Thoughts on a used Viking vs a new Thor Kitchen?
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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- 8 years ago
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Viking vs Wolf Grill - Test Kitchen comparison outcome - long
Comments (6)That is a wonderful write-up. Thanks for taking the time to write it. We have a Viking cooktop and your observatoins match ours in using it for 7+ years. Alas, we don't have a grill so nothing to add here. We do have a portable infra-red grill we bought for our boat. And our experience matches yours. It is great for stakes but everything else will get torched from below, but no heat from above. They should call this steak grills and be done with it. BTW, we don't have the boat and never use it. FYI, we have a cermaic cooker now which we use for slow smoking (e.g. 12-18 hours). I have used it rain and shine including in snow. It will use only one single bag of charcoal for 24 hours. It has an automated controller for temps and I am able to manage it from the PC inside our house (through a program I have written). It is able to maintain its temp within 2% or even better! Not saying you should go that way but it is worth considering what you can do with an outside unit for at least slower cooks. You only have to put up with the weather when you load and unload it. And of course, it will create a BBQ which rivals or betters more restaurants. Again, much appreciate the feedback....See MoreMiele vs. Gaggeneau vs. Thermador vs. Viking steam ovens
Comments (1)I'm with the same issue right now.. which combi-oven did you get and why? I've heard Thermador has a good combo, although Gaggenau has tempted me with their beauty ovens too.. plz tell me your experience with your decision....See MoreInduction - pan size vs. surface size (& new Viking 36" Induction)
Comments (7)I do not have this unit and am not recalling seeing much about this 36" Viking model here in the last couple of years since this thread was active. You might have better luck attracting responses from current owners and users here if you started a thread of your own and put the model number in your thread title. As for using your large LC pans, I'm not sure I know what you are asking. Have you used induction before? If not, maybe you are not quite understanding how to ask the questions. Let me take a stab at what you might be asking. * Are you asking if the full size Viking induction cooktops like this one have the same problem recognizing LC pans that that the old Viking single-burner portable induction cooktop units (PICs) once had back in the previous decade? The answer to that is that the full size cooktops and the Viking induction ranges have never had that problem. The problem was limited to those old and long discontinued PIC models. * Or, are you asking if there will be a problem operating a burner with a pan larger than a particular induction hob space. Say, your LC pans have 12" diameter bases overtop the 9" square hob spaces of the Viking cooktop? The answer is that your LC pans will all work, but may intrude sufficiently into the adjoining hob spaces that the LC pans don't leave enough space for pans on the other three burners. For example, maybe you want to use a couple of 12" LC frypans --- one on the front right hob and another on the left front hob --- and then want to plant a large LC dutch oven on the middle hob in the back. So, how big are the pans you want to use at the same time on the other three burners? For that matter, how often do you figure you will be using all six burners at the same time and need to be running two or three 12" diameter (or larger) LC pans? Frankly, the best thing to do to find out how the cooktop will or will not work is to take your array of pans to a dealer and see if and how they all fit. If you can't find a showroom example, try using the dimensions shown on the installation instructions to draw a full scale layout with a sharpie or magic marker on a piece of newspaper. * Or, are you asking if a nine-inch square induction hob will evenly heat the entire base of a large LC pot or pan with, say, a 12" diameter (or larger) base. The answer is that you will have the same behavior with LC pans that you will have with any cast iron pan on any burner (gas, electric, or induction). IOW, no problem with braises, soups and stews, where you have liquid to even out the heat, but you will need lengthy pre-heating to get an even spread of heat across any cast-iron base when you want perfectly uniform heating as for searing or browning out to the edges of the base. This is a property of all cast iron, not just LC. If the VIking cooktop had some burners with larger diameter induction fields (large enough to encompass the entire base of your big LC pans) the cast iron would still heat unevenly. Preheating to evenness might take a bit less time with the larger burner, but it still will take quite a while. That's just the nature of cast iron cookware. FWIW, Cook's Illustrated has been recommending that you put cast iron pans in a hot oven for a half hour or longer to preheat CI skillets for stovetop searing like cooking steaks. Then you run the stovetop at lesser heat which is sufficient to maintian the searing temps for the cooking session. Again, the preheating and unevenness will be no big deal for tasks like braising, boiling water, deep fat frying, stocks, soups and stews with a lot of liquid. Probably not a problem, either, for making a very long simmered tomatoey ragu or long-cooking of beans. But where you will need workarounds will be for stir fries or browning where you need every square inch of base surface to be perfectly evenly heated for the meat or bacon or veggies or whatever that you want to brown. Again, you would need the same workarounds with any stove where the burners are not sized for large pans, whether gas or regular electric burners as well as induction....See More36" Thor vs NXR-PRO 36" or other???? $3k budget
Comments (33)"Cheap Chinese . . . crapola ....." Okay, that is the wrong knock. The "crapola" debate was hashed out here --- and resolved against that opinion --- in threads here five years ago. The knock on the Hyxxion-made stoves (Thor and NXR) is not their old fashioned simplicity nor is it "crapola" build quality Unless the definition of crapola is minimal electronics and manual clean ovens. :>) The knock is poor post-sale service and support for those who are not enthusiastic and self-sufficient DIYers. One might ask, "if these are such simple stoves, why worry about service?" Well, I have not had to "continually fix things" but you do need to consider that the Hyxxion-made stoves (Thor, NXR and Kucht) are a decades old design. Think Wolf sealed-burner stoves from back in the 1980s, long before SubZero bought the residential product line from the old Wolf company and back when the old company first started making a residential product. Or maybe think old-fashioned Jeep 4wd vehicles. Those kinds of products need periodic maintenance. For example, every so often, an old-style Jeep requires replacement points and spark plugs, lubrication of bearings and such. So also, at some point, your NXR or Thor will (just like the decades old Wolf models) will need to have burners cleaned out, will need somebody to remove gunk build-up on jets, and eventually will need some stovetop or oven ignitors replaced. These can be easy tasks for confident and capable DIYers. See the thread ["if-susan-fixed-her-nxr-oven-ignitor-u-can-2"[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/if-susan-fixed-her-nxr-oven-ignitor-u-can-2-dsvw-vd~2288437?n=32) for an example. But many people are not enthusiastic, confident appliance DIYers. Even if you are, you might not have the time for it. If so, you will need a servicer. At least with an old-style Jeep, you can pretty readily find somebody to work on it for you. Might not be true for appliances if you've chosen a brand with a small market share. Best to check before buying. By "check," I mean you should do more than have Home Depot tell you that it can give you list of servicers if and when your Thor or NXR might need service. Call the servicers on the list. Find out who will actually work in your area and work on that brand. Servicers are getting old and retiring. More and more small service companies are no longer doing warranty work. Heck, when I needed minor warranty work on my new dishwasher -- somebody to replace a leaky $8 hose fitting --- I was given lists of servicers from Lowe's (where I bought it) and Bosch (who made it). Turned out that nobody on either list covered my town. And that was for a major brand appliance! The DIY consideration is for every brand with a small market share. Even Blue Star. Depending on where your home is located, you could have difficulty finding anybody to service any residential appliance from a company with a small market share. If you are not a DIYer, best sort that out before making a decision on what to buy. Also, in every manufacturer's product line, some lemons will get past quality control. Best to think about how you might deal with that if your stove turns out to be a defective one. Me, I bought my NXR from Costco.com going on seven years ago. I bought there because of Costco's policy of absolute full-customer-satisfaction and-full-refund-even-if turns-out that- you-just-don't-like-the product-after-using-it-for-a-while. Now, I also have a truck, a hoist, and burly friends to help load the stove to take to the local Costco, so I could easily have hauled my stove in for a refund or replacement if my NXR had been defective when it arrived. I would not have had to put up with drawn out delays for warranty fixes and eventual return. So, have you figured out what you would do if your new stove turned out to be defective after you receive it? It is true that you could wind up with that situation if you were to buy a Bosch or one of the $1000 major brand gas ranges you mentioned as your preferred alternative. But, those are smaller than and only weigh half as much as that 36" wide $1800 NXR "entree" from Home Depot, or the $2k DRGB floor model. You might be able to haul one of those alternative 30" model ranges back to HD on your own. Could you do that with the big NXR? For that matter, does your local Home Depot even stock the NXRs and Thors or would it be a special order? (My local Home Depot says that they are special order only. Your local HD might be different.) If special ordered, do you know if you could return it to the a local store and whether there would be restocking charges on this brand? What if you buy that older floor model NXR for $2k? (Is that a DRGB 3600 model? FWIW, a DRGB is the model NXR that I have.) Then there still are the 36" width and weight to deal with. To the questions others raised above, I would add the following. Is the stove going into a new build or an existing home? If an existing home, how will it be delivered? Whether you buy the $2k floor model DRGB version of the NXR from the dealer or the $1800 "Entree" NXR from HD, will it be installed for you or just delivered to your curb? How does it get into (or out) of your home? How hard would it be to move in a 36" wide stove? And that leads me to ask what is the attraction of the 36" size of range for you? Is it maybe style such as hoping for a higher-end look for real estate values? Or is it instead that maybe that you are thinking about stovetop cooking space and extra burners? Have you checked to see how your pots and pans will fit, as somebody above suggested? If so, I'd ask how often you think you will need the extra space or extra burners? If not frequently (like every week), I'd suggest considering alternatives for those functions for which extra burners might be needed. For example, I would look at at a large electric griddle which can be stashed when not using it. Say, a Broil-King for those times when you need to produce mass quantities of pancakes. Also, for pots, maybe consider a portable induction cooktop or two which you can pull out when you all need more than four burners at a time. (FWIW, the burners on the 30" NXR and Thor stoves are more widely spaced than on standard major brand ranges.) Do you regularly need to use full size sheet pans (18" x 26") so that the 30" width of the oven would be useful to your family?...See MoreRelated Professionals
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