I completely agree with Heather Rosales. I too purchased a Viking built-in all-refrigerator in 2010 against my better judgment. My first problem was that I took delivery of a unit with a bent compressor, so I had to fight to get a replacement unit. In retrospect, I suspect that they replaced it with a refurbished unit because since then I have had ongoing issues. Almost all of my friends make jokes about my fridge issues because they have been following the saga. I had one or two warranty visits to address temperature issues during the coverage period. The warranty was also a problem because I purchased the unit almost a year prior to it being installed due to a renovation that needed custom cabinets that went on way too long. So, I lost a year of warranty time. Since then I have spent over $1600 in service fees (with an authorized service company to try to get it not to deep freeze all my food. I was given multiple reasons for why it was not working properly all of them completely hypothetical while each theory costing me money. The most recent episode involves the same authorized dealer deciding it needed a new door seal/gasket which took almost 3 weeks to deliver due to it being supposedly back ordered @ $700 cost. I am not sure if the seal was or was not the issue because the seal doesn't keep the door closed at all! There is absolutely no suction whatsoever in the door. In fact, the door looks open all the time now. Now they installed some type of temperature measurement device to monitor the temperature for the next 3 days. This experiment seems futile to me if the door doesn't close properly. It would be like trying to test air conditioning with all the windows and doors open. I am going on 26 days without a functioning refrigerator this time around. The other thing to be aware of it the quality of the crispers. They break very easily and the cost to replace them makes it impossible to replace. Of the 5 crispers, 4 are broken. I was quoted $700+ to replace 2 of them. Even the service company doesn't recommend replacing them due to the cost. I have had two other homes where I inherited Sub-zeros and I NEVER had one issue with those units. One of them was ancient but it was a beast; never failing me. I called Viking Range LLC and they don't seem to be interested in assisting. They have a customer care team that provides the token empathic statements but they don't seem willing to do more. In Canada, I noticed that even the authorized distributors listed on the Viking site don't actually carry Viking products despite being listed as Canadian distributors. This is a very telling sign! I would be happy to just trash this unit and caulk it up to a super bad consumer purchase but not only would I have to spend money to replace the unit, it will also require a new custom panel and custom trim work. STAY AWAY FROM VIKING!

The problem with explaining how refrigerators and freezers work is that an even barely sufficient explanation requires knowledge of rudimentary thermodynamics. An insufficient explanation might go like this: Electricity drives a motor that pumps a fluid through the refrigeration plumbing. This fluid, which typically is a gas at room temperature and pressure, has the property that when compressed it gets hot, and when expanded, it gets cold. (This is true of all gases per the Ideal Gas Law.) If the cold gas (now a liquid) is put into contact with a warm surface and allowed to expand to its gaseous form, it absorbs a lot of heat from the surface. When this gas is further pumped and compressed, and then subjected to a surface cooler than it is, it gives up its heat and condenses back to a liquid that is warmer than the exterior ambient. However, when later in the loop expended back to a gas, it gets colder than the interior air and can thus cool it. The expansion part occurs in an expander, and the condensation part occurs in a condenser. The condenser in your refrigerator, like the condenser in your car air conditioning, is a radiator that moves heat to the air. The expander in your refrigerator, like the expander in your car air conditioning (usually buried in ducting and less easy to see) is a radiator operating in reverse by absorbing heat from the air passing through it. The efficiency of this heat transfer loop is mainly determined by three processes: the efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle being used by the system, the motor electrical to work efficiency, and losses from friction moving the gas around. The thermodynamic process prohibits attempts to get something from nothing, or even break even (no perpetual motion machines; no free work). In principle, two separate systems, one for the refrigerator and one for the freezer can be sized and optimized for each such that the total power used in some standard environment is not greater than that used from a freezer only single system that controls the rate of cold air moved to a refrigerator. It could with careful tuning be more efficient. Analyzing such systems is fairly complex and specialized, and designing and building prototype optimal ones (for aerospace applications say) can cost millions of dollars. For residential units, some standardization is expected in selection of compressors, condensers, and expanders such that the last erg of energy savings is not going to be met. One expects for residential units that the efficiency will be as noted on the sticker for some environment, and the buyer has to determine whether differences in electricity cost, differences in purchase cost, and differences in other features make the purchase worthwhile. kas

Thank you all again for your kind comments. It has always been function over form, but I have been very pleased with how things are looking as well. I wondered how overpowering the cabinets would be going all the way up to the 9' ceilings, but I really like the look now. My mother was very adamant about not having a "dust catcher" space or paying extra for a large crown. We were quite impressed with the cost of everything including stain and install. This quote has the bathrooms also included, but everything was still under $13K. (We nixed the light box, so you can take almost $800 off this quote.) I know it's not a fancy design or paint/stain treatment, but they are nice, substantial cabinets that will last. Actually, had they not pissed my mother off about the island countertop, she would have used them for other projects in the house instead of having the contractor build them. But, she holds grudges... And, since it is her money, she can choose who she wants to give it to. :) I thought I might post some pictures of the pantry, but I wasn't very good at taking them. I just couldn't get far enough back to get a good angle. As you can see in the full house layout, the pantry is around the corner. It has a section of shelving that is about 8" deep where she is supposed to keep 2-3 of commonly used cans in one row so you can quickly see your supply. Then on the sides are shelves that are around 18" wide, and they are 24" wide on the back wall. Another full size refrigerator and chest freezer will go in here. The spaces left for the fridge and freezer are larger than the actual units she will be using, but we did not want to be limited too much by size when those needed replacing. Here is the basic layout. We used a double set of pocket doors here because we wanted at least a 4' opening. I see the doors staying open most of the time, but it will be nice to be able to shut them if company is coming. We didn't want to sacrifice hall space to doors that would stay open most of the time. My mother wanted the contractor to stain these shelves instead of painting them as she thought it would hold up better to sliding canned goods. Here is the small shelf that will hold 2-3 of each type of canned good and the 18" shelf on the side. They needed to go above the height of the door to get a good place to anchor the shelves since it is hollow where the pocket door slides in. The shelving wraps on around to 2' wide before leaving a spot for a fridge. Similar layout on the other side with shelves above the freezer area. And, a bit off topic, but here is my mother's shoe closet in one of the spare bedrooms. We had a shallow closet due to the 2nd HVAC system so the contractor put her in some shelves to try to take full advantage of the leftover space. There is a regular sized closet next to it. The doors were kept at one end to allow a small table/chest to go in between the closets. And, if you want to see any other pictures, I have been taking pictures at almost each step and keeping them in an album. Construction Album

I got a Whirlpool 33 inch wide bottom load freezer /fridge at my new build about 2 months ago. My GC plugged it in immediately, since it was horrendously hot and he wanted to keep some cool water available (and his diabetes meds safely chilled). I was up there earlier today and the item has now been moved to its permanent location. It has been running for two months, and yes, I said, go run it.... even though it is not remotely containing enough items (and nothing at all in the freezer compartment) -- when I was there today it was so silent I had to open both doors to see that it was actually chilling and freezing in the respective compartments. I was at my build for about 2 hours and when it kicked "on" -- no apparent sounds! (Oh, yes, now that it is properly situated, I'm bringing up a bunch of frozen goods next visit so it can do its thing energy-efficiently -- and so I can defrost and shut down my stand-alone freezer I have back here at my original home... )