What do you all think of this one?


 

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I had "saved" this Viking grill on OfferUp, mainly just to see how long it would list. I got a notification that the price was cut from $500 to $350. Obviously has some rough spots:

https://offerup.com/search/?q=viking+grill

I don't know anything about these, but I have always understood that Viking and Wolf were names that you could say in the same breath as Vieluxe.

Does anybody know much about these? What would be parts availability be like? Is this a good deal? The only real reason I am interested is that I still want to help our little college with a second grill. I had bought that bombed out Summit in November. After disassembling it I realize it is an uphill fight to get it usable given the rust in the firebox:mad:. The only Summit I will ever consider again is the Platinum which at least has an all stainless frame.
 
Thanks, Bruce! I didn't realize that OfferUp would do that.

Here are the pictures in case you still can't see them:
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Down to $350. Is this thing worthwhile, or is it another money pit? If there was a fair chance that it would need just some reasonable parts and these parts would be available, this might actually be a cheaper route to getting a large grill for my local college vs the substantial cabinet work and firebox repairs:mad: needed for the Summit:summits650: I picked up in November.

What do you all think of this as a fixer-upper?
 
I dont know anything about Viking grills but it looks to be ALL stainless steel. But, I would be cautious of it. I would do some research because he clearly states it has issues with the burners working. Is it just the burners, the manifold, etc.... So, check out what a new set of burners costs for sure. But if you need to replace some of the other parts, you may find them really hard to come by.

I am just a lot more comfortable of what to look for with a Weber and if I do find I need parts, they are generally pretty easy to come by.

Did you already grab a Summit?
 
I dont know anything about Viking grills but it looks to be ALL stainless steel. But, I would be cautious of it. I would do some research because he clearly states it has issues with the burners working. Is it just the burners, the manifold, etc.... So, check out what a new set of burners costs for sure. But if you need to replace some of the other parts, you may find them really hard to come by.

I am just a lot more comfortable of what to look for with a Weber and if I do find I need parts, they are generally pretty easy to come by.

Did you already grab a Summit?

Bruce,

I bought a Summit back around Thanksgiving. If you go back that far you will see my posts about it. In some ways it is in really good condition (unused rotisserie and unused smokebox and very usable burners, grates and flavorizer bars). But, this grill suffered from its exposure to our salt air coastal environment. The cabinet bottom and back is shot and side frame pieces are pretty bad. I considered that more than acceptable to get a $2000 Summit for $100, especially given my experience with stainless Genesis 300 series grills. I hoped this Summit would make a great compliment to the Genesis 310SS I rehabbed for our college. With both they would be pretty set.

What I didn't know enough about (or at least take seriously enough) was the problem with rust-through in the front of the firebox. This grill definitely has this, and I am led to believe most Summits that aren't almost new will as well. Very poor design and unfair to people who shell out the big $ for what is supposed to be the "high-end" Weber grill.

Anyway, after crazy season I need to either come up with some way to rebuild the Summit (all disassembled and stored away for now) or abort that plan. I still would love to help out our college, so I couldn't help but notice this unusual item.
 
I hear you Jon. I thought you already had the summit. And I don't want to see you drop another $300 plus and find you bought someone else's problem. Use the $100 summit as your lesson and don't jump too quick on the Viking. Hopefully someone on this board will have some experience with them and be able to give you some good advice, but I think maybe you should search for some web sites that either cater to Viking Grills or sites that are not brand specific. If it is a generalized site on grills and grilling and the Viking is indeed a high end premium grill, you should find some others out there that have a lot of experience with them.

That Vikings looks like a 4 burner. I would think you could find a couple Silver B's or Genny 1000's and rehab them for less than what if would cost you to rehab the Summit or Viking. That would give your school six more burners instead of four. They could run a roto in one and grill with the other. Or BBQ ribs in one and grill in the other.

I am not trying to dissuade you, but just trying to keep you from making a mistake. I have been there and done that. I am a member of a GM truck forum and some guys have been modding their Homelink Garage door openers to get better range. I came really close to pulling my module out and soldering a wire to the circuit board as an external antenna to see if I could increase my range. Well, gladly something clicked and I said to myself: "Why????" My range is already really good. Better than the push button remote that came with the garage door opener. And besides, I don't even park my truck in the garage.....LOL But, I came really close to trying it anyway.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide.
 
Jon
This is a "Frontgate" by Viking. I came across one of these for darn near give away price. The one I looked at was identical to this one. It too had "burner issues". The story I got from the owner is he was cooking with it and had walked into the house (as we all do) to prepare some other food. He began to hear some loud crackling and sizzling. He came out to a conflagration. When I looked at the grill it was obvious how hot it had gotten. It had actually MELTED the cast iron rod cooking grates, the heat tents, a portion of the manifold and of course the knobs. The only thing salvageable was the stainless steel shell. When I did a cursory search for the parts I was at close to $1200! SO I passed as I didn't feel like taking it home as a scrap metal heap. (I honestly think the guy would have paid me to haul it out)
The other thing was it was a model Viking made one off (Frontgate) for a store and I don't recall if that was Costco, or Home Depot so not only were the parts expensive but a little harder to come by so I took a hike (reluctantly) on it.
Since that time I have seen one more come up with similar damages (though not as bad) and I passe don that too as the owner was inflexible thinking he had a gold mine.
So I would pay VERY close attention to the area where that missing knob(s) is. IN the case of the one I looked at the owner actually had stuck the burned valves to the front hoping to have it "look better". They fell off when I touched them.
My guess here is if there is not too much damage to it then it may be worth it to try for say $150 to $200. I think these grills get spider webs in the burner tubes prety bad and get a back flame inside the control panel. Once that happens all bets are off.
I'd have a look at it but given the missing knob(s) I have a feeling that it suffered that same fate.
 
Larry & Bruce,

Thanks both for the sage and experienced advice! Sounds like a potential money pit and even a problematic grill - just the opposite of what I need and what our little college needs to try and maintain.

If I can't get my sheet metal friend motivated to make me the parts I need to salvage the Summit, I think I will go back with Plan A and just make them another Genesis 300 that matches what I already did for them. The good part of that plan is that they would have two grills with cast aluminum fireboxes and with identical cooking properties.

Thanks, again, guys. It is really nice to have this forum to share and learn and thereby avoid some big mistakes:eek:!

Jon
 
I'd still have a look at it Jon. If it's not damaged it could be a treasure in the rough. Unless it's a very long drove or hard to get to.
 
Like Larry said parts for one off grills or any appliance can be impossible to find and/or very expensive.
We bought an LG gas range from Sears it had all the features we wanted and appeared to be well built. It was something Barb had wanted for a long time.
After about six months a couple of burner knobs became loose. It was still under warranty so I had Sears come out, the tech said that was unusual for a new range to have that problem he pulled all five knobs off and the two loose ones were broken where it attaches to the valve and the other three were cracked. So he called the parts folks and asked the parts guy if this was a common problem with this range. It was the only problem with that model, hundreds of complaints. Thank goodness it was under warranty the plastic knobs sold for $125 each $625 for five knobs. It happened again about a month after the warranty expired. I found some knobs for a GE that looked the same and had metal shafts instead of plastic for $12 apiece, they were still on the range when we sold the house four years later.

I would make sure any possible part that you think you might need for that Viking is available and what the cost is, I think you may be shocked.
 
This is a great example of why the older genesis grills are such great rehab candidates. Parts galore!
 
Down to $200! Must be pretty desperate (or it is a burnout like Larry described).

Even for free I have concluded it would just be a money drainer to get going and maybe even dangerously problematic for the cooks at my little college.
 
Probably a good approach. Maybe in a few more weeks you will see it as a curbside pickup. LOL
 
Honestly I would look at it. It's approaching the point where it's worth it just for scrap value
 

 

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