Hi. First post. About three years ago, I redid the kitchen. Got a Viking. I had two reasons, after having done a lot of research. First, I liked the fact that all six Viking burners can do a low simmer. The other brands I looked at mostly had one burner that could do the low simmer, and the rest just a conventional low. Second, the wife was pretty insistent on "no stainless". At that time, Viking was the only widely available pro-style range that offered enamel colors. So Viking it was. Well, I have never been entirely happy. The simmer is indeed on all the burners, but it is far from easy to maintain. The setting is BEFORE high, and keeping it at a low simmer and ON is very difficult. And, in the end, I find that I don't really need six simmers. I also opted for sealed burners, which I think was a major mistake. But these are not my real complaints. I am unhappy with the oven. For one thing, it smokes like a coal plant. Roast or broil anything, and you need a gas mask to open the door. Is that normal? My mother got a Viking after me (48" in her case, whereas mine is 36") and her oven does not do that. Is it possible mine was improperly installed? I have a decent hood over the burners, but so far as I know the oven is not itself vented. Should it be? My oven also needs to be cleaned every two months or so. Mom's has not been cleaned in a year, and still looks almost new. What gives? The oven temperature is also impossible to judge. The dial is so squirrely -- the play is easily 75 degrees, maybe more -- that I have no idea what setting it is at. The Viking people say, "Turn all the way past, then come back, and that is the right temp." Well, if that is true, the dial is still a joke. For instance, when on broil, you can turn all the way past until the light clicks off, but to get it to come back on, you go back well beyond broil. The light really does not come on until about 475. Does that mean that all the temps up to 550 and "Broil" itself simply don't exist for this oven? As a final note I will say that the iron grates are essentially impossible to clean. Once a drop of grease hits them, it becomes for all intents and purposes part of the geological record. Maybe someday another civilization will burn it as a fossil fuel! Is there anything I can do about any of this? Thanks for reading. Look forward to any help and/or commiseration.
