Completely off topic - Kitchen Appliance Forums

My wife and I have renovated our kitchen five years ago, and have just finished a more major renovation on our second floor. I also recently completed photographing (my profession) a book on kitchens for a major publisher. I can give you a few additional pointers to Kennyt's good advice:

If you start to consider the kitchen jewelry category: avoid Viking (consumer reports will reflect this as well, for the same reason). Though our Viking stove works great, We've had it for five years and had a repair person our twice already (warranty, but not encouraging). My folks also have Viking and have had numerous repairs, and in my recent kitchen shoot (19 kitchens), I heard nothing but similar reports about Viking (and there were many). One woman had to return her huge Viking fridge, not once, but twice, for problems that could not be repaired. This is on a brand new $5k+ fridge!

One item I'd be delighted to recommend is a Bosch diswasher. Quiet as a churchmouse and does a great job. Not a single problem in five years. On the job recently completed, the majority of dishwashers were either Bosch or Fisher Paykel (two drawers), which most folks were delighted with as well. Both are expensive though.

Other than that, I'd agree, check CR for more moderate and sensible choices. epinions has real-world reviews on many appliances (take those with a healthy dose of salt, as you would anything on the Internet).

Marco

One of the posters specifically commented on the viking "consumer" models. Do these same issues hold true for the professional models like you would see in a restaurant?

I doubt you'll ever see an Viking "Professional" ranges in restaurants. Their "Professional" line was specifically designed to take the features and look of a restaurant range, and ad ammenities that make it more friendly to the home environment (most notably insulated walls and SS ignition and dual-fuel option). The Viking appliances I was referring to ARE from the "Professional" line. I'm not sure what the "Consumer" line is - could be the "Designer" series they put out, which are mostly cooktops. The basis for Viking is that it is marketing its products to consumers and not to restaraunts. When they work, they do work superbly in my experience, but the repair rate is really poor. If I were buying a stove again I'd look to another company like Thermador or Wolf (the latter which you definitely would see in restaurants - though they do make various grades of ranges). As I understand it most restaurant ranges are built without insulation in the walls, as stand-alones that are not meant to be installed with a cabinet around them. The guy who started Viking was supposedly inspired by his wife's request for a restaurant-grade range that she could install in their home kitchen. The entire product line was designed with the home-consumer in mind and was the beginning of this trend of adding insulation to the walls of restaurant ranges to make them safe for home installation. BTW if you do get a range like one of these don't even think about skimping on the hood or you will be very sorry. Get a hood with a blower motor that is a bit beyond the capacity for the total BTU output of your range. I think you also need to take the size of the room into consideration as well.

Quiet fridges are more the norm these days, rather than the exception. The GE Monogram stuff I've seen seems to be pretty quiet, as are Sub-Zero if you want to spend that kind of money.

Marco

PS - If you are considering the restaurant grade ranges you will want to check that the size of the pipe that is your gas feed is adequate. The feed necessary for the average consumer range is relatively small. When you get 4-8 burners putting out 10,000+ BTU's you will likely require a larger diameter line, especially for the bigger ranges. Also, if you bake, consider the dual-fuel offerings with the electric oven and gas cooktop.

Marco