Discussion
There was a fairly ancient solid fuel 2-oven AGA in our house when we arrived in 1981. I remember having to refuel it with smokeless coal and empty the ash every day before going to school. It kicked out a lot of heat, particularly when it was windy the hot plate used to glow a dull red! Always nice to be able to cook whenever and made the kitchen toasty in an otherwise uninsulated house with no central heating. However it was rather labour intensive and quite smelly on occasions - probably not doing our health much good! When the kitchen was extended in the 90's we retired the old one and bought a brand new shiny black one (they were around £3k back then I think), it was oil fired which was much more convenient! Also had oil central heating installed at the same time. The new AGA has never put out the same level of heat and tends to lose temperature more quickly when cooking a big meal. But it is still very nice to have, heats the water and is a pleasure to cook on once you've understood the quirks. Usually gets turned off at some point during the summer if/when it gets hot, but we have a conventional electric oven, calor gas hob and microwave so no problem 
Aga fanatic here.
Have a long wheel base delux 1985 version in red, oil fired, at the moment, it’s perfect. How many of you Aga haters are still using a 1985 cooker? It uses the equivalent of a small third world countries oil consumption every year but I can afford it and don’t give a toss.
They are brilliant, but like great things best kept for the discerning few not the chattering masses.
Next one will be a new electric one run from photovoltaic panels on the roof, might help to address the oil consumption issue.
Each to their own.
Have a long wheel base delux 1985 version in red, oil fired, at the moment, it’s perfect. How many of you Aga haters are still using a 1985 cooker? It uses the equivalent of a small third world countries oil consumption every year but I can afford it and don’t give a toss.
They are brilliant, but like great things best kept for the discerning few not the chattering masses.
Next one will be a new electric one run from photovoltaic panels on the roof, might help to address the oil consumption issue.
Each to their own.
bigmowley said:
Aga fanatic here.
Have a long wheel base delux 1985 version in red, oil fired, at the moment, it’s perfect. How many of you Aga haters are still using a 1985 cooker? It uses the equivalent of a small third world countries oil consumption every year but I can afford it and don’t give a toss.
They are brilliant, but like great things best kept for the discerning few not the chattering masses.
Next one will be a new electric one run from photovoltaic panels on the roof, might help to address the oil consumption issue.
Each to their own.
Actually you have a point there. From the amount of floor dust our attracts maybe a load of floor level electric windmills could be set up to power the cooker instead of gas! NO2CO2!Have a long wheel base delux 1985 version in red, oil fired, at the moment, it’s perfect. How many of you Aga haters are still using a 1985 cooker? It uses the equivalent of a small third world countries oil consumption every year but I can afford it and don’t give a toss.
They are brilliant, but like great things best kept for the discerning few not the chattering masses.
Next one will be a new electric one run from photovoltaic panels on the roof, might help to address the oil consumption issue.
Each to their own.
Trivia: the Aga was originally invented as a cooker for blind people to use, hence it has no controls just a number of ovens at different constant temperatures.
They cook differently from most ovens: they "push" the heat into the food from all sides via radiation, as apposed to a traditional oven which heats from a single direction using convection or even worse a fan oven which blasts hot air from a small source.
We inherited a top of the range Aga with a house we bought. After some skepticism and after getting used to how to use it, we can appreciate that it simply cooks food "better". The natural flavours of everything are enhanced, meat is tender and succulent, vegetables are cooked but retain their crunch and taste.
Not sure I would spend the money on one new, but they do cook food beautifully.
They cook differently from most ovens: they "push" the heat into the food from all sides via radiation, as apposed to a traditional oven which heats from a single direction using convection or even worse a fan oven which blasts hot air from a small source.
We inherited a top of the range Aga with a house we bought. After some skepticism and after getting used to how to use it, we can appreciate that it simply cooks food "better". The natural flavours of everything are enhanced, meat is tender and succulent, vegetables are cooked but retain their crunch and taste.
Not sure I would spend the money on one new, but they do cook food beautifully.
I've lived with a solid fuel Rayburn for the vast majority of my adult life, it's only very recently that I moved to a house that didn't have one.
If you've never lived with one you really can't appreciate the difference.
The last house I owned, a 3 storey, stone built, Victorian, terraced house had had one installed by the previous owners, who'd never used it, it ran the hot water and the CH. They'd also had a gas boiler installed to run the CH, in the five years we were in that house we never used it!
What you don't understand is, having that constant source of heat, 24/7 heats the whole fabric of the house. No matter how good you think your CH is, it will never warm your house up as completely.
We never had any of the radiators on, on the first or second floor, they simply weren't required.
And yes, they do cook food differently, in a good way.
Yes, they're a bit of faff but, IMO, it's worth the little bit of effort and expense,
If you've never lived with one you really can't appreciate the difference.
The last house I owned, a 3 storey, stone built, Victorian, terraced house had had one installed by the previous owners, who'd never used it, it ran the hot water and the CH. They'd also had a gas boiler installed to run the CH, in the five years we were in that house we never used it!
What you don't understand is, having that constant source of heat, 24/7 heats the whole fabric of the house. No matter how good you think your CH is, it will never warm your house up as completely.
We never had any of the radiators on, on the first or second floor, they simply weren't required.
And yes, they do cook food differently, in a good way.
Yes, they're a bit of faff but, IMO, it's worth the little bit of effort and expense,
If you live in a s
tty new build house on a modern estate with a BMW or Audi and have a Big Green Egg instead of a Weber* you won’t get Agas.
If you live in a quality property and can be bothered to work out how to use them properly, Agas are very good.
tty new build house on a modern estate with a BMW or Audi and have a Big Green Egg instead of a Weber* you won’t get Agas.If you live in a quality property and can be bothered to work out how to use them properly, Agas are very good.
- top tip - there is nothing you can do on a BGE that you can’t do on a Weber for a fraction of the price but the sort of chap who PCPs/leases a “premium” German marque to impress his neighbours (who have PCP’d/leased a slightly slower spec of the same mundane model) needs to have a BGE because (a) his neighbour has one or (b) he needs his neighbour to think he has sold more houses/widgets/sex toys than his neighbour has
CypSIdders said:
What you don't understand is, having that constant source of heat, 24/7 heats the whole fabric of the house. No matter how good you think your CH is, it will never warm your house up as completely.
We never had any of the radiators on, on the first or second floor, they simply weren't required.
Zero chance of the Aga heating our entire house, but I'm convinced the residual heat helps ward off damp in the summer and the heat it throws out must contribute to a slightly lower demand on the CH overall. I think it burns about 50l of oil a week, plus the twice yearly servicing, so somewhere in the £1200-1500 a year to run.We never had any of the radiators on, on the first or second floor, they simply weren't required.
On the cooking side the "always on" aspect of it is really handy.
On the days I'm working from home I'll often open a tin of beans whenever convenient around half an hour before lunch and put it (tin minus lid) into oven two. Lunch time arrives and it's toast from the hotplate, tin out of oven, on to plate and done. Aside from knife/fork/plate there's no washing up.
Lots of slow roast / casseroles go into the oven before we go out for the day ready for when we get home. The veg is great too, but it was how well it does rice that was the big surprised.
The ovens look small from the front but they're deep and have lots of runners in them so you can fit far more in an Aga than a pair of conventional ovens.
Didn't expect to like it as much as I do but the fact that the conventional oven and induction hob never get used is testament to how good it is. In the right house they're great but I know people who have found they made their kitchen/house unbearable in summer and took them out.
Wife was in the Aga shop buying yet more trays last weekend and came home with a brochure for their latest half oil half electric/induction. Sure she said it was in the £15-20k range. Quite a lot to spend on a cooker, and no point changing the one we've got to possibly save a few quid a year on fuel whilst getting into all that new fangled modern stuff that will fail after a few years later.
borcy said:
How much do agas cost to buy and run? Genuine question, honestly not got a clue.
A solid fuel Rayburn costs around £3.5k, plus installation to buy.In all the years I've run one I've never used more than two bags of anthracite per week, prices for that vary depending where you are, let's say £18 per bag. However, there are different types of fuel, I always found that the pricier, pelleted "coke" type, burned too quickly, so I've always bought the cheaper "small nut anthracite"!
borcy said:
How much do agas cost to buy and run? Genuine question, honestly not got a clue.
I gave £250 for a mint Rayburn, uses about 1k of gas a year, spends most of the time on low unless there is major cooking going on. Half low in summer, or it can be turned off and back up to temp in an hour.
My dad remembers as a boy a new Rayburn being installed in place of the old kitchen range, two guys turned up and spent the day installing it. My gran used to regularly clean up at the local show's home baking competition. However, it is telling that, although many of my farming relatives had a Rayburn in the kitchen, they usually had a conventional electric cooker alongside as well.
Amusing snobbery and/or pseudoscience here.
I have an old house and most of it would have ice on the windows if I relied on the Rayburn alone for heat. The kitchen and room above were warm but radiators were essential elsewhere. If you kept your heating on 24/7 like an Aga, then the fabric of the house would stay warm.
And there's nothing remotely special about the way it cooks.
I have an old house and most of it would have ice on the windows if I relied on the Rayburn alone for heat. The kitchen and room above were warm but radiators were essential elsewhere. If you kept your heating on 24/7 like an Aga, then the fabric of the house would stay warm.
And there's nothing remotely special about the way it cooks.
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