From what I heard, the original residential TurboChef ovens, while good products, sold very poorly. This was largely due to the price, but also the "TurboChef" name was unknown to consumers. Their new parent company Middleby is hoping that they will do better this time branded Viking, a name that many people recognize.

i guess that's the end of a good product. our kids are in middle school now, but it won't be long before we downsize. we can always take the turbochef with us. ;-)

What do you mean the end? The new Viking branded version should be coming out very soon.

If you have any experience with Viking -- past or present -- you will understand what she means. Middleby couldn't figure out a part to order for a repair when I called them.

The fact that it says Viking on it is just marketing nonsense - I believe this is going to be manufactured by the Turbochef division, so not really a true Viking product. You make a good point about Viking customer service though - you'd probably still have to go through them.

Sister who is an avid baker loves her Viking french door double oven.

The Turbo Chefs being ugly and looking like a cartoon oven doesnt help sales either. The technology is first rate though.

i thought i was the only one who couldn't appreciate their much touted design. mine is mounted under counter in my island. i would rather it be mounted higher on a wall, but i couldn't stand to look at it.

and yes, hoping the manufacturing will be left up to the turbo chef people - but concerned to go through viking for any future concerns.

I remember your lovely kitchen! I didn't remember that you didn't like the looks of the TC. I always thought they were cute, in a New Beetle sort of way. There was a kitchen in Italy, I think, back then, with kind of peachy cabinets and blonde wood, kind of arts nouveau, and looking like something from a fairy tale. It had a TC undercounter that absolutely was the only oven that would go with the design. :)

Did Viking buy just the residential, or the whole company? If just the residential, does that mean they're paying TurboChef to make the units for them?

Y'know, one of these days, Viking will get in a leadership who will turn them around. Good quality and customer service, especially at the high end, depend a great deal more on will and determination than money, though it'll take some money as well to fix it.

Viking didn't buy TurboChef. Middleby, the parent company of Turbochef, bought Viking. Middleby also owns a bunch of other commercial cooking manufacturers, names people know like like Cooktek, Blodgett, Jade, Southbend, Lang, and a ton more. The idea is that technology from these manufacturers would gradually make their way into the Viking lineup, improving performance and quality. For example the new Viking french door oven is supposedly based on a Blodgett design, etc. Sounds great in theory. Time will tell how the strategy works.

I am in the group who liked the old Turbochef styling, but I agree it's part of why they didn't sell. They wanted to buck trends and make something really eye-popping, but that doesn't sell. Same old, same old, stainless steel, pro handles is what sells.

This post was edited by hvtech42 on Sat, Jan 10, 15 at 11:49

Detective Poirot visited a lot of art deco architectures, but I don't recall anything outstanding about their rarely visited kitchens. If one asks, Google will present a huge collection of photos of kitchens purported to be art deco style, but very few of those looked to me like they could successfully integrate what I recall a Turbochef to look like. I was thinking a kitchen from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" as a better match.

kas

thanks for your kind words pillog. if my kitchen had a more retro feel it wouldn't have bothered me. that's the problem. styling so specific can be difficult to incorporate with other appliances and environments.
sometimes "same old same old" is all about fitting in. i didn't design a kitchen with the intent of having a single wall oven in the starring role. i also purchased it in stainless, for the same reason.

that said i have no regrets about that purchase at all. the reason i posted was to assure myself i could buy another in the future, once we downsize. it is truly a marvel!

>i didn't design a kitchen with the intent of having a single wall oven in the starring role

Then you should have gotten a double :)

In all seriousness, I get it. I wasn't trying to criticize for not liking/wanting it.

I do wish they had made the below though. Maybe Viking will make something similar in function (not similar looking LOL) if the wall oven sells well.

no, i agree with you! i wouldn't have bought the range for sure.

Oh, I get it! And thanks for posting your picture again. I think the problem isn't even so much the styling, but that the styling is so different from the norm. I get it about it trying to draw the attention, but I do think you succeeded in keeping it down to a mumble. :)

Kas, Art Nouveau is all about sinuous, organic lines. Art Deco is very different and full of lines and angles. You can make an Art Deco range out of one of the current boxy styles with a few appliques and some engine paint. The curviness of the TC is what made it such a good match for the kitchen I was talking about. It was all curves and vine-y looking woodwork.

Hvtech42, thanks for setting me straight. I missed the part where the parent company own all of TurboChef, not just the residential unit. That's one odd looking range. Is it a concept piece, like a concept car?

>That's one odd looking range. Is it a concept piece, like a concept car?

Yep, They never made it and never will.

Can I ask you how many times have you had yours serviced? Mine has personally been serviced no less than half a dozen times. It's hard to be thrilled or find marketshare for an appliance that requires very expensive maintenance several times a year to keep operational. I only hope they improved on their beta version with the release of the Viking edition.

I LOVE my 2 oven wall unit of Turbo Chef (including the retro style of it) BUT!~ the maintenance was my main problem with it. I live in a location that had no service available so the nearest place was 3 1/2 hrs. away so I had to pay for his transportation, time, and parts to fix it. Of course, this also took 2 visits because he would come and diagnose the problem, go back and order the part, and then have to return later...VERY pricey fix! Still, I have enjoyed this appliance better than any I have ever owned!....(Have had to have mine worked on 4 times)

Can anyone tell me HOW you got your TurboChef serviced? I've been trying since June 2015 to get it serviced to no avail! I call TurboChef & they refer me to Viking who refers me to the same guy back at TurboChef. They did send out an appliance company with techs who had NEVER even heard of TurboChef (they were expecting a Viking product), they "diagnosed" it with TurboChef on the phone and then days later said they couldn't repair it because the oven was too heavy and they didn't have the proper equipment.

Where are you located?

in NJ

Hi all, we bought a TurboChef back in the day and when we sold our home we removed it and put it in storage. We are moving again and will be remodeling the kitchen...but I don't have the spec sheet on how to have the cabinet built for the oven...its the single wall oven. Does anyone have it??

Thanks

Melissa Bobb_Bell, check out the service manual on the TurboChef site. It list all the dimensions for the cabinet. Look on pages 1.4 and 1.5 specifically. http://turbochef.com/filemanager/14/Residential_Service_Manual.pdf

THANK YOU!! Hopefully it works when we pull it out of storage! Its been 3 years...

You are most welcome. If you have an issues or have an additional questions please let me know and I'd be happy to help.

I purchased a Turbochef residential wall oven in 2011. Absolutely loved the retro look and loved the oven for six months until it began behaving erratically. Lower oven would not heat up at all. Speedcook oven sometimes way too hot but usually couldn’t heat up past 211 degrees. It then malfunctioned completely and caught on fire. Turbochef refused to replace it for several months. They did finally begrudgingly replace it. It worked for two months then the lower oven wouldn’t heat up anymore again. The speed cook oven began to take ten times longer than it should and had hot and cold spots again. I had it serviced every few months—to get service was like pulling teeth—the thing was an expensive POS. It has not worked for the last four years as I have tried to get assistance from first Turbochef and now Viking. What a joke. The new Viking Turbochef costs as much as a car and only a fool would buy it. I have finally given up and am replacing with Wolf. I will never buy a Viking product after my recent experience with them trying to get help with the Turbochef.

@the_glassman I am in NC if you have any suggestions about how to get my Turbochef serviced before I replace it. I’m almost ready to purchase the Wolf.

We bought a TurboChef Speedcook during a whole home remodel back in 2008. It was right after the consumer ovens were first out there; they were advertising like crazy in food magazines, etc. This was right around the same time they did a splashy deal with Martha Stewart (they later reneged on it; she ultimately sued them). When it worked, it worked like a dream. I've never had a more fantastic sheet pan of roast vegetables in my life. The roast chicken was phenomenal as well. All in the promised times, too. (Now, when it used the forced air element, it sounded like a jet engine taking off, but oh well.) I was also wild about the design. People loved to look at the thing, with its Le Creuset-style "flame" orange door.

The "when it worked" part of the equation was the problem: it would work for 6 months, then break. The first few breakdowns, they sent a very nice repairman from Sacramento (that's a hike and also kind of strange, given we live in LA, and you'd think someone in the nation's second largest city would be able to service it) who would do things like roast a chicken at the end of the repair to ensure it was working properly. Eventually, the breakdowns were serviced more locally by a company called Turbo Technicians who'd previously worked for TurboChef (here's a clue: when people who work at the company leave to start a business servicing the known issues with the company's product, it's not a good look).

I won't go through the many, many times the oven broke. I loved its look, I loved its food, I did NOT want to give up on it. TurboChef and eventually Middleby replaced the unit 3 - count 'em - 3 times. Eventually - because I was not going to spend $8k on an oven that only sporadically worked for 3-4 years and just roll over after it died - I demanded they refund half the purchase price. We bought a Bosch with the $4k they refunded. Knock wood, it has never had to be serviced.

We saw the new $16k Viking TurboChef SpeedCook oven in a high-end Santa Monica showroom just this weekend. Given that the Middleby-owned Viking came in dead last in the Consumer Reports August 2019 "Most Reliable Appliances" brand rankings - at a dismal 15 out of 100 - the only way to cook your goose faster is to shell out $16k for this version. Good luck to those who try!