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!

Everhot keep a list of secondhand ones, they check them and if necessary refurbish before selling. I get an email maybe 3 times a year. I hope to have one at some point.
I had a reconditioned electric Aga in my last house, along with a full range cooker, but it was a big kitchen and I turned the Aga off in March till October most years and I never used the range when the Aga was on. It worked of us.
I loved the Aga, I cooked differently in the Aga, lots of pulled meats stews and slow cooked one pot dishes, you could put things in all day and just leave it. You can also cook quite a lot on the hot plates and Aga toast is the best.
I recommend Mary Berry’s Aga book, we left it behind for the people who bought our house and Aga.

My parents have an Aga and I've cooked on it plenty. It's not hard but you need to get a feel for the temperatures, and accept a lack of precision. I would always choose the electric oven (which they also have) to bake a cake for example. In the summer they turn it off and use electric oven along with a little freestanding electric hob. The servicing etc is a faff, and it's not particularly economical. Overall I wouldn't choose to have one myself.

@Itscoldouthere if you don't want to wait for Everhot itself check out www.secondhandeverhot.co.uk/

I got mine from them - their staff are all ex-Everhot, they transport and fit them (their other business is a heavy transport company) and will repaint them to any colour you prefer.

Mine arrived perfect and I'm delighted with my purchase from them.

@AnnaMagnani thank you for the recommendation, I shall keep it for the future.
I’m currently living in Canada for a few years, so won’t need one yet.

We inherited a gas 2 oven when we moved to this house. Wouldn't be without it, absolutely adore it.

Cooking is so much less stressful, if things are delayed my lot get told "we're on Aga time" usually its down to me mistiming when things go in than the Aga failing to cook properly.

Running costs was a huge consideration until my gas engineer told me that its not the Aga costing a fortune but our clunky, old boiler. My dh still dislikes it but its staying put.

We are renovating soon so will be remodelling the existing large utility room into a summer kitchen so the Aga can be switched off in the warmer months. Last summer was our first living with it, I did find it too much even with our french doors open. Its our only source for cooking until the renovation so brought a fan into the kitchen to get by.

I absolutely love ours. Today it made us overnight porridge, toasties (directly on the hotplate), warmed milk for hot chocolate in the simmering oven while we were out dog walking, cooked chilli and kept it warm between child tea and adult tea, baked bread, dried gloves, coats, shoes and jumpers,came kept the dog and cat warm and happy all day. We turn ours off in summer and use a rubbishy, small electric cooker. When we re-do the kitchen we plan to get a nice range cooker for the warmer months. I wouldn't be without mine now that I'm used to it.

If you are considering keeping it I would get a service unless the previous owners have a detailed book of service details. I was in a group doing up a large, old house where there was a gas AGA. We were using to heat up lunch it was on all the time before we were working there. It was condemned!
I am another Everhot fan. I have lived with and cooked on AGAs before and we had a Rayburn when we bought this house. When having a new kitchen we compared Agas and Everhot and finally decided on the Everhot. Slightly cheaper and cheaper to run. We love it. There is an Everhot Facebook site which you would find useful. We bought a 110i so it had a hot plate, simmer plate and two induction rings. You can put it in Eco mode in summer if you want. Easy to turn back on if you want to use the oven. Lots of colours to chose from. We have sage.

TNCookers in Skipton have reconditioned Agas and Everhot and he was very helpful on comparisons. He might buy or exchange. I have seen Agas on eBay selling for quite a bit if you can prove how old it is and service history.
I would take your time and gather all the information before you decide. If you decide to sell and you live in the country I would even try local noticeboard and village sites to advertise.

We inherited a 2 oven oil Aga when we moved in 18 months ago. I didn't have a problem adapting to cooking on it, but hated not being able to adjust temperatures, and moving things around, using cold sheets, avoiding using the hobs etc etc. The love for them seemed like some strange cult. I was told of not needing a tumble dryer. Didn't understand - I still did. Tried to finish off some sheets on the top (to get the ironed properties as well). I scorched the sheets (and presumably could potentially have created a fire risk). I didn't see the appeal of draping wet clothes all over the thing, at the same time as needing it to boil the kettle, or...cook.

In the end we had it removed. The cost of running it was phenomenal. I managed to get someone who'd pay us for it and dismantle, but it fell through because of Covid. DH eventually found someone to take it out for us for not too much money, maybe £300-£400 (saved in oil costs within 1-2 months).

I now have a Smeg range oven with induction hob (my preference would be for a double eye height oven, but I had an enormous hole in my kitchen that needed filling!). I love it - I can switch it on and off and control the temperature lol! Oh and it's self cleaning.

I also couldn't get over the environmental aspect of having something on 24/7, especially as before Covid, we were all out of the house for 12 hours a day. It seemed crazily wasteful. Of course, it actually might have been quite nice while we've all been home over the winter, but I've had zero regrets.