Rayburn knowledge needed

[Mooserp]

Viewed a house yesterday that I'm definitely interested in. It has a Rayburn which I know nothing about.

I was shown around by the vendor, but they rent out the house and have never lived there so couldn't tell me much about it. They weren't even sure if there was a separate boiler, but after looking for one decided there wasn't!

I would much prefer a gas hob and electric oven, with a boiler. I imagine it will be expensive to change to this, anyone have any idea how much?
Alternatively can anyone convince me that Rayburns are awesome?

@Alexandra2001 that is a good point; we are v rural and if the power cuts it's
Usually off for a while, with a wick burner we still have heat, hot water and cooking ability- may become more and more important in the next few years!

We have one, and have been gradually decommissioning it.

Advantages:

• it looks pretty and gets lots of compliments
• since it’s also a boiler, you don’t need to find space for a (less attractive) boiler in the kitchen
• it really does have a “heart of the house” feel
• for big, planned, meals it’s great, with lots of levels of heat, including gentle heat for melting chocolate and heating plates

Disadvantages

• in summer, it makes enough heat you couldn’t use it for the hob or cooker: even the boiler-ing made it a bit uncomfortably warm
• sloooow to heat
• monumentally inefficient; ours packed up this summer and we were surprised to see the electric immersion heater was cheaper to run, despite electricity costing much more; now that we’ve installed a boiler, we think our gas bill will be half- to two-thirds lower, but we’re only a month in

We still have ours, but the previous owners had a supplemental hob, and then we added a supplemental oven (great relief), and then a supplemental combi boiler. So now it’s basically a large kitchen radiator and second oven.