Customer Reviews

Viking VDSC5304BSS 30 Professional Series Dual Fuel Range

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

 

 

We're architects and routinely specify appliances for new and remodelled kitchens. Among the worst mistakes we've made was to specify an all Viking kitchen - refrigerators, range, dishwasher, and compactor. Every one of these appliances has failed! Our client has now been without a refrigerator for a month, because Viking was out of stock of a part! The dishwasher had to be replaced. The range has required hundreds of dollars of repairs, and still doesn't work properly. Our advice? Avoid all Viking products!

I have a Viking 48 inch gas range withthe old style open burners and gas fired ovens.

The ignition system on the burners went out, as it has for many, many Viking Range owners. The service tech replaced the spark module not once, but twice, with defective-from-the-factory units. Unfortunately there was a long wait between each attempt. I eventually found an alternate replacement part number from a discussion board and used that part to fix the problem. Viking never did solve the problem for me, I had to do it myself.

Meanwhile the burners in the ovens were having issues with ignitors. The oven burner would also regularly mis-light, igniting the gas in the venturi section of the burner instead of at the burner itself. That was always a bit scary!

The large round gas stove top burners make it impossible to simmer and just as impossible to use small diameter pots or pans. The physical placement of the flame is in a large diameter ring, which works fine for big saute pans and stock pots, but don't try to melt a little butter in a small pot, or heat up a cup of water in a 1 quart sauce pan! The flame super-heats the outside of the pot while leaving the middle relatively cold! The large size of the burners means that there is far too much heat to simmer even when the flame is carefully turned down to its lowest possible point. There is simply too much flame there!

I see that Viking now calls their griddle a "Simmer plate." Unbelievable that you could spend $6k or more on a "professional" stove that requires you to use a griddle to simmer!

Service stinks, reliability is lousy, and even when the thing is working at optimum performance it still is a disapointment. Buy something else!

In this Viking stove, the gas range igniters are, take a deep breath here, Controlled by a Board Computer!

In my just 2 years old condo building, this part broke for me and 4 other apartment owners, and we had to have it replaced, $475 before tax.

One last thing, there are no child safety features in this stove.

Very disappointed. Will not allow the fan to turn off
when the oven is running. Also, excessive wear of the cast
iron grating supporting the pots on the stove. When the paint
wears off, customer support blames the customer ("you did not
season it", they say).

A bad design. Better to buy a Bertazone and save the $2k!

After 6 months, the oven element burned out (right before a dinner party).

Trouble is, viking has no extended warranty. They say the dealers supply
the extended warranty.

I asked viking to recommend dealers that would sell me an extended warranty, but
they have no list of dealers that supply an extended warranty. I asked
my dealer if they had an extended warranty and they said no.

I have had cars that were more reliable and cheaper to fix.

What a bummer!

I have this stove for a few years and it cost so much money for repairs, every thing goes wrong with it, the door need a new hinge $500, ignitor go bad $200 to $400 and now the broiler box is dirty and need a new one $500, I have a $300 stove that worked for so many years, I hate this thing I avoid any Viking products they are no good.

I installed a Viking range, dishwasher, and outdoor gas grill 10 years ago. They look great but the quality from my experience is TERRIBLE. I had to replace the dishwasher as repair cost was too high. The gas grill needs to be replaced as I cannot get parts to replace the bad burners, and the gas range has the following service record:

Jan 2001 - 30" Viking gas range was installed in my new kitchen
Jan 2005 - Replaced stove top burner igniters. Insulation was wrapped around convection fan and had to be removed. Repair cost $390.
Jan 2009 - Replaced oven igniters. Repair cost $310
Nov 2010 - Both oven hinges had to be replaced. Repair cost $170
Nov 2010 - Only one gas burner in oven will light. Other burner is burned out.
Dec 2010 - Have waited a month for a new burner to come in. Hope to be repaired in time for Christmas dinner.
Dec 16 2010 - Replaced two oven burners and two oven igniters. Repair cost $342.

Total repairs to date $1,212

Note: Just cooking for the two of us.

I have a Viking cooktop and wall ovens, which were installed in Dec. 2007. Luckily we haven't (yet) had problems with the actual cooking functions. However, the black paint identifying the burners on the cooktop has worn off. Luckily, a white "ghost image" remains. Unfortunately, the letters on my oven, identifying knobs and temperature readings, have almost completely worn off in places. The steam appears to make it worse. the 400 has disappeared from each knob. It is easy to scrape it off with minimal effort. And once it's gone, it's gone! No "ghost image"- nothing. We bought these appliances because they were supposed to be so great. What a ripoff! Buyer beware!

Seeing the previous reviews I felt compelled to comment. I previously owned a Dacor range and the commercial 15,000 btu burners are very large flames which heat up the outside of the pot creating hot handles and slow boil times. Viking is a phenomenal improvement. when this flame runs it curls around the burner putting heat more toward the center of the pot than any other burner on the market. I completely disagree with the comment on simmering. On my Dacor I had to use an accessory simmer plate and on this range I can do a true simmer on all burners. I frequently melt chocolate and it is fantastic. I feel they are disgruntled by a very common service issue of ignitors but the cooking performance is great. Highly recommended.

Purchased the full gas version of this monster 10 years ago. I've learned to live with the excessive top burner igniter clicking errors others have reported and keep the range in super clean condition. I've also put up with the crummy thin decals along the entire control panel slowing disappearing as I know the controls pretty well. What I can't tolerate is the thin, cheap, and inadequately engineered parts Viking stuffs into its pretty "so called PROFESSIONAL" ranges. Of course the right oven burner had to start popping, spitting, and failing Thanksgiving Day!!! This oven is used in a 2 person home maybe 2x a week at most so it's not abused nor mistreated. I've been able to order replacement igniters from Amazon (thanks folks for having these in stock at a reasonable price). But now I'm told by several Viking parts suppliers that the replacement burner units are on a "national back-order" for 3-4 weeks!!!! No traditional Christmas dinner for this household. I tried Viking customer service (never use those words in the same sentence with Viking corporation!!) They dropped the call, could not connect me with the parts department, and were just plain useless. Now I'm stuck with a worthless oven till possibly Jan 2012! So why did the burners fail?? From what I can gather from repair and service sites, the burner tubes Viking sources are very thin metal that reacts with the moisture that is in all natural gas lines/fuel thereby sometimes fusing the igniter unit to the tube and causing a pencil thickness hole where the igniter sits. The spitting/popping noise was extra gas pouring out of this developed large hole up onto the igniter... NICE VIKING!!! Real safe oven here!!!

I would love to know if any class action suits have been filed for these and the other products that they have dumped on the consumer marketplace to recoup the extra parts and service costs they've caused through poor quality and potentially dangerous product sold to its customers. And I'm not the only one, check out the latest issue of Consumer Reports for the notice on Viking products catching on fire!!

This product should have lasted many many years longer for the cost of ownership. Good luck!

Viking appliances look great!!!! But that is where it stops!!!!!
I agree with the architects above! I am a designer and recently selected all Viking appliances for a very large house. All the appliances have been a mistake. They all have had some kind of issue and the repairmen have been completely incapable of making any difference. I will never specify Viking appliances again!