AGA questions and opions please.

[3peasinapod]

Hi all,

We are currently building our new home and we are hoping to install an Aga. I was at the showroom yesterday looking at the Aga's and colours etc. One thing i was not expecting was the intergrated modules. We are looking at the 2 oven Aga with the intergrated 2 electric oven and ceramic top. I would be so grateful if anyone has experiance of this type of aga????
Meeting the kitchen man today and really need to know what i want as if i go for this model i will not need to intergrate an oven / hob in the kitchen units.

Any help ladies ?

I got an AGA 2.5 years ago and love it. I had never used one before. We live in Northern Ireland where they are very popular.

I got the 3-oven AGA. We went to an evening session cooking class at the AGA shop before deciding to get one to see if it seemed simple to learn to use. The guy cooking said if I was cooking for a family I would get the hang of it in a month. He was right but need to go back every few months and push myself to try new things again. We don't have a toaster or kettle as we use the AGA for that too.

I chose not to get the integrated module as i knew if I had the option of an electric oven I would not use the AGA that was sitting there already on. What we did do was get a single gas wok burner ring as AGA's aren't great at the high heat for stir fries.

Is your kitchen north or south facing? Ours is north so we don't have an issue with the kitchen overheating in summer so our AGA is on all year round. The people I know who have the integrated module have south facing kitchens and have to turn their AGA's off for 4 months or so over summer as the heat in the kitchen is far too much. When the AGA is off they would use the integrated module.

I can cook Christmas dinner for 20 in the 3 oven AGA with no trouble fitting everything in. Recently we stayed in a holiday house that only had a 2 oven AGA and I have to say being use to the 3, I did miss the middle temperature oven.

Hope that helps, it is a hard and expensive decision so you want to get the right one for you.

Thank you Fresh01, Your info is a great help. I would have never though of the north / south facing! We too are North facing and are in a house that is north facing and feel the chill in the evening time even with the heat on.
I have read that you can get a timer with the most Aga's which i find interesting. In the book i got at the from the Aga shop, i read that on family programme the temp to go down from 1am till 6am and up again in time for the family when they get up. So another thing to consider.

I am in two minds as to go for the integrated module and the 3 oven Aga, or to go for the 4 oven original Aga. If i had the electric integrated module i may use that out of handyness!!

I currently have a single oven, with a broken light and a wonky door!! I refuse point blank to buy new until we move into the new house. So when i finally get my hands on my Aga i won't know myself. (once u learn how to cook on it, it may be beans on toast for a while)

DH cook's the christmas dinner (one meal a year i get to sit and relax) so it would be fun to watch him work his magic on an Aga for the first time!

I am hoping to toast, cook, boil the kettle, dry cloths, and warm the room with the Aga.

Thanks again for you help.

Glad it was some help. To answer some of your queries our AGA is gas and doesn't have a timer. It is always on at the same temperature although if we are going away for longer than a couple of nights I turn it down so it is just lit. From what I know the type you are describing with the timer is the electric one? Friends have the one with the timer, husband hates it as you can't just fire something in it at any time (I think theirs goes up and down in temperature about 3 times a day) but wife is fine with it.

With current gas price rises the gas option may not be as efficient as it was 3 years ago when we selected ours.

Not sure why you would use the electric integrated module out of handyness - one of the main benefits of the AGA is it is ready to go whenever so no waiting on it to heat before you can put food in.

Now how do I persuade my Dh to cook xmas dinner : )

Happy choosing.

Oh and if you want the chrome lids to stay unscratched get the pads that go on top of them. A friend couldn't believe how good ours looked after 2 years having the pads on top compared to his which had got very scratched.

Hi,

Just another thing I thought of this morning that our kitchen designer didn't take into account. Our AGA is in a row of large drawers for pans, tupperware etc but the end cupboard had 2 drawers put in it - one was meant for bread and the other vegetables. However, because it is below the worktop level in the same line of cabinets as the AGA the food was going off within 24 hours as the drawers have a warmer ambient temperature given the heat from the AGA.

Thanks Fresh01 great tip will think of that one. I also am going to go with the traditional model.. Just cant wait to start using it, and its going to be a while yet !!

think twice about the aga module. i have a two oven aga and purchased a module with two electric ovens and gas hob to fit onto the aga.

the ovens i find are small but worst of all, the top rattles dreadfully. i have had the i stalles back but it still rattles and so when i have the oven on i have to remove the gas rings on the top. think i had better get them back in to try and fix it. do i think its worth the money, NO.