4 oven oil AGA. Would it be cheaper just to burn pound notes?

[mateysmum]

I'm an AGA virgin, who's in the process of buying a house with a 7 yr old 4 oven oil Aga and no alternative cooker. There's no gas in the village.
The aga just does the cooking - not water or heating. The official aga figures suggest the running cost would be about £30 a week. Is this true in real life?

I'm seriously considering getting rid of the thing. I don't hate agas but neither do I lust for one. I'd be quite happy with a decent range cooker. Or am I mad and should just pay up, look big and enjoy the toasty warmth?

Anybody know what you'd get for a 2nd hand aga and is there a lot of "making good" afterwards once they've heaved it out of the house?

All advice gratefully received.

form an oil buying syndicate with anyone in the local area who also uses oil, we have a permeant ad in the parish mag,

we have several here, buy on a three month basis, one person phones round all syndicate members to see if and how much oil they want,

get the litres total, then phone round the different delivery companies, ask for their best price, then phone back again and ask if they would like to better the other company offer, keep going until one of them gives you a price that none of the others will better,

the delivery companies are use to this now, and are happy to deliver to the different address, it saves them money sending out one lorry,

the bigger the syndicate and order the lower the price drops, we take it in turns to be the ring rounder, but mostly some retired person takes it on and enjoys it, it only takes a few hours, one of our syndicates has a closed web site, where you register your next order, makes it even easier,

It takes the cost of the oil down considerable, well worth doing.

Thanks Quote - that's interesting. Many villagers round here don't have gas, so the majority of homes must be on oil and I suspect many have agas.

once you get the ball rolling, it works really well, I started a client off with just one neighbour, so only two houses, it still took the price down, there are now 22 in that syndicate, and growing.

We have an oil combi boiler and an electric range cooker (no mains gas, west Wales).
We do the syndicate thing with family to buy oil and spend about £900 a year plus about £700 on electricity (based on the last few cold winters).
If I had an oil aga I would want it to be doing the central heating/water as well if it was eating £30/week of oil (>£1500/year). You may be able to convert it if you can find an expert aga engineer.
When we put in a new kitchen extension about 7 years ago, I really wanted an aga/ray burn but the running costs and general inefficiency of the system put me off. Got a Rangemaster electric range cooker as a consolation though.
FWIW, new builds round here are having ground source heat pump systems installed instead of oil boilers, so only electricity bills to pay. A friend says his Annual leccy bill is about £1200, so his total energy bill is 25% less than mine! Haven't the foggiest how much it costs to install this system but will consider it when our oil boiler goes pop (it is 15 years old and has served us well but is probably not long for this world).
HTH, sorry for length of post .

Move in. Rest bottom on Aga on cold day. Fiddle around with casseroles/cakes/pancakes. Fall in love. Agree it is worth EVERY PENNY. Spend time on internet persuading other people to give it a go.

That is all.

There was a 4 oven oil AGA in the old farmhouse that we moved into and DH looked at the running costs using AGA's figures a few years ago and made it just over £1000 per year, so there's been quite a hike even since then!

We converted ours to a pressure jet system using a kit from a company called snug burner (I think) AGA don't approve. It works like a normal boiler now, so we only have it running for about 8 hours a day, which cuts down the cost a fair bit! It can also be serviced by any boiler type servicer rather than having to be done by AGA. I found it firing up quite noisy to begin with, but I'm completely used to it now and couldn't really argue with DH saying it was mad to pay that much for something that was used for 4 hours maximum in a day. I don't love the AGA, but I will tell you that any roasted meat you do will be lovely and moist and taste great!

We were going to change it for a Sandyford, which looks the same, but is meant to be turned off and on, unlike our adjusted AGA, which takes about 4 hours to get to full temperature. But in the end, the cost of a new Sandyford or other range to fill the gap made what we did the most cost effective. We also have a combi microwave/grill/oven thing, some gas rings (which were used by the previous owner, who had the AGA on 24/7) and an electric kettle.

Also, I don't think 2nd hand agas make much, but I might be wrong!

Thanks ladies, some useful suggestions. I think we'll probably need to run with it over this winter at least and see how we get on.

Mateysmum you need a cook book called "The Aga Bible". Brilliant way to get used to it and how it works. Good luck!

agas are wonderful. Worth every penny

I have just got rid of my 40 year old oil fired 2 oven aga. It ran our hot water as well as cooking. I did love it but tbh it needed constant visits from aga engineers at £100 a time to keep it going - oil agas need servicing every 6 months anyway, again costing £100. It broke down too many times just before I had a houseful of guests/Christmas dinner to cook! We didn't get anything for it but did manage to find someone locally willing to remove for free - aga wanted £500 just to remove it! We were told there is no market for oil fired agas atm as they are so expensive to run. Ours was using approx 60 litres of oil a week, would have been 40 without hot water - however ours was a two oven, not sure about a four. There wasn't much making good to do after removal, pleasingly, even the concrete slab came up to reveal the original tiles undamaged underneath. We have ordered an Everhot, which is heat storage like an Aga but costs approx £10 a week to run with no servicing costs vs £40 a week for the Aga. If you can afford the aga and it's in good working order, I'd keep it- they are fab. Otherwise, there are other cheaper options out there! I hope that helps.

It would be cheaper to burn money, but you will fall in love and never go back. Remember, you don't need a radiator in the kitchen or a drier....

I was like you, would never have put one in, but if someone tried to take it away now, I would lie in front of the truck

Good point beachyhead - you don't need a dryer, or a toaster, or slow cooker - and tbh you could cut down on the ironing with them too! I am really missing my aga esp for drying the kids school uniforms - am hoping the everhot will fill the gap

Hello,
I nosily clicked on your thread as I love range cookers. My mum's always had a Rayburn and she uses it for all the reasons other posters have mentioned!

I recently moved out of a house with oil fired central heating and found the following website very handy for finding competitive oil deliveries as they find the cheapest price in your area, but also offer group discounts. Take a look:

www.boilerjuice.com

Sorry I'm on my phone so can't do links.

Hoping this is my good deed for the day/week/month!

Enjoy your AGA!!

I would not be with out mine, Its Pink too. It keeps our 20x20 room tostie 22+ day and night, we leave the patio doors open for the puppy too, oil is down by 20 p a ltr from last winter and still falling. Under 40p now. It prob costs just under £20 a week, all our cooking, kettle, toasting is done on it, saves loads on elec. Dries all washing, I would not be with out ours

Should like to add the food cooked on an aga is in a league of its own, you never burn anything and its flavour is awesome. I hate eating out, as food just does not taste the same. Can't wait to put the turkey in, we do it over night in the bottom oven and finish in the top one, I am sure there are plenty of other folk feel the same as me

Jealous now, just watched a video and they look great!

What are you jealous of!