Answers · Preheat and temperature
When does a slow Viking preheat mean a fault?
When it is clearly slower than it used to be, or stalls short of the setting; a stopwatch figure alone proves little. Viking Repair Redmond, (425) 585-2373.
An oven open to its back wall. Timing a preheat takes a thermometer on the centre runner and a clock, and nothing else.
- 01Rack runners
- 02Convection fan cover
Check, in this order
-
Oven cold: close the door on a paper strip at several points.
pass grips each time: go on fail slips out: the door seal is losing heat
-
Plain bake at 350°F, thermometer on the centre rack, timer running.
pass reaches 350°F: compare with its old time fail stalls well short: go to step 3
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Gas oven: watch the burner through the glass in the first minutes.
pass a steady flame: heat is getting in fail glow and no flame, or an on-off flame: stop here
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Still failing? Stop there and call Viking Repair Redmond on (425) 585-2373 — $89 diagnosis, credited to the repair.
The one figure Viking prints
Viking’s free-standing gas range service manual sets one technician’s test: 117 volts, igniter at 3.4 amps or more, 350°F within 10 minutes. It is a test condition for those ranges only.
On glow-bar ovens that manual ties slow heat to an igniter passing too little current. The slow-preheat long read takes it further.
Stop and call if
- The preheat light never goes out, even after a long wait.
- Any smell of gas: leave the house and call the gas utility or 911 once outside.
Also asked
Is convection preheat meant to take longer?
On some models, yes. Viking's VDR5 dual-fuel manual says convection preheat to 350°F runs slightly longer than bake, since every rack position must reach temperature. So compare like with like: time plain bake against plain bake before deciding anything is wrong.
Can the weather or the house slow it down?
A little. That VDR5 manual names a much colder room, or a supply below 240 volts, as things that stretch preheat. A gas oven crawling on a mild day is another matter: call Viking Repair Redmond, (425) 585-2373, to check the ignition.
Cost Every repair band is printed on the homepage price table, quoted and agreed before any work.
- Checked by
- Hollis Yamada
- Bench role
- Service technician — refrigeration and cooking
- At the bench
- 21 years in the trade
- Revised
