I want a Rayburn. Any experiences? Positive or otherwise.

[Spiderhammer]

DH is away abroad so I thought I'd take the opportunity to move my cooker dreams a stepo forward and visit the Aga shop in Horsham today. I'm still drooling from the experience.

I thought I wanted an Aga, but now I want a Rayburn. They're cheaper and can heat 9 radiators and the family's hot water, apparently.

Can any of you share your Rayburn or Aga experiences with me? Can they really heat all those radiators? How easy are they to install and can you just use all the existing water pipes.

I'd love to get rid of my hideous old boiler.

I'm going to tidy my cold and Rayburn-free kitchen. Back later.

oh I have no idea but have always fancied an Aga so I could pretend I could bake

am loving the idea of you getting a feck off oven whilst dh is away, fab

We have an aga. It is the love of my life. Ours only does cooking but the knock on effect of having an aga is that our huge (40' x 40') kitchen/family room/playroom is always lovely and warm, even in winter. We live in a very big house but the aga keeps the house much warmer than I thought it would and we don't have many radiators on in the winter.

What kind of fuel would you go for? We used to have oil (no mains gas round these parts) but when we moved house we went for the electric one. I've been really pleased with it although our electicity bill is obviously higher than it would otherwise be.

I realise I'm not answering your questions about hot water and heating but just wanted to say how fab an aga is.

My Rayburn is a new gas one. It heats my 3 bedroom house, all the hot water and does the cooking. We renovated an old house and put everything in from new - but I believe it can just connect up to existing systems. We have everything to go on and off on a timer, including cooker, just like a normal heating system. It was quite cost effective to buy and install but have no running costs to compare or share, sorry. We have it serviced every year by a Rayburn/Aga engineer for about £80. You need a chimney out in for some models and you might need your floor reinforced. Cooking on a Rayburn is a bit different, but unlike an aga you have a temperature control for the oven so not that hard to get the hang of. Its a wonderful cooker, nothing dries out, and fab for baking as the heat is so even. HTH

I know Olive. I'm focussed on this. I've got complete tunnel vision and won't be thrown from my Aga/Rayburn ambitions.

Piggy I'm torn when it comes to fuel. We have gas so that would be the natural option BUT I like the idea of solid fuel especially as bio fuel becomes more competitive. I think DH would quite like wood gathering and the whole eco-DIY-warrior aspect of it, but I know I will have to choose so will probably go for the nice, safe suburban gas potion.

Does yours have AIMS which enable you to have it in slumber mode? How many ovens have you.

There are plenty of cheap Agas and Rayburns on Ebay but I'm not sure of the pitfalls.

I like the look of Agas but they are so much more expensive and I can't quite work out why since they're made by the same people.

DH is worried about the house being too warm in summer.

Madamenoir I didn't realise it operated differntly from an Aga apart from the boiler aspect.

How is the cooking different.

I had a surge of joy when I discovered how much cheaper Rayburns are, but now I'm worried I'll get a Rayburn and spend my time wishing I had an Aga.

Spiderhammer - i started a separate thread asking how to cook on Rayburn as going to be using one on hols... (didn't want to get your thread in a mess) - but if you can advise.... it'd be much appreciated!

TIA

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/1379/407821

We have 3 ovens (4 doors) - it's one of the new electric ones. Our old one had 2 ovens and I always felt that wasn't quite enough if we had loads of people round. Also, I grew up with 4 oven agas so was used to them.

Ours doesn't have slumber mode. In summer we just turn it down a bit - no problem. My MIL has a "normal" cooker as well as her aga and turns her aga off in the summer.

Reconditioned (second hand) agas are definitely worth looking at. They hold their value well because they are such work horses and last forever. However, I would only ever buy a reconditioned aga from a specialist aga reconditioning place - they will install it and tart it up so it looks new.

That's a major disadvamtage of Rayburns. You don't get three oven versions and I feel I'd need three ovens for the six of us, especially when people come round.

I wouldn't like to retain a 'normal' oven. I feel it has to be one or the other and I want to create space.

Do you think that two ovens wouldn't be enough?

We have a friend who regularly (at least once a week) has dinner parties for 20+ and manages perfectly well on a 2 oven aga. She also has 5 children and it's never been an issue for her. I think it's what you're used to as much as anything. The problem was I had grown up with a 4 oven aga (and learned to cook on it) so that's what I was used to.

The good thing about the 3 oven agas is that they take up the same room as a 2 oven aga. The bad thing is that they are new so the reconditioned market won't have much to offer yet if you decide to go down that route.

Agree totally about retaining a "normal" oven. Seems to go against the whole point of having an aga imo.

Its different because you have a temperature control dial like a normal oven but you still use the shelves to regulate temperature like an AGA. I have the cast iron model so have a lower simmering oven which is fab for slow cook soups, keeping stuff warm without drying out, warming plates, etc. I have found its a hybrid between AGA cooking (ovens all at set temperatures and you move food between shelves to regulate temperature) and normal cooking.
As an illustration, if using an AGA cookbook then I would use the timings and temperature givan for normal cookers but use the shelf height given for cooking on an AGA. Rayburn do have their own cookbooks though! And it really is like learnign the ropes of any new cooker. Two ovens is big enough for me as well. If you get the flat lidded pans, you can stack a surprising anount in those ovens....they are deep.
An AGA wasnt an option for me as I needed to justify the cost of such a purchase by using it to heat the house and water and therefore save on the price of a boiler!

That's my thinking too madam. Our boiler is on its last legs and I love the idea of using energy efficiently in this way.

I could do with some help on models. Is it true that the 300 series is very hard to get parts for now?

It's still a bit of a niche market then?

We have a Rayburn Nouvelle (2 oven), that we bought out the paper second hand for £500.

Its fab, I too, pretend that I bake on it.

Its really easy to control (its gas so dial on the side has Gas marks 1-9 as a normal cooker), cooks very evenly.

If you get one I'd advise taking time to read the instructions properly (simple things like you have to wait for it to heat up with the lids down before attempting to use the top plates.

Mines like a family friend, you can dry your washing on it and keep cups of tea warm etc.

We had one in our last house which had quite high ceilings and drafty. That one used to have no trouble heating all the large radiators.

My v practical dh says installing is a piece of cake! A normal plumber installed ours as its the same as installing a boiler.

Good luck, I wouldn't hesitate to buy second hand again, if you get one thats been serviced regularly you shouldn't have any problems. Local papers are a good place to look.

Oooh phantom. I'm inspired.

When you say '2 oven' is the second oven on the Nouvelle a warming oven or a simmering oven?

£500 is a good price. Does yours heat radiators and water at all? If so did your plumber just plumb it into the old system?

What are your bills like?

Hi, the second oven is a warming oven, but gets hot enough to cook in if you have the main oven up high. The main oven is deceptively big. Have only had it since Feb so haven't done Xmas dinner yet, but done roasts for 12 people no problem. It doesn't heat the radiators

The other one we had at the old house heated the radiators. These are more expensive second hand, it was a gas one, you can pick them up for around £1000 second hand.

Its hard to tell yet how effiecient this one is..I remeber the old one that ran the heating was quite expensive to run, I remeber being a bit dismayed at the bills to be honest...you could check out the efficiency ratings somewhere..must be a website for it I imagine.

I have an ancient solid fuel Rayburn which we got for free about 12 years ago and VERY second hand. We paid £400 to have it installed with a neutraliser. This allows us to switch between oil central heating and solid fuel via the Rayburn. We haven't had the oil on for about 8 years though as we can run the Rayburn on wood for free. It's fairly labour intensive and dusty but I wouldn't be without it. We run 5 radiators on it and do all of our cooking for a family of 5. We don't light it until around 4 in the summer so we have to be mindful about our hot water use during the day but we do have the oil option that we choose not to use because we like not having a heating bill😁

I've had a Rayburn for 15 years, I'm just about to have a new condensing model installed. I cook, dry, have 8 radiators (3 storey house) and it heats the hot water. It's a gas model, my previous bills were quite high but I'm hoping that the newer model will be more efficient as it will only heat the water as needed. I've easily cooked Christmas dinner for 12. When I had the first one installed all my original pipework was used. The flue was able to go through an existing chimney, which meant dd's bedroom was lovely and warm in the winter. On extending my kitchen, my rayburn was moved to an outside wall with an external flue and did suffer some internal damage, hence opting for an upgrade rather than a repair. The new condensing model means I can do away with the flue and the external air source that was required so my kitchen will be lovely and toasty again with no draughts. It can be turned off in the summer, ie the boiler and if like me you have an immersion heater as a fallback, you can just turn the cooker on as required. I don't have a radiator in the kitchen as the rayburn produces enough heat not to need one. Please let me know how you get on.

I love my AGA. It is off at the moment but turning it back on soon. There is nothing like the joy of coming to a nice warm aga kitchen after a walk in the cold.

I have the three oven, but actually very, very rarely use my baking oven for everyday cooking. I'm sure you'd be fine with a 2 oven, the ovens are huge and cater for a large number easily.

I had a Rayburn wood fired for years it is an old no.2 but when it needed some TLC my DH? Disconnected it. I am currently buying an Everhot but if you want an AGA do it now as I enquired and my Rayburn would get a £1500 discount on the AGA. Also they are lower in price at the moment but still more than the Everhot be aware that servicing yearly is about £350. The Rayburn will heat radiators but ours didn't because we had a large wood burner in the sitting room but it was connected to our water tank and sometimes we had to run some off. Due to the new kitchen we cannot have a Rayburn and so I have finally decided on the Everhot over the electric AGA. We are getting older and DH doesn't want a solid fuel one as we have enough work with the multi fuel stove. Good luck with your choice but do it soon if you want the discount. Some people buy one cheaply to get the discount. Not sure if they discount for Rayburns but they do AGAs.