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Original poster

AGAs - the good, the bad, the ugly

38 replies

carrie74 · 08/06/2019 21:38

We've had an offer accepted on a house that has an Aga in the kitchen. It's the 2 oven model, and is oil-fired. The lovely owner gave me a fab demo of how it all works, she was very favourable, and is planning on an Aga in their new place, but I remain unconvinced. It seems to me as though I'll need to buy new pans (without handles), spend hours planning meals, new roasters, and generally resent it full stop.

I don't think we'll be in a position to remove it (but out of interest, has anyone done that NOT as part of a complete kitchen re-do?), so I will probably have to come to terms with it, so please can I have some honest opinions.

Can you do the Xmas turkey in it? How do you know how long to bake things for? If you're out of the house at work/school all day, is it easy to whip up dinner, without having to have planned in advance?

OP posts:
Frogarmy · 08/06/2019 21:47

It depends. If any of your cooking is temperature specific, sell it ( there will be hundreds of people aspiring to an Aga)

I am not a fan - as you have a "hot" oven ( not even consistently at the same temp) and a cooler one.

If you think of it as an extremely expensive slow cooker....it will be amazing!

Except you can get a slow cooker for around £20.

Ffsnosexallowed · 08/06/2019 21:48

Best thing about an aga - the toast

Doilooklikeatourist · 08/06/2019 21:57

We have a 2 oven Aga
It was oil ,we had it converted to electricity, as I found the oil fumes unpleasant ( it may well have been a couple of bad oil deliveries , but not good )
Cooking in an Aga is easy , once you get the hang of it , the best roast potatoes you’ll ever have , and there is no need to blind bake pastry ever again
Look at amazon for a Mary Berry Aga book , or the Aga book that comes with the cooker
Cooking the Christmas turkey is fine ( you just might need the electric cooker to do the Brussels sprouts on )
However , they cost a fortune to run , will cost a fortune to remove ( so we’ve kept ours ) we have an electric cooker that we use in the summer , And for the grill , as Agas don’t have a grill

ChicCroissant · 08/06/2019 22:08

As Doi said, my relatives that had an Aga loved it but had an electric cooker to use in the summer as having the Aga on made the kitchen feel like a furnace a bit hot.

bilbodog · 08/06/2019 22:34

Agas are marmite, you either love them or dont get them at all. I love them. Had a gas one for 19 years and about to have an electric one put in our current house - dont want to live without now.

I suggest going on an aga cookery day at your nearest showroom to see how versatile and easy they are before deciding.

Oddbutnotodd · 08/06/2019 22:36

There are other threads about Agas on here. I don’t find my kitchen gets too hot even during a heatwave. They do cost more to run than a normal cooker but keep the house warm and aired all year round. I think you adapt your cooking style as well. Don’t really need a microwave either. Also can air/dry clothes on them.

MollyHuaCha · 08/06/2019 22:38

Best thing about an aga - the toast

Worst thing about an aga - the bills

ohwhattodowithmylife · 08/06/2019 22:41

Loved my aga, doesn't take long to
Hey your head around it. You can use lots of your current pans/ dishes in it. I purchased 3 aga specific roaster etc. If you have an aga ship near you they do demonstration classes for approx £20. It was amazing and I thoroughly recommend.

Original poster
carrie74 · 08/06/2019 22:43

Hmm, a lot of the pros don't particularly sit well with me - I've got a 2 week old tumble dryer which I'd much rather use than drape my cooker in clothes (plus a heated airer, which I'd prefer to plug in and hide away in a room not in use).

Lovely owner has said she'll leave the Aga cookbook that it came with with me for reference, so I'd have some guidance there as well as her quick tutorial.

I think I'm going to have to just get on with it, at least in the short term. And plan how to afford a new kitchen long term!

OP posts:
Original poster
carrie74 · 08/06/2019 22:46

Thank you all for your advice. I think they really are marmite items, and I think if you've always had one / grown up with one, then you'll always want one.

I'm also coming from a position of having designed my dream kitchen about 4 years ago in our current home, so giving up all my carefully chosen items is definitely difficult.

OP posts:
Marmaladegin · 08/06/2019 22:47

We did this. The aga we inherited in our house was horribly expensive, so we sold it for £250 and the buyer removed it.

exLtEveDallas · 08/06/2019 22:48

I love my Aga, but mines a 4 oven and gas run. Yes it's expensive but for me it's worth it. I don't do my laundry on it (except drying DDs blazer) and I miss it horribly in the summer when it's turned off.

exLtEveDallas · 08/06/2019 22:49

Oh and we looked into removing ours when we first moved in - 4 bloody grand! So I said I'd give it 6 months then revisit. I was hooked within a month!

Expressedways · 08/06/2019 22:51

Love an AGA, I grew up with one. That said I’d struggle if it was the only cooker- my parents have a gas hob and electric oven too for summer or when they want something cooked quickly.

NotMeNoNo · 08/06/2019 22:54

We had one in a house we rented for a few months, so not really time to get used to it. It was the electric total control one. It was a summer so we didn't have it continuously on. I can see why people love them but to be honest once you've got one you have to embrace the aga life rather than admit what a PITA it is.

In your position as long as there's another normal oven/hob, don't let it put you off a house. I'd go for it and take time to learn The Way of the Aga.

For me, never again!

ChiaraRimini · 08/06/2019 22:54

They are horrifically energy inefficient. You can get used to cooking on them but why bother when it's going to cost you a fortune for the inconvenience.
I'd plan to remove it and replace with a modern cooker.
People bang on about how cosy they make the house but central heating and a tumble dryer will be cheaper to run.

Happyspud · 08/06/2019 23:00

It’s a secret club. If you want to know more you have to get one. There’s a secret handshake and everything.

Housemum · 08/06/2019 23:06

I could have written your post OP!! Except ours is gas not oil. Came with the house, she is beautiful (I know, it just seems like a she!) but I used to love baking and that's something that the 2-oven struggles with. I can now make a reasonable sponge, but it's not as light and fluffy as in my old electric fan oven. If it didn't come with your cooker, you need a "plain shelf" to put in the top oven to reduce the temperature for cakes. Has to go in cold at same time as the cake goes in, it reduces the heat a bit.

We managed fine with Christmas dinner - DH was going to do the roasties in advance but in the end he did them on the day. Turkey took a little longer than usual, but got it out and foil wrapped it while the roast potatoes/parsnips cooked. Veg brought to boil and put in simmering oven.

I lust after a fancy professional style range cooker to fill the space but we won't have the budget to change the kitchen for years - and the terracotta tiles would probably be knackered if we are trying to remove the Aga. So looks like we are stuck with her and her huge bills. But I can't deny it's nice having a bum-warmer on a cold day!

InMyLivingRoom · 08/06/2019 23:11

I loved ours, but it doubled our oil costs (no gas supply in our village), so we sold it, well gave it away. As they are so hot you usually turn them off May to September, but we didn't have space for a conventional cooker too, and I was sick of 'camping' arrangements over summer.

But I still miss it. But not £1500 oil bill for a year when oil prices were high!

yikesanotherbooboo · 08/06/2019 23:22

Our house had one when we moved in and I grew to love it very quickly. It is 2 oven and gas run. Some of your heating costs are
Mitigated as the kitchen is always warm so eg one might just light a fire in the evenings rather than turn on the heating. I've never had a tumble dryer so haven't missed the luxury of that. In this day and age of worrying about energy use I would probably do without it if I was planning a new kitchen in a new house but I would miss it. We had our kitchen reconfigured about 12 years ago and now have 2 gas rings and a little combi oven as the kitchen now gets very hot in the summer so we turn the AGA off. Previously we didn't need to as the kitchen was north facing and the windows were draughty. We have the dishes the AGA came with and a couple of le creusets that I already owned. I have bought a frying pan and 3 saucepans over the last 20 plus years so wouldn't see that as being a big cost. The AGA is at least 40 years old and it's original roasting dishes are still fine. One cost that does recur is servicing which as well as the yearly cost( for gas) means turning the appliance off and then turning back on which incurs extra fuel costs.

longearedbat · 08/06/2019 23:27

I was brought up with Agas. My parents had a 4 oven oil one in their house (which is still there, even though they have gone on). Their oil bills were shockingly high, as they had oil heating as well, and this will always be the problem with them. When we extended I looked into similar electric stoves (make escapes me at the moment, but not aga), but the electricity consumption on those is pretty high and therefore costly, so we decided against in the interest of economy.
The best I had was a coal fired Rayburn. I loved that filthy thing, it was always so toasty downstairs, and was a fraction of the cost to run of my parents oil aga. It was a constant job looking after the fire though.
So yes, Agas and similar are wonderful to cook on, but can be expensive to run.

Neighneigh · 08/06/2019 23:31

You really don't need to worry about some massive life altering cooking changes. They're not that bad to work with. We do roasts, yorkshires, the works in ours, plus drying a fuck ton of laundry. And the dog loves it. Tbh I'd never buy one to install, our house came with an electric one. It costs a fortune but luckily we have space so have installed a seperate oven & hob: between April and October the aga is off and actually I have to get used to the conventional oven again more than I did the aga. We have no other heating in the kitchen so we have to have it on in winter. Our house gets warmer the further downstairs you go.... I'd give it a full calendar year to decide what to do with it.

Movinghouseatlast · 09/06/2019 06:21

Well, I have just spent a bloody fortune on a similar thing and love it!

It does take time to get used to cooking in a different way. I think that the food tastes better though. The Aga Bible by Any Wilcox is brilliant.

You can sell it for decent money if it's in good condition as there is huge demand for second hand.

NewYoiker · 09/06/2019 12:31

Join 'I love my aga' on Facebook and you'll find so many tips and recipes from fab people. And 'I love my aga lifestyle ' is more photos of dogs near agas and recipes but equally lovely :)

StarlightToCasualMoths · 09/06/2019 12:48

I wasn’t expecting to love mine but I do.
You do need to adapt your way of cooking but now when mine is off I miss it.
My cooking in an AGA is definitely better.

We installed an electric module alongside as when we moved into the house the AGA was the only cooker and in the summer it was too hot.
Oil bills for the year (so that’s AGA and the boiler for heating and water) are usually about £1500 so it is expensive but it’s npt money that I begrudge at all.

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