flame igniter on my oven and a dead one on my broiler. From my
discussions with the servicemen, these igniters seem susceptible to
voltage spikes in the powerlines. They are fairly easy to replace yourself
and Viking will sell replacements for about forty bucks each. If you shop
locally, you can get a generic igniter for about twenty bucks. There
appears to be one manufacturer for these things, every other company
simply stamping their logos on. My oven has always been 15 degrees shy but
this was easy to compensate for. Unusually long cooking times are another
matter and probably the igniter. It works by heating an element red hot
which ignites the gas burner at the appropriate time in the temperature
cycle. The problem comes because the igniter's amperage draw is what opens
the gas valve itself. There is an optimum operating range for this
amperage and when it falls to a certain level, the valve opens only
partially. Hence the loooooooong cooking times. By the way, I did the work
myself because I was not prepared to pay 100 bucks an hour plus 70 bucks
to come to my house plus 80 bucks each for the igniters charged by my
Viking authorized service center for working on my out of warranty stove. If
your stove is still in warranty and cooking times are starting to seem too
long, now's the time to get those igniters looked at.
Joan Mathew (cma...@iadfw.net) wrote:
: mer...@core.rose.hp.com (Meryem Primmer) wrote:
: ><snip>
: >It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I started baking in the
: >oven. I suspect that the temperature control is out of whack because
: >everything takes a LOT longer to bake than it should, e.g., a loaf of
: >beer bread took 1 hour 15 minutes (and was still not done enough) vs.
: >50 minutes in my old oven. Ditto on cakes. Even after turning up the
: >oven temperature an additional 25 degrees, things STILL take longer to
: >bake than they should. As a comparison, on Christmas day I baked a
: >loaf of beer bread in my Thermador electric oven; it baked in 55 minutes!
: >I figure I could get an oven thermometer to check out the oven, but after
Joan Mathew
Since I posted a part of this thread describing my problems with my
2-1/2 year old Viking stove (a 6-burner model, with thermal/convection
oven), I thought I'd post a follow-up to say what has happened since
last week.
Because the "manic igniters" were driving me crazy and my husband and
I could not get them fixed (we've had this problem for about 6 months
off and on), I finally called a service man out to see it today.
Basically, he replaced the three "spark plugs" on the three burners
that were malfunctioning. Indeed, he tested it before the change and
did see the problem, and when he replaced the three pieces we verified
that the problem wasn't occurring again....at least not yet (keeping
fingers crossed).
While he was here he also tested my oven temperature. I had
previously checked it with my own oven thermometer and found it to be
about 25 degrees off; however, he found only a few degrees (probably
+5 at most) difference from accurate temperature and so did not adjust
it. Perhaps I measured it incorrectly before (this was 2 years ago)
or perhaps my thermometer was not working properly.
In any case, I am happy that he was able to fix the burner problem for
the moment, and hope it does not recur. The little "spark plugs" for
the burners cost about $5.15 each, so it was relatively inexpensive in
that regard. I also carefully watched how he adjusted the alignment
of the plugs (the tip has to be in front of the little gas slots in
the burner itself or sometimes it won't ignite) so I can do it myself
later if necessary.
Now we shall wait and see what happens......everybody, keep your
fingers crossed that the problem is resolved and I shall have a 100%
functional Viking again! I love how this stove cooks and bakes, but
hate having problems like this.
Joan
cma...@airmail.net
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8098/
Daneel Olivaw
I've recently purchased a 46" Montague "Grizzly" Range and expect it to
arrive within the next three weeks. I've been following this thread
about problems with the Viking and was wondering if anyone has had any
experience, good or bad with a Montague?
d.
Grant Price
In article <32c830c4...@news.airmail.net>, cma...@iadfw.net (Joan
Mathew) wrote:
Mine was deliverd with "cold" ovens, but adjusted fine
--
G. Price