High Maintenance But Gorgeous Food Organizer
Written: May 29 '07
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Pros: Attractive; well-thought out and highly customizable interior; pleasant to use on a daily basis.
Cons: Shallow, therefore not much interior space. Reliability issues. Installation must be done by professional carpenters.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend purchasing this unit, unless your budget does not allow for professional installers and carpenters and yearly maintenance.
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| chazyouwin's Full Review: Viking DFBB363 (20.9 cu. ft.) Bottom Freezer Refri... |
A few years ago, we redid our kitchen to include high end appliances. One of our choices was a "built-in" look refrigerator. My wife chose this Viking refrigerator-over-freezer over a competing and less expensive Sub Zero of roughly the same dimensions.
She chose this unit over the Sub Zero essentially because the interior of the refrigerator unit presented superior shelf customization options.
The unit allows for the installation of front paneling to match the surrounding cabinetry. It also allows (but requires) installation of custom handles (we chose high quality Baldwin brass handles).
Usage:
The refrigerator is a joy to use on a day to day basis. The refrigerator's interior has only one shelf which extends across the width of the door. Four interior shelves are half the width of the door in width, and can be adjusted up or down so that items of various heights and dimensions can be easily accommodated. The shelving units in the door are similar, with four split shelves, adjustable in height, and one full width shelf.
The unit contains two half-width produce bins and one convertible full-width convertible meat/produce bins. The moisture in each of the produce bins is controlled by a slider control. The full-width convertible bin has a control to allow a warmer or colder interior, should either be desired. The top of the full-width bin may be used as a full-width shelf, if that is desired, by moving the two half-width produce bins up a notch or two.
The door contains two half-width covered dairy bins, which may easily be adjusted up and down the door.
The shelving and storage units are easily removed for cleaning.
The freezer unit below contains a basket pull-out shelf over a large bin-like interior. An ice-making/holding unit takes up about an eight of the freezer space.
Unlike a typical Sub-Zero, the unit has only one compressor to service the freezer and refrigerator. The temperature controls for each are set by pressing buttons on a digital panel contained within the refrigeration unit.
The unit has an alarm feature. An alarm goes off if one of the doors to the unit is open beyond a certain time -- perhaps forty seconds or so.
On a day to day basis, by and large, the unit works quite well without unpleasant surprises. The unit keeps the foods in each section/unit in the chosen range.
We find the modest amount of interior space insufficient for our family needs however. Therefore, we keep a second refrigerator on the landing to our basement.
Installation:
The installation directions provided by Viking are excellent, but the installation of the unit must be performed carefully by well-trained and experienced installers. The instructions must be read and followed, especially in regard to the panel installation and the positioning of the unit in relation to the surrounding cabinetry.
Our workmen did not bother to read the directions. This resulted in several carpentry mistakes, the most egregious of which was that they did not leave sufficient clearance both for the sides and the depth of the unit (including the front wood paneling). This resulted in a necessary repositioning of the cabinets to the side of the unit to obtain the correct side spacing. The depth problem was never corrected, so the door panel sticks out about a quarter of an inch.
In addition, the unit was not originally braced correctly to prevent tipping, which resulted in the unit's falling upon my mother-in-law when she opened both unit doors simultaneously.
Finally, the drainage pan was not originally installed correctly, resulting in condensation and leakage issues under the unit.
Reliability issues:
The unit has been beset by a number of problems, all of which were fortunately covered by repair visits covered by warranty. First and foremost, the electronic control panel was defective and required replacing. The symptom of the failure was primarily a continuous beeping of the alarm. After a while, the beeping would stop, but the beeping would start again after several days.
Second, the top hinge to the refrigerator door came apart and required re-installation. When the hinge came out, it created an unsightly gash in the inner door liner plastic.
Third, the rubber gaskets which outlined the doors both developed gashes over time, and so were replaced.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 5600
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Epinions.com ID:
chazyouwin
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 in Cars & Motorsports |
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Location: Northern New Jersey
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 68 members
About Me:
If you would like a rerating, kindly e-mail me at my e-mail address.
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