I Love my Viking! Just installed in a new house and fixed the reversed polarity issue that was giving me sparking issues and all was working well. For kicks and giggles I thought I'd try the ultimate load test -- the self-cleaning cycle. About 30 minutes into the self-clean cycle a loud pop blew the breaker and there was a bad smell coming out the back of the oven. Now the oven remains locked, even 2-hours later.

Off came the back (again). One of the two relays was completely fried. Can someone explain the relays on the Viking Dual Fuel ranges? There are two that are separate from the main control board. One on my range looks new (the one on the left) and is in a clear case with no markings. The fried one, now coated in soot, has 2-3 more wires going into it and the casing says SCL-DPDT-C1.

Do I simply replace the relay and cross my fingers, or is a blown relay indicative of some other fault elsewhere? Also, does that relay control the door lock?

I went down to the local Viking supplier, picked up a replacement relay and talked to the technician. He said there was probably not any underlying cause for the blown relay and it was most likely a combination of age and gunk that caused the insulation to fail. So I'll install the new relay, cross my fingers, and report back.

Sweet :) :) :)

Ah, but the saga continues... !

So after fitting the new relay the oven never managed to get up to heat, so I started a new set of diagnostics, worried that a control board or element was bad. First job... check the oven was actually drawing 240V and, surprise! In fixing the polarity issue on the outlet, my (licensed) electrician seems to have screwed up again.

Instead of pulling 240V from the two hot wires, I was getting a reading of 120V. And instead of getting 120V from a hot and neutral, I was getting 240V (and getting 120V from the other hot and neutral). There's a chance that when the breaker tripped it created a loose neutral but I also suspect the reason the relay blew up so spectacularly is that the screwed-up wiring essentially doubled the current running through it.

Moral of the story? Viking ranges are not necessarily as flakey as people suggest and electricians can be flakier than people think!

I'll report back if there are any additional chapters to this story.