pls help - aga installation advice needed before tomorrow ......

[K20]

Help, having accidentally turned the "small structural changes" in my new house into a massive renovation project including possibly switching room functions around, I am now left with a dilemma which only you Aga owners can help me with.

Do I have to have a solid floor to install an Aga? I want to site my range cooker (future Aga when money permits) on a joisted floor. Is this possible for an Aga?

If not, I either have to move my kitchen to another room in the house or forget the Aga dream.

PS does anyone regret having an Aga?

pannacotta - There are lots of companies selling reconditioned agas - google for one in your area. Failing that, phone your nearest Aga dealer/engineer about reconditioned models.

They're usually fine but Aga often don't approve of solid fuel models converted to run on gas/oil unless it's done by registered Aga engineers.

My Aga is cream - a 4 oven Gas - we had it put in new when we had our kitchen gutted about 3 years ago. In my last house I had a 4 oven oil fired in black. I had it reconditioned so it looked like spanking new even though it was a 50s model. Will look out the company that did it if anyone is interested.

Yes please Swedes, details of the company woudl be good, I'd love an Aga but def cant afford a new one.
How are your M&S chairs btw?

pan - Aga reconditioning herehere

M&S chairs great by the way. They are a joy to clean and look really nice. Thanks

Well sorry to dissent from the positive tone of this thread, but I don't like having an Aga.

It was here when we moved in and is appropriate as we live in an old farmhouse with flagstone floors. It does keep the house cosy in winter, and is very good for drying clothes on, but a nightmare to cook on.

I only have the 2-oven version and baking cakes is very tricky, also the oven temperature is unreliable -- can drop quite quickly if you are using the top plates too much making timing roast joints very hard to get right.

It IS good for slow cooking - we eat a lot of casseroles now.

We turn it off in the summer, and have to supplement with an electric hob and combi oven.

And it costs an absolute fortune to run in terms of oil.

Also think it is not very green having something switched on day and night (although it means we never need to use a tumble drier).

But it has ruined far too many special meals for my liking.

Thanks swedes

Sophy, start things of on the top and then finish in ovens, does fab rice doesn't stick. Mary Berry has a great cake book for agas, actually has many great cookery books on agas, including which shelves to use. Do agree with you about the oil so ours is now truned off until November.

I hardly ever do anything on the top. Boiled potatoes etc get brought to the boil on the top then put in the oven.

I also make porridge in the warming oven overnight - it is lovely and soft and gorgeous in the morning ready for the children getting up for school. Make sure you make it with water - not milk.

I find that you get to know your own Aga and can guauge the temperature pretty well. I run mine quite low and I turn it down in the summer but I rarely turn it off. We don't have another oven, only a gas hob which gets used about 5 times a year. I agree it's quite expensive to run but we don't have a radiator in the kitchen so it is heat source, cooker, clothes drier, water heater, friend, lover

Tried that porridge in the bottom oven overnight thing once and by the time I got up it had turned into an enormous flapjack.
Probably used milk though.