Am I mad to want an Aga?

[lexie01]

My DH thinks my desire (obsession?) for an Aga is ridiculous given the fact that:

1. Despite having a kitchen/breakfast area which is just over 22ft it is quite narrow (10ft) and very oddly shaped making it impossible to have a backup oven/hob for the summer (I do have a large utility where where the combi microwave will be going)
   
   
2. I am not a great cook - my 'skill's' really only extend to trad family fayre like shepherds pie/stews of varying descriptions, the odd roast with a bit of pizza/fish fingers and sausages thrown in.
   
   Am I letting my heart rule my head? Will we absolutely bake (parden the pun) in the summer with the Aga left on? Will it be just a very expensive mistake that I will regret? Please help!!

[DEB061]

Hi would u know what its costs apx to run your electric Aga?

[Alwayscheerful]

I decided on an Everhot half the running cost of an Aga and no servicing costs. Commercial grill and hob. If you move house you can take it with you. No installation costs if you have 2 sockets.

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

This thread's over six years old

[EnidButton]

Christmas lunch for 22!

[Crumbs1]

Cooking is as someone said, a doddle but you just have to get used to maximising time in oven rather than time on hob. Pasta/rice are easy and time exactly the same as on a hob. No nasty cooking smells at all but you do have to get used to using a timer as initially it's easy to forget and burn food. I like cooking and think Aga allows for easier 'proper' cooking. i use base of roasting oven as a large hot plate/hob.

[41coffeeslater]

Love love love my Everhot.
More efficient than an aga. Great for ironing (i.e. not actually ironing) and drying clothes. So easy to control and keeps house warm and damp free.

[EmGee]

My parents have an oil-run AGA and it is great. So warm and cosy. They could not envisage living without it (had it for 25 years now). Takes a while to adapt to cooking in it (e.g. baking etc) but not long.

My mum also uses it for 'ironing' clothes (on the hot plates - very effective!) and airs clothes/linen on the sheila-maid above.

[Sunnysidegold]

Our house came with a two oven oil aga. I was a bit unsure about it and it does take a bit of getting used to but I love that the kitchen is always cosy and you never have to wait for an oven to heat. Previous owners had put an electronic oven in too but we have used it once in the 18 months we've been here. We just open doors or Windows in the summer if it gets too hot.

[Cornwall73]

We lived up north in a house with a gas aha and no additional elec job so it was always on. I loved it and we were very sorry when we moved and the people who bought the house ripped it out. It does take getting used to and our first Christmas dinner using it was very late as we hadn't cranked up the heat to do the veggies and the turkey, but we have many happy memories from it. A big house yet everyone spent their lives in front of the aga watching a little tv in the kitchen. They are great for ironing clothes (folded on top of the lids) and you can make great thick toasted sandwiches!

[elfofftheshelf]

I have a gas 3 oven Aga with AIMS. I've always wanted one, but thought it would a "retirement dream" rather than a reality for this point in my life, but when viewing houses it was what really swayed us to buy this one! Once you get your head around the process (using oven rather than hobs, the 80/20 rule) cooking is much easier and the fact that it's on most of the time means that I'm cooking more than before.

Yes, they are expensive, but they last forever - lots of people have reconditioned Agas that are 50 odd years old.

My kitchen is quite large and I have double doors out to the garden, but we viewed the house in the summer and the Aga was definitely on and the heat wasn't oppressive. At the moment mine runs 12 hours on and then 12 hours (overnight) in slumber. With AIMS you can adjust for different days (e.g. weekends etc) and tell it when you are going on holiday etc to switch it off.

I won't go back to a conventional oven / hob!

[Crumbs1]

I love and adore my Aga. The house would feel very different without it. Ours is an electric programmable version that can be set to heat up and slumber to fit with family needs. It is big enough to do Christmas lunch for 22, better than any slow cooker, cooks quiche and baked potatoes to perfection. It also dries and irons clothes, dries running shoes, warms plates, sterilises jam jars, heats house in mornings. I can't imagine not having one.

[Wixgirl]

Please do not even think about it, they are not what they used to be. We had our old Aga replaced in December. Aside from the palaver of trying to get it installed (Aga didn't turn up to take away the old one), we have had a nightmare with it. It has had at least four new parts and one gas burner update. Due to an inherent fault in their latest version our Christmas dinner was ruined (raw despite leaving in overnight) and I have wasted six days of work waiting around for engineers to fix it. The new Aga is more efficient and lets out very little heat, the cosy kitchen is no longer, this is apparently because it is more efficient but I would say this loses its main selling point. The customer service is appalling. If i could send it back I would. Oh and the compensation offered for six days off work for a faulty oven and a ruined Christmas day was a measly £500, for an item that cost £12,000. Never again.

[NewBlueShoesToo]

I have an Everhot. Love it.
More controllable, more drying space, grill, more efficient.

[fifi3242]

I wouldn't bother unless you are buying a new one and willing to fork out for Aga servicing from Aga themselves. I have just spent the last 3 weeks without hot water and anyway of cooking as Aga don't hold the parts I need.

Thanks a bunch!

[Alwayscheerful]

Lemon- can you remember the which best buy please, your boots link has gone now.

[landrover]

We have a gas one, now 10 years old. Absolutely love it and wouldnt be without it. (By the way , you never have to clean it!!!!!!! just brush the insides out once every 6 months with a wire brush!)

We dry all the clothes on the airer above it, and use it for all cooking, dead easy to use, just go on a free cooking demo before it arrives and away you go. Its serviced once a year (something like £120), but you know its safe then, generally will go on forever!

Everybody congregates around it, only wish id bought the red one, not the green xxx

[cheesesarnie]

i had one, it was awful but oh so warm and looked pretty.

the bugger was tempermental, made loads of dust and took turns in burning/undercooking food.

i miss it like a first boyfriend- rose tinted spectacles of a pretty useless bastard.

[Doubtitsomehow]

I like ours in the winter. The rest of the time...it is inefficient, very expensive and you have to really be prepared to dedicate time and energy to cooking.

It costs a bloody fortune. And needs servicing every 6 months (oil).

There are better and cheaper ways of cooking IMO. It does add a certain romanticism but after ten years with the bugger I would happily trade it in.

[FairyTrain]

I put an aga in my new build last year ( on mains gas), it has AIMs, I LOVE it. I've grown up with an aga so have always been baffled by normal cookers, forgetting to turn them on, burning food constantly etc. I could rave about it all day. I have programmed it so that it's in slumber mode all night. If you can afford it, it will make you happy every day! (You can justify anything if you really want it!)

[miffyt]

We got an electric aga with aims in February and I LOVE it! The house is about 15 years old and now needs a new kitchen due to the aga being put in but we wanted to live with it for a while to see what would work best.
The kitchen has always been a really cold room but now it's so lovely and warm we've turned off both radiators. I have found it great for all my cooking so far. I haven't used the microwave or toaster since the aga was fitted and only use a stove top kettle now. It's on for 1 1/2 hours in a morning and 3 1/2 in the evening during the week and all day at weekends. The electric bill went up last month by about £25 but the gas down by £60 so nothing to complain about there! It has lots of nice little uses too, like keeping butter soft enough to spread, red wine at a nice temperature and warming a wheat bag for my other halfs bad elbow! Plus put your clothes airer near by and things dry in no time. Oh and the cooking smells go straight outside, great when you're doing things like Yorkshire pudding which can really make the place stink. For me the aga is a real winner. I know that this is an old thread but if anyone is thinking of getting one then my advice is go for it!

[Thinkingof4]

We have an electric aga with aims. We put it in 3 years ago, dh was not keen having never lived with one before. He was converted within 6 months and loves it as much as I do now. I find it very easy to cook on now, but it did take so getting used to. It's worth having some aga cookbooks to get you started. I'm a better cook now than I was pre-aga and a lot more adventurous in what I'll cook.
As others have said its also great for drying clothes- we have a line above aga where I dry nappies, and also a big pulley in the kitchen so definitely cuts down tumbling time! My boys love it too, we spend a lot of time in kitchen and it warms whole house- heating on max 1 hour a day in winter only, off for rest of year.
I don't know exactly how much aims saves us in terms of electricity but it also helps avoid house/kitchen being too hot. Mine is only on full power for about 2 hours a day during week, sl longer at weekends, and our electricity bill is about £175 per month (4bed house). Oil bill for water and heating about half what it was.
Demo definitely a good idea- let us know how it goes

[Soapsud]

I am hankering after an AGA having grown up with one. I am slightly put off by the above comments - I'm looking into Everhot which seem to be cheaper to run. Our household bills are enormous and heating is a luxury. Hence, the AGA queries so we can huddle around it in the winter. Currently have a Lacanche Cluny which is fantastic.

[mindgone]

I have always lusted after an Aga, but when we did the kitchen we just couldn't justify that amount of money! Also I did worry about the heat in summer, having a long, narrow kitchen. Anyway, my compromise cooker is a Falcon Continental duel fuel in cranberry, and I love it! Looking forward to seeing how you get on, good luck!

[thebestisyettocome]

If an aga feels like cooking on a radiator, it isn't working properly.