Discussion
We have had an oil fired twin oven Aga in our house for thirty odd years.
It's fine for heating the kitchen during the winter but can make it unbearably warm during any hot summer weather we are lucky enough to get.
As a cooker it is basically s
te as when you use the top rings it drops the oven temperature so nothing browns. It seems to specialise in turning things into sludge.
It needs servicing every six months or the oil supply tube blocks up and it becomes even more useless as a cooker.
I can't wait to get rid of the thing but unfortunately my wife, the cat and the dog love it.
It's fine for heating the kitchen during the winter but can make it unbearably warm during any hot summer weather we are lucky enough to get.
As a cooker it is basically s
te as when you use the top rings it drops the oven temperature so nothing browns. It seems to specialise in turning things into sludge.It needs servicing every six months or the oil supply tube blocks up and it becomes even more useless as a cooker.
I can't wait to get rid of the thing but unfortunately my wife, the cat and the dog love it.
singlecoil said:
People like them because they are great for cooking and they last forever. It's a LOT of money but divide that by 20 years or so (at which time they will still look and work fine) and it doesn't seem so bad.
Mines is from 1947. Originally burnt wood. Converted to coal gas in the 1960s. Burner replaced for a "natural gas burner" in 2012, together with a thermostatic control. Why do I like it, left on low constant heat provides hot water for 4 rads and the bathroom at 60C and i can cook on it. Would I change it. No, as the house has been built around it! £600 in 25 years spent so a pretty useful bit of kit (inc gas safety checks when checking other gas applicants in the house). Don't think it is particularly inefficient, you just need to learn how to run it and not to have a bath just after a seven bird roast for Sunday lunch after the washing up. With the 30kW boiler for the other 11 rads in the house and the two other bathrooms our gas averages around £60/mo, which for a house with no insulation (solid stone walls) and more leaks in the conservatory / heritage windows than the Welsh I think is pretty good. It was £110/mo before we replaced the town gas burner with a proper natural gas one!
Also, potentially very good for destroying body parts. Any food forgotten about being kept warm in the lower roasting oven is reduced to pure carbon dust over about a week, read kebabs and pizzas brought home late at night and the remainder of the Sunday roast from two weeks ago being kept to make stock the following day.
Many years ago, Aga magazine wanted to interview me as this was one of the oldest Agas in the UK. When they asked me it's name I replied "cooker" they were a bit disappointed. "Did I not even have a secret pet name?" I was asked. Being less PC times and based upon the previous para I replied with the name of a location around 20 miles east of Krakow. Needless to say I didn't get interviewed.
Edited by StanleyT on Wednesday 13th November 16:57
miniman said:
borcy said:
We had one in a cottage that we rented about 5 or 6 years ago. It seemed a bit of faff to get going, so we never bothered with it.
The general concept is that they are never turned off. Lotobear said:
Usually acquired by folk who require affirmation of their middle class position in the social pecking order.
Horridly inefficient and environmentally damaging, despite which usually seen close to a Roberts radio and folded copy of the Guardian.
...great when running on coke (not in the Islington sense) in a working farmhouse in rural Northumberland but purely a status symbol elsewhere.
Such stereotypical drivel, back to thy estate Maisonette with thee.Horridly inefficient and environmentally damaging, despite which usually seen close to a Roberts radio and folded copy of the Guardian.
...great when running on coke (not in the Islington sense) in a working farmhouse in rural Northumberland but purely a status symbol elsewhere.
borcy said:
miniman said:
borcy said:
We had one in a cottage that we rented about 5 or 6 years ago. It seemed a bit of faff to get going, so we never bothered with it.
The general concept is that they are never turned off. StanleyT said:
Ah, the old reach around like a chimp with candles and trying to hold down warm up bypass on the gas safety valve? The easiest way to get one on a gas burner going is a tealight for 20 minutes under the gas safety valve thermocouple to warm it to operating temperature, depress and hold the gas valve in start position and then spray wd-40 into the burner chamber to be ignited by the tealight, setting the pilot open and then hold everything for 1 minute. Manual does describe this, but using paraffin rags. Mind you, manual is a "bit" out of date. Had to do that yesterday after the previous days winds drew so much air up the stack the burner starved of O2!
I honestly can't remember the instructions on how to do it but yeah it seemed complicated. 
Last Visit said:
That does sum it up nicely!!!!!!TBH I wouldn't have one again and I do eat a lot of sandwiches / microwave meals. But like a steam engine / Austin Maestro, once you have one you keep it going for the challenge.
Have we an "I barried and pimped my Aga" thread. Rayburns, Range and Easyheat cookers not allowed.
I don't have a position on them one way or the other, but I'm of the mind that if someone wants one, and can afford it, then they should have one. There's masses of stuff that all sorts of people pay out large amounts for that I wouldn't have as a present (unless I could promptly sell it), but I wouldn't criticise them for that.
singlecoil said:
I don't have a position on them one way or the other, but I'm of the mind that if someone wants one, and can afford it, then they should have one. There's masses of stuff that all sorts of people pay out large amounts for that I wouldn't have as a present (unless I could promptly sell it), but I wouldn't criticise them for that.
Agreed. I paid £250 for our Rayburn and bought another for spares for £150. The spare one is still complete in the garage.I wouldn’t be giving 10k for an Aga setup though.
We've just bought a house with a long wheelbase Aga taking pride of place in the kitchen. I always had one growing up, and there is nothing like it in the winter, as a bum warmer / slow cooker / clothes drier.
We are planning to install a 'summer kitchen' of conventional oven and hob to save the house roasting (and our oil bill doubling) over summer.
We are planning to install a 'summer kitchen' of conventional oven and hob to save the house roasting (and our oil bill doubling) over summer.
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