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
