Customer Reviews

Viking Professional 5 -quart Stand Mixer, Bright Red

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love this mixer!! I began researching the countertop mixers after reading the poor reviews on the KitchenAid. This mixer works wonderfully! I use spouted whole grain flour to make everything from cookies to bread; it is a very heavy and dense flour to work with, but no problem for this mixer at all. I even made sprouted whole grain oatmeal raisin chip cookies and it mixed all the ingreidents very quickly and perfectly. This receipe used to bog down my old hand mixer and I would end up mixing by hand...forever. This is a wonderful machine and I am so glad I bought it. FYI, it is heavy, but has wheels in the base that allow you to roll it accross the counter.

In my serach for a mixer that would make homemade marshmallows, I narrowed it down between the Viking and the Kitchen Aid. The Viking mixer was fairly new at the time but the reviews were great. The long standing Kitchen reviews had gone from good to terrible. From what I read, Kitchen Aid replaced some of its metal machine/motor parts with plastic parts and the mixers were breaking inside. For the same price the Viking is built better and is industrial strength. I can make multiple batches of marshmallows back-to-back without any strain on my Viking mixer's motor. It actually makes the marshmallows in half the time as my mom's Kitchen Aid, which is half the time the recipe calls for. I am very pleased with my purchase and would tell all my friends and family to get a Viking if they were looking to purchase a mixer. I am even looking to purchase their brand in other kitchen appliances. As a baker, you cannot go wrong with this one!

We purchased our first Viking 5 QT stand mixer a couple of years ago. Right out of the box, the mixer made a metal on metal grating sound when it was used and emitted a heavy ozone odor. We returned it to the retailer for replacement.

The replacement Viking mixer worked fine for the first year, in which it was only used for cake batters and fruit sauces. However, the first time we attempted to make a single loaf of whole wheat bread, which is well below the stated capacity of the mixer, the machine started making the same metal on metal grating sound and emitting the same heavy ozone odor, and then failed completely.

Viking seems to be one of those rare companies that simply doesn't want to hear from its end users. We tried to call their headquarters to discuss this problem with a design engineer, and the number doesn't even go through--the call is automatically forwarded to a third party repair operation in Detroit. After a lot of effort, we eventually got through to Viking itself. No one was available to speak to us about any product specifics at all. The same was true when we called the repair vendor in Detroit. Also, the cost of repairing this mixer when either the motor or the gearbox fails is almost the same cost as replacing the mixer.

We have a Viking range and the design, material and build quality are all outstanding. But Viking's countertop mixers are, in our experience, overpriced junk that simply aren't capable of handling the workload of breadmaking, even when only using 2-3 cups of flour.

Further, Viking mixers used to be made in Italy, and are now being made in China--the manufacturing cost surely dropped, but the retail price remains as high as ever. Which I suppose is a credible data point that Viking cares only about profit, and no longer about product quality or customer service.

All in all, we would never buy another Viking product, given our poor experience with this mixer, and with Viking's extraordinarily bad customer service.

For bread making, the Electrolux Assistant mixer from Sweden seems to be everything that we had hoped the Viking Mixer would be. It can handle large capacity, it has a reputation for reliability, and its manufacturers stand behind it.

I'm a guy used to good shop tools, and I bought this primarily to assist in making bread. I'm spoiled from my shop tools, and I roll my eyes and wince at the electric smell of an underpowered kitchen appliance. I concluded correctly that for a stand mixer, Viking was my only choice.

I researched Viking, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, and a few other brands. The stainless steel attachments can go in the dishwasher. There are no hidden plastic parts to fail. (Read all the reviews on competing products very carefully....) This mixer really, really isn't that heavy. (Try moving a drill press.) The 800 watts can handle bread dough without blinking. The design is simplicity itself, a tool one can be so proud of, one ends up playing with it every night. (Bread is like that.)

Go read half a dozen current bread books. They're rife with this concern that home stand mixers (cough! KitchenAid. cough!) can't handle bread without time outs. So why doesn't everyone buy a Viking? It costs $100 more, and there isn't an ice cream attachment. Priorities, priorities, I wouldn't spend a $100 less on something than can't do the job, I'd work by hand.

Viking VSM500 Professional Stand Mixer is a perfect example of superior quality and workmanship all too uncommon in today's market. Elegant in appearance, great attention has been given to every detail and design funtions second to none. Heart of this brute is 800 watts of pure power that will mix anything you desire, from thick cake or cookie batter to the toughest bread dough without ever thinking about bogging, while the wide range of speeds and attachments makes it delicate enough for even the most sensitive meringues. Rock solid with a precision locking pop-up head that is so convenient when accessing or removing the beautifully crafted stainless steel bowl with handle. Can't help but wonder why other brands haven't followed Viking's sensible example. The unit comes with beater, whip and dough hook, all three feature the same quality construction exhibited elsewhere in the mixer. Attachments are easy to attach and remove, and flawlessly built from heavy duty stainless steel so you'll never worry about corrosion or flaking and peeling like the competitors. Purchased to replace an Osterizer that served faithfully for the last twenty years, couldn't be more pleased with this great appliance. While it is more expensive than Oster or KitchenAid, in a side-by-side comparison the Viking wins hands down. Thankfully this reputable company continues to prove some things built in the USA are still the best!

We've owned this from Amazon.com for about 4 years now, and I stubbled onto the mixer again when i was window shopping online. This is a great mixer. Built for long term life time usage. We have shredded meat with it, made cakes, breads, cookies, and many other foods. It's built like a tank. At the time we bought this, Kitchenaide was using plastic gears in there mixer, and problems occurred.

Glad we got this mixer.

I bought this mixer about a year ago, lured by all the wonderful reviews and specs of the machine. The first 2 months it worked beautifully, I was super impressed because it mixed smoothly and quietly in little time compared to other mixers, and everything went right into the washer. After that period, the machine started sounding funny, it was still working so I thought maybe it was there all along and I didn't notice. Fast forward to 10 mos after purchase and the machine died, just turned off and that was that. I sent it to repair under warranty and it takes about a month to fix because the repair shop is in Detroit. I had a KitchenAid, never had a problem, I was stupid to sell it because I wanted a bigger capacity machine...I DO NOT RECOMMEND this mixer! I bought an extra warranty for it, but didn't use it since it was still under factory warranty, but given how long it takes to get a repair from Viking that was a mistake too.

Our 5-qt Viking mixer(VSM 500)is a little over 3 years old. My husband uses it only to mix bread dough..maybe 3 times per month. The retaining pin on the back of the motor housing/pedestal/tilt-back head loosened and the retaining clip fell out, making the mixer unusable without damaging the mixer. In order to repair the unit, I must ship it to Detroit (I live in Massachusetts). This should not happen on a $400.00 appliance.

This mixer is built like a tank. The 20 speeds available gives excellent control. I've been making batches of heavy cookie dough and the mixer runs through it without any trouble. I love it.

I use this mixer daily. It is all metal which is a good thing in these days of plastic. I have the 5 qt model. It's motor is strong enough to mix and knead whole wheat bread with no effort and the results are perfect every time. The accessories it has all work really well. The only negative is that it doesn't have as many accessories as the kitchen aid.