AIBU to get a gas aga?

[julietbat]

We're planning a kitchen renovation (on a budget!) and had been planning on a range cooker (secondhand probably) but we've just seen a local gas aga on gumtree for £395. We hadn't really considered an aga but it seems like a good deal (great condition, etc). Would we be mad to move from a conventional gas cooker to an aga or would it transform our lives?!

[Gide]

Ugh, don't do it! Bloody trauma. Mother has one in a semi detached, it heats the 20ft kitchen to the point of sauna like proportions, the bedroom above (mine, I hate staying there) and is generally a massive pita. It does boost the heating and hot water, but it takes a lot of maintenance, the temperature drops like a stone of you have the lids up much, so glazing carrots or boiling something for ages is out.

Is it the 2 or five oven thing? I'd far rather have the range option (I do have the range option!) because it's far more flexible.

Good point of Aga-you can slow cook overnight, but beware of the madness of the top oven which is very hot without the shelf in to shield stuff. It drives me nuts not being able to simply control the temp, but the price you've said is amazing.

[Name7]

Gas Aga is completely different (and a lot cheaper) than traditional aga. It's more like a normal range cooker. Can you go and see it? Just be careful of plumbing in -check that your plumber is happy fitting a 2nd hand one.

[cathyandclaire]

I'm not sure gas Agas are massively different, just run on a different fuel. We have one and love it but we live in an old draughty house so never get too hot. £395 is v v cheap but you will also need to budget for moving, fitting, venting, overhauling and building the concrete plinth it sits on.

I'd go for it though!

[Gide]

Mother's is gas powered. The best part was fitting it, involved lots of moving of brick bits and building of brick columns either side for pan rests/storage etc. It's not as simple as plumbing it in.

[cathyandclaire]

Also < apologies for droning on> you need to consider whether the Aga is for a traditional or power flue. A traditional one will need to be near a chimney or be against an external wall (I think) a power flue can go further.

[Gide]

What cathyandclaire said. Ours was up against an old chimney breast, house is 1930s.

[julietbat]

Thanks everyone.
Gide it's a 2 oven and we're in a detached 1930s house so I'm not worried about over-heating the house. But I love cooking for the family and I suppose I am worried about screwing that up by investing in something that is so different. But then I know people who love their aga and wouldn't be without it.
Thanks for all the advice about moving, plumbing, fitting, etc. Will look into that.

[howmanyairmiles]

Are you sure its not £3995? mine cost me a lot more than that.

[Tiggywinkler]

Our house came with one - great, we thought, we've always wanted one of those!

A £980 gas bill later and it's turned off and going elsewhere when we decorate.

[exLtEveDallas]

It's taken us a year to get used to ours. The cooking was easy and I love it for that, roast dinners, slow cooking, perfect cakes in the baking oven.

But the temp control and the gas bill was another matter. We have a 4 oven. It stayed on all year last year thanks to the shit summer, but there were a couple of days when I was heating the outdoors because it was easier than turning it off.

Bills have finally stabilised at £130 a month for gas and electric from Ovo. In the summer they will go down when (if) we turn it off. We also pay £145.00 for a yearly service/callout.

I love it and wouldn't change it but there is no doubt that it's the most expensive way to cook your dinner

[CrushedNinjas]

I had an oil fired Rayburn (caught fire after a poor service!) and Aga replaced it with a £5k electric modern style Aga. The Rayburn cost about £100 a year for servicing.
I used them for 12 years in total and hated them both.
I'm in a different house now and getting my kitchen refitted with 2 built in ovens and a hob.
Personally, I find the old style aga's crap for cooking as you can't really regulate the temperature, there's no window to see if your cake has risen etc. and although they are quite deep, they're very narrow so you're limited with pans that will fit.
Some people seem to like them, but not me.

[wasonthelist]

I wouldn't have one as my only cooker - we had one but had a separate "normal" cooker in the utility room. You get used to cooking on an AGA, but you have to really really want one as it makes you do things differently.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

I love my Aga.

I grew up with one and have had one installed in this house and the last one we lived in.

Some of the most miserable moments of my life have been the odd occasion when I have gone into the kitchen in a morning to find that it has gone out.

We do not have any other form of cooking, and the emergency kettle is at the stables.

[CallMeMousie]

Only do it if you'll have another oven! We inherited one from the last owners (Rayburn but more or less same thing) and it's a massive pita. Roast chicken needs to be turned over halfway through as the temp variation in the oven is massive. The worst thing is the 'hob' or hot plate which means you need the whole thing on just to boil a pan of water for pasta. In the summer it's ridiculously hot and in the winter costs a fortune. I dream of a nice range oven but we can't afford the huge amount of plumbing and reconfiguring which will be needed to swap it out yet!

[bilbodog]

If you use an aga the right way you shouldnt have massive gas bills. Ive had mine for 15 years now and actually brought it with us 5 years ago when we moved. They are heat storage cookers so you only use the hotplates to bring pans to the boil then transfer to finish cooking in the oven. The roasting oven is meant to be very hot and cooks roasts from all 5 sides making it quicker. If it is always burning things either you have the temperature too hot or are leaving things in too long - you do have to adjust normal recipes to suit. It will cost up to £2.5k to install one with the chimney being the most expensive bit - but worth it if you love it, as i do. If you have never used one before it is worth attending an aga cookery demonstration at your nearest shop first and reading mary berrys books on aga cooking - then using her books to help you translate cooking times and processes from normal oven to aga.

[ShotgunNotDoingThePans]

Gas bills are massive and yes it is the most expensive way to cook your dinner. When we first got oirs I put on two stones as I felt guilty about the gas constantly burning, so kept it filled with cakes - bad move!
I raved about it but now that we've moved and had to get rid, I find the food that comes out of my Stoves range cooker just as tasty.
Re. the price: find out if it's been dis-assembled; think it cost us about £400 to get someone to take ours apart and move it to the new house (our buyers didn't want it and we didn't have a suitable place for it). Ours was a four oven and eventually sold for about £700 I think. The buyer would have had to arrange the same thing his end, obv.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

And never turn your back on Aga toast!

[CallMeMousie]

bilbodog that's interesting about the roasts, I've clearly not got the knack as I find too often it's raw on the bottom and burned on top - thanks for the suggestion about classes, will look into them. Still not sure it's ever an efficient way to boil a pan of pasta, though!

[ShotgunNotDoingThePans]

Mousie, I always cooked the roast on the rack that comes with the roasting tray.
Have to say, the pans are the best thing ever. Cost a fortune but we've still got the full set going strong a good ten years later. Grsat for casseroles as well as they have pot handles rather long onesz

[mateysmum]

Mousie it could be some thing is wrong with the AGA/Rayburn, that uneven cooking should not happen.

I love my 4 oven oil AGA, I love the fact that it's always available to cook and keeps the house lovely and warm. You have to learn how to use it, but if it's working properly and you use it the way it's meant to be used, it is the most effortless and versatile cooker there is. People who say the temperature plummets and it won't do xyz are probably doing something wrong!

However... ours came with the house and we are in most of the day, so make good use of it. I would not install one, due to the running costs. We switch ours off in the summer which save a massive amount of oil.

[julietbat]

Thanks everyone. I thought I might get quite polarised views!

Good point about the disassembling, shotgun, I think it says it will need to be disassembled in the advert and I didn't think of factoring that into the costs.

matey you say you turn yours off in the summer. If it's not too stupid a question, how do you cook if it's been turned off??

[zoobaby]

My friend has an aga. I think it's gas. It's stupid and you always burn yourself just walking near it. It's stressful to have children in the same room. Also, they have a proper stove installed in the adjoining utility room so they can cook normally. WTF is that all about?

[ohforfoxsake]

I love mine - replaced an inherited one with a new one. It probably is more expensive but it's not designed of periods of extended boiling. There is a hot plate in the base of the roasting oven, and you bring things to the boil and put them in the simmering oven. It's rubbish at oven chips though. I think the ratio is 20:80 - 20% of cooking done on the top, 80% in the oven, whereas with a traditional hob/cooker it's the reverse.

I agree with the poster who said go to an aga demo day. The Christmas one was particularly good.

I was a bit dumbfounded when we moved here and I had to get my head round it (also have a hob and conventional oven) but once I researched and got used to it, I only use the aga now.

[ShotgunNotDoingThePans]

We only had the aga but did end up switching off in the summer. We had a plug-in induction hob and a Remoska, which both looked a right mess on the worktop - no room for anything else though. And the Remoska food was delish!