My AGA - should it stay or go?

[saltyseadog]

We have a knackered old oil fuelled AGA which we inherited when we moved into our current home. I've always loved the idea of an AGA but a) this one needs mending b) they use up a LOT of oil so are not environmentally friendly, not to mention the cost, and c) DH needs convincing (the hardest obstacle to overcome!).

I would like to get ours fixed, but I am conscious of the fact that it is going to cost a bit to do so and therefore I'm weighing up whether we should keep it or get rid of it when we re-fit the kitchen.

Thoughts please :)

Keep it.

Get it renovated if you can afford it. They are so welcoming, lovely and warm, make the kitchen a homely place, and make great roast dinners.

My mum's is from the 1950's and is anthracite-fuelled - not many of them left!

Having said that, an aunt got rid of hers recently, but then, she hated cooking on it and spent the time swearing at it. But I think her kitchen is a sad place without it.

what size AGA?

and how long have you been making do with it?

we recently moved into a (rented) house with an AGA - all tip top, so that bit is ok, but while the hotplates are brilliant, I am suffering a distinct lack of oven space.

ours is a 2 oven one - so bottom oven is either a long slow cooking oven (not much use unless you like casserole/slow cooker type things), and the top is the cooking/baking oven.

I find I run out of room a lot when trying eg to do a roast. If it were a bigger AGA, with abit more oven space I wouldn't mind as much, I don't think.

buut then the hotplates are fab.

hmmm, tricky one.

Silver, you bring spuds to the boil then tip out most of the water then put in bottom oven with a lid on to steam for 40 mins, and you stack several pans in the top oven.

When you want to do yorkies, put the joint to rest in the bottom oven or just cover it with foil if its big.

I have a 2 oven one (I think) - it has three doors and two hotplates .

We would need another oven. At present we have a range cooker (also inherited and a bit knackered :o), so it's a question of whether we can fit two in in the renovated kitchen. We're going through the DFG process for dd at present, and had planned to remove the AGA to make way for her wheelchair to the back door. If we keep the AGA we'll need to find it a new home and potentially change the plans slightly (our architect will want to kill us)!

MMMMmmmmmm at the roast dinners though.

We sold ours and put in a pot bellied stove, I love AGA's but our oil bills have gone down huge amounts.

I had an oil fired Rayburn (one of the newish models that combined the cooker with the boiler). We got rid of it recently, when we had our kitchen redone, because it was a money pit - constantly needing work done on it. However, if your's is just a cooker you won't have that problem.
I found it much easier to cook on a normal cooker, but that's obviously a matter of taste. There were things like meringues, stir fries and cakes that were hopeless on the rayburn. Also, to me it seems crazy to be burning oil all day and night. Also ours was noisy.
The only thing to make sure, if you get rid of it, is that you have an alternative heating supply for the kitchen, otherwise, when it's gone, the kitchen will be very cold in winter.

melted - now we have an expert here :

so, once steamed, how do i go about roasting them?

stacking pans? in what way? we have a single shelf in top oven, but that is it, no other bits.

with the shelf out, surely everything would wobble and fall over (is there a cunning range of AGA pans?)
with the shelf in, can barely get a roasting pan under it, tbh.

most of my LeCreuset pans are just a little too high to fit...

the ovens are quite deep, and I could get a couple fo pans in lentghways, i guess but that has other issues...

is nice to lean against n a cool day, though

saltyseadog - we're considering doing the same. They're lovely when they're on in winter... but all that heat (and money!) pouring out all summer doesn't work for me.

Agas are the work of the devil. Sell it to somebody and buy a decent range cooker with loads of gas hobs.

Silver, the Aga pans (look for secondhand ones) have flat lids with recessed handles, and you just pile on on top of another if you need to put several pans in an oven. <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.aga-web.co.uk/ImagesMisc/101_0220.JPG&imgrefurl=www.aga-web.co.uk/northeng_carlisle.asp&usg=__kZYDOBxljh5sWUvN1WVOJDoX41U=&h=336&w=398&sz=30&hl=en&start=22&zoom=1&tbnid=IgSLRlCRaJuQSM:&tbnh=149&tbnw=176&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsecond%2Bhand%2Baga%2Bpans%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D773%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10,800&itbs=1&ei=rHeYTNecMZSSjAe53K0D&iact=rc&dur=1854&oei=n3eYTJ6ODZCUOPbE7PUM&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:22&tx=67&ty=99&biw=1152&bih=773" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">picture here

Reptile - I have no problem with meringues (made pink ones a few days ago [grin) stir fries or cakes!

I have a 2 oven one. Can you tell I love it?

Ooh I have been waiting and waiting for an Aga thread for people who weren't born and brought up with them!!

We got ours with our house, ours is a 4-oven and it's the only oven so we have had no choice whether to use it as we can't afford to remodel the kitchen. Ours is a reconditioned one, that now runs on gas.

Cons -

• The running cost for fuel is HUGE.
• There's a thing they do called "servicing" it which basically means they charge £100 once a year to replace a part. Service doesn't mean they go through a checklist and look at what might go wrong, as in a car service.
• We are tied in to a single company/person to service it. I nearly fell out with them once (see above!) and called round some companies but none of them would repair or service one they didn't install. So if you fall out with the installer you are stuck. You might want to get someone round to look at it to see if its repairable and would they be prepared to service it, otherwise your decision is already made!
• It used to be a bit flaky and would go out and refuse to relight every so often. Luckily our engineer is fantastic and worked out the problem, and now it's fine. The above fallout was when I rang up to ask why it had gone out 3 months after service and the receptionist said "Well they are a bit temperamental you know!" Luckily the engineer has a more scientific approach...but in the first year of running it we could have bought a new gas oven just with the Aga service costs.
• Some of its ovens run a bit cold. Frozen stuff takes ages (not that the Aga is exactly designed for frozen oven chips )
• We were semi-vegetarian when we got ours, but now eat meat/fish 6 or 7 nights a week. They cook meat so well, even cheap sausages.

Pros -

• Our house has no damp, which for a Victorian semi is quite impressive. The house has really good air movement and we think this is down to the Aga.
• Warming plates, keeping stuff warm - doing a roast is fantastic as you can just put things into the warming ovens once its cooked - you don't have a nightmare co-ordination exercise to get everything ready at once. Some things, namely meat, are actually nicer after having rested in the Aga for 15 mins or so. Xmas dinner was fantastic, although the first year I did "lose" the pigs in blankets, didn't find them till New Year's Eve!
• You can dry stuff on it, clothes (although they need protecting otherwise you'll get fat stains on everything!), toys (just wash soft toys then put on kitchen roll on Aga, will dry overnight), sports kit, pillows etc.

We will probably turn ours off one day when the costs get too high and we bite the bullet of working out where another oven would go, but we'll leave it in place and perhaps have it on for a few weeks in winter. I will miss it....

Good luck :)

just put in a new 2 oven aga with module so that we can a) turn off march-october and b) have flexible cooking. so far loving it apart from the bill! salty you could add on a module to an existing one rather than have a range perhaps?

Glad I found this thread - we have also just moved in a (rented) house with a 2 oven aga.
I am like silverfrog - a bit useless with is and worrying about how much it must be costing us.
we also dont have the right pans or stuff, and dont want to buy special things since this is only a temporary thing.

Our friends and visitors all love it though - and it does make the kitchen and rest of the house really warm.

I've had a gas aga and an oil aga but not for about 10 years and I still mourn their loss (we keep moving and it gets expensive to keep buying agas!)

We sold one of ours when we moved, there's a very good second hand market because not many people can afford to buy them new.

Alas, until we move again, an aga is but a dream ...

p.s get a mary berry aga book to help you use it properly.

HerHonesty - what's a module for an AGA (told you I was amateur :o)?

its an oven which looks like an aga. it either fits directly onto an aga or can stand alone. they arent cheap when compared to normal cookers but ours looks fab and means we have all the usability we wanted.

have a look on the aga website, they've got all the pictures.

To Aga ir not to Aga, that was the question when we built our new kitchen 5 years ago.

You should keep it if you can afford the fuel bill. But seriously - think of the weekend breaks or other nice things you could spend those many hundreds of pounds a year on.

Alternatively, get a Rangemaster (built by the Aga people). Electric fan ovens and choice of ceramic or gas hobs. Costs pennies to run and I love mine.

We had a Rangemaster in our old house and loved it mamijacaclys. We can afford the fuel bill, but I agree that the money could be spent far better elsewhere.

Herhonesty - thanks, will go and take a peek now.

Decisions, decisions....

I've just had my Aga serviced and switched on for the Winter. It is lovely and warm in my kitchen and I'm learning to cook on it.

I have no pans or cookware, so am stalking Ebay. I have bought an Aga toaster which I am very much looking forward to getting.

I'm hoping to do away with my electric kettle, microwave and toaster. Am I being too optimistic?

If anyone has any Aga pans they want to sell, please PM me. I'd like some saucepans and cake pans. And a kettle.
Otherwise we'll be eating a lot of toast and toasties!

And the Service Engineer told me that if you use it properly they can be quite cost effective. Gas conversions (as our is, from coal) cost more to run apparently. He also said that since the recession there simply isn't the demand for them anymore so they can be bought fairly reasonably.

If you are in the North, Saltyseadog, I can give you his details.

bumping