Those of you with an Aga...

[Fayrazzled]

...would you mind helping me with some questions please?

I'm thinking of buying an 3 oven gas Aga but having never had one before, I'm a bit nervous about whether I'm doing the right thing and would appreciate some thoughts.

My kitchen is about 15 x 15. Do you think this is too small for an Aga, in the sense that do you think an Aga would make a kitchen of this size too warm. (There would be no other heat source in the kitchen, e.g a radiator.)

Due to the layout of the kitchen, I would not have room for a conventional cooker of any size (other than a microwave) or a separate hob. Do you think I would regret not having an alternative cooking source in the summer, i.e. the Aga would have to stay on (although it would come with the new Aga Intelligent Management system so I could turn it to low or slumber when it was not required for cooking).

I'm a keen cook and while I appreciate cooking with an Aga requires a different approach, I'm wondering whether I might find the lack of precision frustraing. Any thoughts?

If any one has any experiences to share I'd be very grateful. Many thanks.

[flowerybeanbag]

I don't think our kitchen can be much bigger than that. We have a 2 oven one. It gets warm in here but no other heat source and you can always open a window if it's too hot. Not needed often though.

Don't find lack of precision a problem at all, it's just about getting used to it, which I did much quicker than I thought. My nanny says the same - she said initially she was a bit worried when she saw the Aga but very quickly she got the hang of it and now she loves it.

We do also have a separate range cooker. This was in when we moved here along with the Aga, but I probably wouldn't have bothered with it. We virtually never use it at all tbh, it's a waste of space almost all the time.

We love our Aga. It makes the kitchen and the whole house lovely and homely, it's dead easy to cook on, you can just bung stuff in without having to faff about putting the oven on to heat up first which is great. The warming oven is dead handy for warming plates or keeping stuff warm while other stuff is cooking.

Top is brilliant for defrosting and for keeping stuff warm as well - not the hotplates but just on the top.

The hotplates themselves are great, one very hot, one warm, you can transfer easily between them and can put 2 or 3 pans on each one simultaneously if you need to.

Tea towels dry really quickly, plus anything else you want to hang over the rail. Bed linen can be folded and placed over the warm plate for ironing. Don't leave it there overnight though, unless you want a brown stain on it...

Highly recommend.

[ahundredtimes]

Hmm. Tricky.

We have Aga and no other oven or microwave either. It does get REALLY hot in the summer tbh, and I often wish we could turn it off. Is a big five door one, and a quite big kitchen.

It's bearable, but you know. i don't tend to turn it down either because it can take a while to get back up to full speed. Also we use it a lot as we both work at home.

I like the Aga though. But tbh do wish I could turn it off in the summer.

[Fayrazzled]

Thanks for your thoughts. I really don't know what to do for the best. It's such a lot of money if I regret my decision!

[emanon]

I can almost guarantee that you will not regret having an Aga - they are fantastic and I love mine. One great thing is that they always keep a lovely welcoming warmth in the house and for this reason you can delay putting the heating on.

I am at home, but all throughout the winter I never put the heating on during the day because of the background heat of the Aga. I am sure we do not spend anymore on gas because of this than a house without an Aga.

I also love cooking with mine. The cooking is not precise, but you will soon get the hang of it.

[flowerybeanbag]

I can't imagine you'd regret it, and if/when we move to another house, I'd definitely want it to have an Aga, so it's a selling point there as well.

[abear]

I agree with all the positives above about an Aga - we moved to a house with an Aga 3 years ago & I thought I would hate hate it but it is fantastic. I think some other positives are that it is always on so when hungry dcs want to eat you don't have to wait for the oven to warm up, you can make the best toast ever on an aga and don't need to clutter your kitchen with electric kettles or toasters, and for drying clothes it is fantastic. I have this stand from a company called Top of the Range and I dry everything on it so really never have to use the tumble dryer.

I don't think you'd regret getting an Aga -they make a kitchen so homely - my 6 year old DS is always telling everyone that dinner cooked in the Aga tastes better than any other way - bless him.

[bluesky]

you'll never regret an Aga, and to be honest we never seem to have summers hot enough for it to be a problem! In the summer i have the back door and windows open anyway.

I don't have an alternative cooking facility, I do everything on the Aga.

Great for drying, it's always on, so children can have instant food. I love my simmering oven, so you can put a casserole or something in there in the morning and then go out for the day.

It just makes life so easy

[blossomsmine]

Ah, well, i am a little more downbeat about my aga....I don't have one anymore, we moved, but i always found it unbearably hot in the summer, and we had a lovely large kitchen. Also we didn't have another cooker so kept it on all summer and when i couldn't bear it anymore and turned it off we were really limited with just the microwave!!!
I truly loved to cook with it but just couldn't bear the constant heat in the kitchen.....sorry!