OT: A Word About Viking Stoves - THEY STINK!

There's the famous KISS rule - keep it simple stupid. I should have observed that rule when I chose the appliances for my kitchen. The Viking Convection Oven and Stove has been especially bad requiring a number of repairs over the last 7 years. Viking simply stinks from my experiences.

The worst was New Year's Eve a few years ago when something melted inside the stove's electrical guts and not only cut short the cooking of the hor'dourves but also destroyed the fuse in the fuse box in the basement and electrical outlet in the kitchen (thank goodness the Toast-R-Over was available as an understudy). Most recently the electric fired ignition burned out for the oven, so no oven until the repairman gets here (there is no pilot light on these Viking ovens). Through the years, the cooktop burner ignitions have failed - nothing like lighting your expensive stove with matches. There was also another time when I used the broiler, which is electric, and it ended up again broiling the electrical guts of the stove.

Oven temp has been another issue with Viking. The recipe says 425 degres for something? We've learned through trial and error (burning a lot of stuff) that setting the stove to about 325 works for 425 degree recipes.

Keep it Simple with GE Profile or some other consumer name, or really go commercial if you're into cooking. Vikings are made to look professional, but are not at least from my experience.

The best stove and oven that I ever owned was in our last house; it was Cub brand commercial stove which we bought from my wife's uncle who owned a commercial appliance supply warehouse. I don't know if they still make Cub, but you could open the oven door and stand on it, and it wouldn't tip the unit or break the door. Now, why you would want to stand on your oven door is beyond me, but my wife's uncle demonstrated that to us to show us that it was well made. The commercial units are also less expensive because they don't have the consumer bells and whistles. It had so much cooking power that with all 8 burners going, it used more BTUs than the furnace.

One caution, is that a heavy duty commercial stove needs to be well ventilated, or your carbon mono detector will go off when all the burners on the stove are used. You also need to check to make sure you're in compliance with local code.

I'm sure if I stood on the door of the Viking unit that I now have, the door would immediately break off.