Aga or Rayburn?

[MissLemon18]

The house we're buying has an old solid fuel Tirolia range that I'd like to replace. Do I go for an Aga or Rayburn? Won't be used for heating. Plan would be to eventually convert Aga to Electrikit by Blake and Bull or equivalent for Rayburn by CC Conversions.

Which would you go for and why?

Everhot. Had mine now for four years. After having had both an aga and a Rayburn I simply can't recommend highly enough. Absolutely no effort, no servicing, completely controllable and an induction hob as well if you want it. Take a look at their Facebook page as it has a lot of posts in this subject.

@airfixkitwidow and @gonewiththerain thanks for feedback. Definitely only interested in Aga or Rayburn though as will be buying 2nd hand and Everhot rarely come up for sale in budget.

I suppose if it's forbidden to use oil or gas for your central heating in years to come, Everhot will make out like bandits for tose of us addicted to our ranges. My Stanley will have to be pried out of my kitchen...after 13 years of ceramic and induction hobs in belgium, it was lovely to come home to my slab of cast iron and use my Le Creuset as it was intended to be used.

I had an Rayburn royal oil for 20 years and was talked into by husband to take it out and put in a 2nd hand 13amp aga. OMG the cost of running was so expensive. Ran it on electric for 12 months. On google one day I saw an advert to conversion of aga. We converted it to oil and and now realise aga is far more superior to my old much missed Rayburn.

@lainey68 Interesting! How much does it cost to run on oil? Hear so many people say oil is so expensive. Why do you now think Aga is superior to your Rayburn?

Which scenarios do you prefer Aga/Rayburn for?

Can't comment on Rayburn as we have an Aga.

It's an LPG 5 door fairly old one, inherited with the house. I absolutely love it. Amazing to cook with, makes everything taste delicious and really suits my style of cooking. Took me about 2 days to get used to.

Cost wise it is about £1300 for gas every 16 months (we turn it off in summer) and £18/m standing charge for the tanks (two large ones hidden in the garden)

Even on the lowest setting heat is different kettle boils far quicker from fresh on aga we used to have to keep on simmer side on rayburn. One quarter our electric bill for 13amp was £900 as opposed to £350 for same period with aga or ray urn we always had to turn electric up to achieve the necessary temperature. we keep the aga on all day now with doors into hallway open and when we come home the house is warm. Even with Rayburn that I loved it didnt throw out the same heat

Look carefully at the figures. Our oil Rayburn gets through just under 200 litres of oil a month, working out on last delivery prices at £2.93 a day.

An hour of cooking a day with the electric oven and hob we have for summer use pulling 3kw each is £1.20 for comparison, but we also have to use the electric shower then which adds a pile more electricity use so the true increase in cost of the Rayburn is roughly a pound a day, and it keeps a good chunk of the house warm.

An aga generally doesn’t do the hot water and runs at cooking temperature all the time so kicks out a load of heat but also has to burn more oil to stay hot.

A Rayburn has an idle setting which is more frugal but kicks out less heat and you turn it up before cooking. Generally Rayburns I have known also do the hot water.

I should add our Rayburn is a Regent converted from coal to oil. The ones made for oil are apparently more efficient.

Electricity comes to just under 20p a kWh, a litre of oil at 45p has 10.3 kWh of energy in it, so even allowing for the inefficiency of burning I doubt electric would be cheaper for us.

I bought an induction AGA two months ago and I cant fault it . Very cheap to run , excellent results and looks fantastic .
I spent around 6 months looking at many stoves but finally settled for the known quality offered by AGA , I have not been disappointed.

None of these ovens are an economy measure. They are not cheap to run. Would also not recommend conversions between fuel types. From experience it is even less efficient.

If you are doing it for the 'aga experience', the warm kitchen, slow cook, always hot and the county kitchen look, fine. The relative efficiency is published.

Aga's are more classic and have upmarket connotations. Rayburns generally considered cheaper (not necessarily correct).

I would be surprised if long term a new everhot was more expensive than a second hand and converted aga. The latter is unlikely to be as efficient and will cost more to run.

We ripped ours out. Ate 300l of oil a month. That was when oil was nearly 90p a litre. Ridiculous thing.

Thanks everyone for your messages! Some interesting perspectives on conversions and fuel types. I know that by default all ranges are expensive to run.

I'd like to bring the topic back to practical comparisons of the Aga V Rayburn in terms of cooking on them. What I really want to know is if you have used an Aga and a Rayburn which do you prefer and why?

Hope this doesn't sound off, but I'm not really interested in other types ranges e.g Everhot. I'll be buying a cheap Rayburn or Aga off ebay or equivalent site rather than from new as my budget to buy it is around 1k.

Just trying to get to the bottom of which to go for.

Kettle boils quicker on aga the temperature of the oven is better for baking cooking etc. As someone who had rayburn for 20 years I used electric oven for speed and more controlled baking. Now with aga 6 years the electric oven in utility is never used and is a store for cake tins. The surface area of the hob holds more saucepans. The oven temperature heats up quicker on aga with the rayburn I had to give it a good hours notice which unless you are extremely organised I would forget . Only negative I had with aga at start was I burned my arm quite a few times as oven so much bigger and deeper but a long oven glove fixed that

Had solid fuel rayburn(s) and found the biggest pain we're the firebricks which kept breaking. It is easier to keep going when at home, and was great for hot water and heating. However, when the second rayburn boiler went we looked options. Agas were and still are extortionately expensive and you have to have a seperate boiler, which requires a bit of width.
We eventually got a Stanley to do all our cooking, heating and water. Fantastic and not firebricks. We called him the workhorse because all these ranges are built to work.
Since moving 18mths ago we have a rayburn in the kitchen but can't use it as it has been disconnected. Heating is oil, which is a real luxury for us, but we are looking into getting a Stanley again, and a new hot water tank with three coils - so that different systems can be used, but that's our choice. In your case I would recommend having a look at electric options rather than buying a range which is a large investment then faffing about with conversion kits. I'd go for rayburn as they are cheaper to buy, specially secondhand. I highly recommend Tall trees Stoves in Tenbury (Glocs) if you need an expert opinion. Brilliant company.

Mandy I replaced my old Stanley Superstar for a Brandon when the former died after 20 years. It was cheaper to buy the Stanley than a Rayburn, and the ovens seem bigger. I took a Stanley oven shelf with me when we went to look, stuck it in a Rayburn and it fell to the bottom. QED.

Aga and Rayburn are identical to cook on in my experience, if (its a big if) you remember to adjust the Rayburn or have the timer set to turn up the burner in preparation for cooking about an hour in advance.

If you can’t do that reliably you will prefer cooking with an aga, but the aga oil bills are higher.

Be aware that support for Aga’s is now dire since the brand was sold to a US company. I’ll never have another, which is a shame as I love it.

Thanks @lainey68, @Mandyglantren and @Asdf12345 - exactly the sort of info I'm looking for!

Look at Skipton. He has reconditioned Everhot & Aga as well as new.A really knowledgeable guy. I have an Everhot and love it. I have the 110 I which has an induction hob so you can turn off the ovens in summer if you want to.

If you use furnicite (not sure exactly how you spell it) you can keep a Rayburn constantly on with two loads of fuel (morning and evening). I don't do it, but a family member does. Just saying, as you mentioned not being able to stick with solid fuel as you'll be out during the day.

Parents had an old solid fuel Rayburn that they replaced with an oil fired Rayburn (wanted to run radiators and hot water tank off it). I remember the hot water used to get very hot with the new Rayburn. Solid fuel one was a pain as had to be stoked up ahead of cooking and bedded down at night, plus it created a lot of dust and required a lot of wood chopping and lugging coal. They were very rural so not on mains gas.

My experience of AGAs and Rayburns is that an AGA will cook and heat the room it is in. A Rayburn will cook and heat the room it is in and all the rooms around it. AGAs have more insulation inside.