Aga?

[pacific407]

We've just moved house and inherited a really beautiful 4 oven Aga. We're planning a kitchen renovation, which will involve moving the kitchen to another part of the house. I'm told it will be about £1000 to move the Aga, on top of the cost of cleaning/servicing etc. that we'll need to do.
Question is, should we go through the faff of doing that or sell the thing and buy a normal stove?
I love the look of it, but am not really in love with cooking on it (I'm told that comes with time?!). But I'm also concerned about what to do in Summer? We had notionally planned a "spare" single oven but that doesn't solve the hob situation if we turn the Aga off in Summer, and it seems like a huge expense to move it if we're then relying on a back up oven for half the year!!
But everyone I speak to looks at me like I'm mad when I talk about getting rid of it!

@Eleoura Oooh interesting! Does that include enamel repair/cleaning etc? Trouble is, our Aga is really big (150cm wide), which means that's a huge commitment on space in the new kitchen if I'm also going to have a separate cooker top and oven for the summer. Yours looks smaller so I can totally see that approach making sense (there really is nothing like the cosy heat from the Aga in the winter, I'm finding!!)

The faff and expense of having it dismantled and moved to another part of the house when we have our kitchen redone, @PresentingPercy, not of using it.

The Everhots are gorgeous aren’t they pacific407 . The main reason we got one, is because it’s only electric, just two ordinary plug sockets. We wanted to get away from gas. If I was starting from scratch like you, I would get rid of the aga, as lovely as they are. And get an Everhot. We paid £5k for ours secondhand. They are an amazing company. No I don’t work for them! We moved ours when we moved and it cost £200 as it’s a specialist mover you need, with the weight.

@PresentingPercy sorry, last message not meant for you! I agree, all a bit of a faff. Particularly the thought of moving it but tbh although, yes, you just shove stuff in the oven, I find using it a bit of a faff too because of the size of the ovens and the temperature they're set to...

We live in an old house made of rubble infill walls and no foundations; our gas aga is a godsend for keeping the house dry and warm. We have gas central heating but don’t use it as the aga heat makes such a difference. Cost-wise, keeping the aga on all year worked out the same as having GCH on a timer in our last ‘normal’ house. If we lived somewhere less damp (we’re very up north) we might get away with turning it off in the summer but that’s the time the house has a chance to fully dry and air itself ready for the winter! It really depends on where you live and how watertight your house is. The aga is a wonderful thing if you fully adopt its uses: ours dries clothes overnight, irons clothes, dries the house out, provides great cooking flexibility and offers a homely hub! Keep it!!!

@Pinkcanoftan sorry I just realised your comment wasn't addressed to me. But tbh I also thinking cooking on it is a bit of a faff because the ovens are, weirdly, pretty small and the set temperatures means lots of moving things around (e.g. if you're doing a sunday roast). That said, I'm new to it...

@Mintine £5k second hand?!! Better than I thought. And was it in mint condition?

Another vote for Everhot. They not only look good but they are a dream to use and their after sales service is terrific. Also they do not need servicing which is a good saving

We inherited ours with the house and it took me years to like it! Always said I'd never have another. Burnt myself a lot and it is always dusty, which drives me mad...However, before Christmas it was off for a week to be fixed and oh my goodness I missed it so much. It's not just the cooking (which I'm now used to) but how we dry clothes by it, lean against it when we come in from the cold, put our cups of coffee on top to keep them warm, never have to think about preheat times, hang coats to dry, warm crockery, don't need an electric kettle etc. Ours also heats our water and our gasman said there is nothing like aga hot water - we have fantastically hot showers! My husband and I agreed we had a new found love for it

And when we had no power in deepest winter, we were very pleased to still have hot drinks and meals and usual!

I'm another Everhot fan. There's a company that specialises in them second hand - you get them completely reconditioned and they are in mint condition and much much cheaper than a new one. Plus you can have them any colour you want.

I love love love mine - cooking on it took a short time to figure out (reduce the amount of liquid for anything in the slow oven massively) but honestly the food is nicer.

I'd say except for the very hottest couple of weeks it wasn't too hot but I still didn't bother to turn it off most of the time the kitchen is just right and I've only needed the now tiny radiator on in the kitchen for 4 weeks over December/Jan.

It's also made no discernable difference to the electric bills.

We have an oil 4 oven one and I absolutely adore it. I would never be without one now. When we moved one of the requirements was an aga already being installed.
Learning to cook on one correctly does take a little getting used to though.
I'm trying to convince DH to switch our 4 oven one to a 5 oven one I love it so much.

We do have a separate oven and hob. We turn off from May until early Oct depending on the weather.

@Agapinkus- sorry, posted my reply to you in error!
@pacific407- our aga is a 2 oven one, so closer to 1m wide, but there are wider ones with 4 ovens. Yes, I can understand trying to fit the wider style into a kitchen. They are also deeper than most modern ovens/appliances which are normally max 60cm deep.

The guy that dismantled our aga gave me a detailed dimension sheet and also mentioned the added depth in terms of getting wider kitchen tops either side, or having them stepped to account for the deeper aga.

Aga ovens are not small - they are deep rather than wide. If you have the correct roasting tins and trays they slide on to the runners and you need saucepans with flat lids so you can stack pans in the ovens. You cook very little on the top, often bring things to the boil, put the lid on, drain the water and steam in the simmering oven. Meat and casseroles can be started off in the very hot roasting oven then moved down to the simmering oven which is like a big slow cooker.

Thank you everyone for your feedback on this!! I am very intrigued by the Everhot option and will definitely be looking into that more closely!

It’s a lifestyle choice. You covet one or you run a mile. New ones are obviously hugely expensive. You have to really want it and want the lifestyle around it.

What matters to you most? My friend went in courses to learn how to use hers. I just turn mine on and read the instruction book. Slow cooking is possible in all ovens. Burning food is an Aga speciality. They are difficult and temperamental! Good luck if you keep it.

The ovens are deep ANd never need cleaned.

@PinkyParrot Oh yes, the ease of cleaning (or rather, like you say, not needing to clean) is a BIG bonus!

@PinkyParrot oh yes, the not needing to clean is a BIG bonus!

pacific407, it was absolutely great, almost like new, but was actually 4 or 5 years old. Off eBay. It’s the best cooker I’ve had,it’s amazing. We ended up buying it as we bought a new smeg cooker last year and the foot broke off, that cost £2800, and we got a refund. The Everhot is leagues above, quality wise.

I love our Rayburn, but they never make financial sense. It’s not a home without one though particularly in the winter months. We have another job and oven for summer use.

The everhots don’t do it for me, there is something about the low rumble and burner noise in a cold windy night that makes me feel at home.

I love my AGA - cant imagine life without it. We never turn it off and even in summer our house is cool, like a church.
Ours is gas but if I had to move it I would get it electrified - not so helpful if there is a power cut but it would mean that there would be no need to get it serviced, which is quite expensive!

@Mintine I was looking at a Smeg range, actually, as an alternative. Looked pretty but struggling to find any reviews anywhere...

I really miss my Aga, not just for the cooking/drying clothes/warmth, I used to smooth my sheets out on the top, have to iron them now.

I would sell it.

I had one for 10 years, was constantly being told I would grow to love it, but hated the damn thing.

The kitchen had been built around it and as they are an odd size and it was sitting on a massive cement plinth, I couldn’t just remove it. I also had no space for a hob or oven without mucking up the kitchen design.

I tried everything, off in Summer, an electric frying pan, a portable induction hob but still the beast ate through my bank account and caused endless frustration. It was over hot in Summer and always losing heat at crucial points in cooking for a supper party or Sunday lunch.

My joy when I moved two years ago and had a beautiful new oven and induction hob, has translated into once again being able to cook and enjoy all the dishes that my Aga was useless for.