What counts as Viking ventilation
This page is for the vent gear that is not a standard wall hood. Viking sells several such products.
- Rear downdrafts. 5 Series units 30, 36, 45 and 48 inches wide. They hide behind the cooktop and rise when needed.
- Built-in custom ventilators. These are inserts, 36 to 60 inches wide, that go inside a wood or plaster hood built by a cabinet shop.
- Ventilator kits. The blower itself. Viking offers interior kits, an in-line kit that sits in the duct run and exterior kits for the roof or wall.
- Make-up air dampers, 6 and 8 inch, plus duct and vibration silencers.
- The RVL induction cooktop with a downdraft built into it.
If you have a plain stainless canopy on the wall, go to Viking range hood repair instead.
When the downdraft chimney stays stuck
The Viking downdraft has a chimney that rises 18 inches. A motor and a drive lift it. Switches at the top and bottom tell the control where it is.
When it stalls, check for a pan handle or a utensil in the way first. If the path is clear, the fault is inside. The lift motor may be worn. A limit switch may be stuck, so the control thinks the chimney is already up. Grease on the guide rails can make it bind halfway. We clean the rails, test both switches and run the motor on its own. A chimney that rises crooked has a drive fault on one side.
The fan will not run until the chimney is fully up. So a dead fan on a downdraft is often a lift problem in disguise.
Remote blowers: in the duct or on the roof
Viking lets the installer put the blower away from the kitchen. An in-line kit sits in the attic or a joist bay. An exterior kit sits outside. This keeps the kitchen quiet. It also puts the motor where nobody looks at it for years.
Exterior blowers face rain, heat and nesting birds. Bearings rust. The wheel fills with leaves. In-line blowers collect grease where the duct turns. When the kitchen control works and nothing moves air, we go to the blower. We check for power at the motor, test the capacitor and spin the wheel by hand. A long wire run between the control and the blower can also fail at a splice.
Inserts inside a custom hood
A custom ventilator has the same guts as a Viking wall hood. It has lights, grease filters, a heat sensor and knobs that light up. The difference is access. The wood shell around it may leave little room to drop the insert. We look at how it was mounted before we quote. Most motor and control work can be done from below with the filters out.
Make-up air and weak pull
A strong blower pulls a lot of air out of a tight house. Local codes often require a damper for make-up air, which opens so fresh air can return. A damper stuck closed leaves the blower gasping. The fan sounds loud and moves little. Smoke hangs at the cooktop.
So when the complaint is weak pull, we test more than the fan. We check that the damper opens when the blower starts. We look for a crushed or sagging duct. We check the flap at the outside cap. A downdraft set up to recirculate has a filter that must be replaced on schedule. Viking puts a filter clean light on the downdraft for the grease filter.
Booking, price and what we bring
Ventilation calls at a home carry a $79 diagnostic fee. We remove it from the bill when you approve the repair. Expect a fixed price, with parts and labor added in, before work begins. Same-day visits are possible on most calls. Pick any day and a slot from 6 AM onward, with the last ones ending at 9 PM. Vent techs are insured and licensed and have each passed a background check. Blower capacitors, limit switches and common motors are in the truck. There is a 30-day repair warranty on the repair. You can book on the website.
Tell us where the blower is if you know. A roof unit means we bring a tall ladder. A+ has stayed independent and in one family's hands.
Repair almost always makes sense here
Vent systems are built into the house. The duct is in the wall. The downdraft is cut into the stone. The insert is wrapped in millwork. A motor, a switch or a control is a small job next to tearing any of that out. We suggest replacing only when a downdraft frame is bent or the model is too old for parts.
We handle vent repairs around Los Angeles, listed on our California repair page. Vent calls are also handled in Chicago and Houston, and in homes across D.C. and Northern Virginia. See what else we fix on the Viking brand overview and our vent hood repair page. If the downdraft sits behind a gas top with its own fault, read Viking cooktop repair.