Anyone got a Rayburn or Aga?

[SirSamVimesCityWatch]

Does it cost a zillion pounds a day to run?

Just back from a holiday cottage which had an oil fueled Rayburn in the kitchen. It was amazing. We are playing idly with the idea of one now - there is a space in what is now our dining room where the house would have had a range of some kind originally. We are already thinking of putting the kitchen back into this room so now wondering about putting a range of some kind back in as well.

Probably wouldn't buy new, so it's not the initial outlay that's the financial concern, but whether the running costs are crucifying.

A bit like old boilers, old Agas are expensive to run, even if they work beautifully.

the newer models, such a total control electric models, are much more efficient and much, much cheaper to run.

one of the problems is they don’t leak heat so much and you don’t need to leave them on. So yes, they can be used in summer, but unless you put it on standby, they are not so cosy in winter.

I have one and love it. I know people who want the traditional heat all year.

it is not as fuel guzzling as an old one,
it is not as snug/warm/stiflingly hot as an old one.
it is more flexible than and old one

it costs about £10k more than and old one!

Does anyone have any advice on how to get rid of an old gas Rayburn Nouvelle? It is in good working order and has done the heating and hot water for years but we have modernised and I just want it to go to another happy family for free. We are based in Suffolk and I am sure there is someone who wants one!

We have a gas aga and it's ridiculously expensive to run. We absolutely wouldn't get one again and if we were staying here long term we would get rid of it but they are expensive to get rid of or replace. It costs us £100s a month to run it on its own.

Had a 30amp night storage 4 oven aga (supposedly the cheapest electric one to run as it charges up on economy 7 electric overnight and stores the heat for use during the day. By the time we sold our house it was costing £350 a month just to run the Aga. I loved it, I grew up with them so it felt very homely and familiar to me and the dog was a big fan, but have to say I was glad to have the decision not to have it anymore made for me by selling the house. I just couldn't justify that cost to run an oven. I really wouldn't be installing one now.

We have just changed from our old 2 oven oil aga to a 4 oven electric. We have an array of solar panels which makes the electric more cost effective than the old oil fired Aga. I have an ordinary electric oven in our guest house but nothing beats an Aga.

@MNW1 we just got rid of ours via the Facebook group agas and rayburns for sale or something like that. I had to pay £90 to get gas engineer to diconnect it and then a buyer took it away. Better than paying to dispose of it!

we have an Everhot coming soon.

I learned to cook, almost 40 years ago, with an oil-fired, 4-oven royal blue Aga. I still miss its constant heat but doubt I will be having another. But if I moved somewhere with one I would hug it!

We have a 4 oven aga and it is pretty much the last thing I would give up. It uses around 28 litres of oil a week and is worth every penny. Hardly use our central heating (also have a woodburner ), no tumble dryer and rarwlf use our second cooker. We have had an Aga in every house we have ever lived in, including central London.

We have a 2 oven oil fired Aga. Uses about 4.5 litres a day (like person above). We buy oil if possible when it's cheapest - for instance less than 60p a litre at the moment.

The chimney goes up through the middle of the house - the heat passing through the walls warms the 2 bedrooms above as well as the kitchen and our dining room. So it cuts out a lot of need for other heating. I dry washing on it - doesn't cause damp/mould problems because the damp air gets sucked into the flue and up the chimney.

It was in the house when we bought it 40 years ago. I'd never used one before - it's a bit of an art cooking on it, especially cakes, but I love it. It gets turned off in the summer (our kitchen is south facing and get stifling in summer) and I feel as if one of the family has left home, LOL.

Another advantage is that it will still run if there is a power cut - you can manually control the oil flow (not sophisticated, it's either high or low). We are out in the country and the electic is via overhead cables, so power cuts are fairly common.

@MNW1 we put an ad on Facebook marketplace charging £50 for our Aga , we had a couple of time wasters ( can you deliver ? ) and luckily for us , someone we knew vaguely wanted it
it took an Aga engineer to dismantle it , and he delivered it to her
I don’t know how much she had to pay for that , but we saved having to pay £500 to have it taken away as scrap !
So , definitely worth putting an ad on marketplace or something similar

That green rayburn is exactly the same as our old one which was removed 5 years ago.

I loved it for cooking, drying washing and the cosy kitchen But even then our gas bills were around £300/£350 a month. We only had an induction hob to cover the summer and couldn't turn it right off anyway as it controlled the water so it could get unbearably hot

Removed it and changed to a combi boiler and they cam down to around £65 a month (pre energy crisis).

We've got one. It was installed in 1948. We moved in on 2007 and lived with its oil guzzling for years. But eventually got it converted to electric. Much better!

Is anyone able to suggest how running costs compare between an oil fired Rayburn and an electric Everhot (poss 90i)? For an 'average' use household.

My Aga uses 1500 litres of oil a year. We buy the oil in the summer when prices are at their lowest. This year it cost about £900. It has as low as £360 and as high as £1200.

I love it so much. We always have a warm, cosy kitchen in an otherwise old and cold house. We have an electric over that we use for baking and in the height of summer but everything else tastes so much better cooked in the Aga.

We have a gas fired one and yes it costs a bloody fortune. Only consider getting one if you can also have a separate oven and hob so that you have the option to turn it off and try and get a decent more modern one that can be turned down or turned off on a timer. Ours is on 24/7

Taking into account the fact that our oil fired Aga means no need for a tumble dryer, no need for heating in the kitchen, no need to pre heat an oven, no toaster and no kettle it is very good value.

Don’t use Blake and Bull. Terrible customer service. Let us down badly.

Just inherited a Rayburn solid fuel 2 oven aga. Anyone have any information on them it's not heating water or radiators. Just looks like it's for keeping kitchen warm and cooking. Does it need maintenance. I will have the chimney swept. Live in the Midlands and struggling to find a bod to come and look at it.

I used to have one, yes you will need to sweep chimney. Also def need to get the expensive fuel for them rather than cheap charcoal otherwise you will need to let it cool to sweep down all the accessible parts. I have very fond memories of ours, but it was not faff free.

Thank you.....but is that all I need to do. Do I need to get the Rayburn serviced as well as the chimney swept. Or is it like a log burner and just need a chimney sweep.
Thank you.....

Could anyone give me any information on a Rayburn 2 oven solid fuel Aga. Just inherited one. I would really like to use it. The owner of the property passed away so no information available. It doesn't heat radiators or water. I have entral heating. So it's to heat a breakfasting kitchen and cooking etc.

We never got ours serviced it is so simple we could just lift out the movable parts and sweep down. For us we did not even need a chimney sweep as it was a masssive straight chimney but that is unusual. I got a little book of hints (you can alter the heat quite a bit with the valve on the bottom and the slidder near the chimney) and appart from that it is such a simple machine.

Join an Aga fb group.
You’ll get lots of help.

We had an aga for nearly 20 years. It was in the house already. In some ways it was nice and cosy, but ridiculously expensive to run and in the end we couldn't justify the environmental impact. All electric now and to be honest it is so much easier and more practical to cook with. Christmas with an aga was always really stressful trying to maintain the over temperature.

We couldn't persuade anyone to buy it off us second hand. In the end we were lucky to find someone to take it away for free.

I definitely want to keep it.....I have been offered a lot of money for it but wouldn't sell it.
Always wanted an Aga so was delighted it was here.