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Rangemaster, AGA or Everhot?

23 replies

mogernator · 20/11/2024 21:52

We were going for rangemaster as cheaper than Aga/everhot. But my mum has offered to lend us £ to get an Aga.

Worth it? My DH is all about efficiency and cost. I had an Aga growing up so all about it being cosy!

We'd have to go for electric and induction hob.

Need to decide asap! Will be a reconditioned/secondhand one whatever we go for.

Two kids, pets. Don't entertain much but might do a bit more if we have a good oven!

Thanks

OP posts:
yereverluvinunclebert · 27/12/2024 23:35

The ovens are NOT as good as they should be, under-powered and difficult to control meaning that overall they are inflexible and not easy to use. Being just 13 amp stoves they just don't have the oomph. The top oven, the best oven, Everhot states can reach 250c but seems to struggle to generate enough heat to roast potatoes in a reasonable time. At Christmas my parboiled potatoes took ages to obtain crunch, cooking in goose fat. I had to take them out of the oven and stick them on the hot plate at 350c. My old gas Rayburn was far better in this respect. The heat was there because it was real heat form a flame. I believe the bottom oven states a maximum of 200c but it seems not hot enough, it is a 'slow' heat and sometimes you need a crisping, roasting heat. The hotplate is hot enough and with the simmer plate at the same temp, you have just enough boiling/frying area. The ovens are both large and if I could beef up both to the same temperature, a 'real' 250 or 300 then it would be a good stove.

An induction hob upgrade is supposedly available for my oven and I intend to go for it. It may make the experience more flexible.

Finally, the controls, they are awful. push button, wait 5 seconds before anything happens. Then multiple presses to achieve the temperature you require, press and hold again for 5-10 seconds before it sets to the temperature you require. The controls are counter-intuitive and if you press a button too long it jumps into timer mode! Rubbish and cheap and awful. I design interfaces. If anyone from Everhot wants me to design them a set of flexible and easy to use controls they only need to contact me here. You jumped on the push-button bandwagon but you did it wrong. If you have a quality product, the controls need to 'feel' quality too. They are the human interaction and a relationship with the Everhot stove is a continually painful one.

The build quality is good and solid but there are design flaws, The lid spring is insufficiently strong and replacing it requires the whole oven to be moved, an expensive job from professionals just to undo a single hex screw that cannot be undone otherwise.

I have had better ovens. My old Esse had faults, the low quality switchgear but the power of the 30amp stove cannot be denied. It could crank out the heat. My old Rayburn had smaller ovens and you had to close the doors quickly to keep the heat in, but once done, it was a veritable furnace.The controls on each were much more satisfying and so easy to use in comparison.

Would I buy another in my new house? No. Sadly.
I'd have a look at the new Esse electric range or an Aga.

I almost like the Everhot but cooking with it will always be frustrating due to those controls and the lack of real heat oomph. "You need to heat it up" they will say and I know that well having suffered at Christmas. What I would say back is that the oven itself needs to man up and do the job for itself. Get hot you great lump!

blueshoes · 27/12/2024 23:37

Team Dh here

seenabeena · 27/12/2024 23:47

We’ve had a Rangemaster Elan full electric (no gas in village) for 11 years & it’s been brilliant 🙂

Ariela · 28/12/2024 01:34

What functions do you want/need from your range cooker?
We got a Rayburn 680K oil to replace our oil boiler (no gas in village) - so does heating and hot water all on thermostats and timers. We also have solar which heats the hot water, so effectively I don't use the Rayburn from March to September unless I'm cooking for masses of people. I have an electric cooker which I use in summer along with a combi microwave. I prefer cooking with the Rayburn as it's more forgiving than a fan oven (often go and get distracted while cooking something)

Vavazoom · 28/12/2024 06:43

We have an electric Everhot 120i and I love it! I used to have an oil fired aga and the Everhot wins hands down. It’s efficient for the size and output, you just have to learn to cook with it. It’s great for roasts - I do amazing potatoes in the top over. I wouldn’t be without mine now.

Shrik · 28/12/2024 22:31

It's so tricky because you can't really try before you buy. I have struggled to find any range cooker without a few negative reviews, even the really expensive ones. Everhot seems to get the most positivity, but you have to accept that as an 'on all the time' cooker, it is not going to be energy-efficient.

crabbin · 30/12/2024 13:03

For what it's worth, my mum has a gas aga and it's absolutely brilliant. Meanwhile when we go on holiday (same place every year because she's a creature of habit) they have what has been dubbed the nEverhot, because it's totally rubbish. So take that with a pinch of salt

TizerorFizz · 30/12/2024 15:13

They are all expensive to buy and run. Other modern ovens are much cheaper to run and don’t need thinking about. My roast potatoes are exceptional! More about the variety of potato than the oven I think you will find.

AlecMills · 30/12/2024 18:13

Do you have space for a second cooker? I wouldn’t get an Aga or Everhot unless you can turn it off for 6 months a year (and I know Evernote are supposed to be more flexible but it’s only up to a point).

I love Agas but unless I lived somewhere properly cold and had a second cooker I just wouldn’t have one.

chojoko · 30/12/2024 21:43

My parents' electric Aga costs £5k a year to run, so do factor that in. The Aga guy who services it says the new ones are not v good and go wrong all the time - make of that what you will! They switch it on about 4 months a year and have a different oven the rest of the time. We had a gas Aga in our last house and your comment about entertaining made me laugh. My DH did a Sunday lunch on it soon after we moved in and we didn't eat until 9pm.

ItsCalledAConversation · 30/12/2024 21:48

Aga Owner here. It’s really only kept as a sentimental thing, not a practical thing as it’s not great for cooking and is hugely and hideously expensive (when PP above started a sentence ”I had a holiday…” I genuinely expected the end of the sentence to be “with what I had saved by getting rid of the Aga…”

Agree you need to plan your home around it, it’ll heat the room it’s in when it’s on but you’ll need second ovens and hob and heating for the summer months.

One thing I adore my Aga for in winter is drying wet clothes, rugs, shoes etc. The help it gives with laundry is worth a lot!!

Exhaustedtiredneedabreak · 30/12/2024 21:52

I have a range master and it is my biggest regret from when we did the kitchen. The grill only has off or burnt to a crisp settings and the paint has started to flake from the door. I would never get another.

littlemissprosseco · 30/12/2024 21:59

I have the new Everhot 150. I’ve just moved house and left my old one Everhot which was 15 years old!
Both are absolutely awesome and cook beautifully.
In the 15 years of having the old one, nothing needed servicing or replacing. It was a highly used cooker servicing a family of five full time and guests most weekends.

mitogoshigg · 30/12/2024 22:01

I've got a stoves range cooker and it's excellent

Basketballhoop · 30/12/2024 22:08

We have a gas Aga, because the previous owner left it when they moved. I grew up with an oil one and grandparents had a coal one(!), so was quite happy initially. 10 years in, and I hate the bloody thing. It is hugely expensive to run, the kitchen is permanently too hot, the ovens are never the right temperature for the cooking I do, the maintenance costs hundreds a year. No, I don't use a tumble dryer often, but I never did before we had an Aga either. I would happily get rid of it, except the kitchen was clearly designed round it, and I don't have the money for a full kitchen revamp.

OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 30/12/2024 22:29

Our Range master is 8 years old and I still really like it. It is full electric with induction hob. Not all the rings work fully but that's because dh managed to steam it by blocking all the vents. It was covid lockdowns so couldn't get anyone to fix it. Anyway most of the function came back in time so we never bothered. So essentially it seems pretty robust!

I love agas but they make absolutely no sense economically now for the majority of people. It is, quite literally, having your oven and hobs on 24hrs a day. Ridiculous when you think about it! Of course it used to make sense when the range was the centre of the home providing all the heat and water and cooking, drying and everything else but that's not the case for most of us now.

You can of course get much fancier range style cookers than rangemaster who are actually at the lower end of the scale for both price and quality.

StillTryingToKeepGoing · 30/12/2024 22:35

We inherited electric Aga with gas hob. It does cook things beautifully. My cakes are so much better in the Aga. But the ovens are small and it does take a while to heat up. Also grill has broken and had to be repaired, and the thermostat. But they were fixable , so maybe that’s okay. I wouldn’t want a proper one. Doesn’t make sense to link to heating in this day and age.

WombatChocolate · 01/01/2025 14:58

Just got rid of gas AGA. It was good and had been converted from solid fuel.

Cost an arm and leg to run. Never quite hot enough for v hot cooking. Biggest benefit was during washing round it.

Had it taken away (cost nearly £1k) and replaced with conventional gad hob and oven. Loving having control of the heat and the smart meter shows a massive daily saving.

Sorry, but wouldn’t bother.

WombatChocolate · 01/01/2025 14:59

it was gas, not good!

parietal · 01/01/2025 15:46

Not an aga. They are pretentious and ineffective and hard to cook with. Just have a modern induction hob and a regular oven and some proper under floor heating.

My mum and sister both have agas and are getting rid of them.

Vinvertebrate · 01/01/2025 17:12

Not a Rangemaster - I’ve got an Elan and the grill is total shit. The dials are plastic and like a pp the metallic paint started peeling off within 2 years. I complained and was sent another shitty plastic dial which predictably shed its paint almost immediately. You can get much better quality for Rangemaster prices - it’s like the Primark of range cookers, never again.

Stuck1001 · 01/01/2025 17:16

Have had an Aga and don't think I would again. I would love an Esse though! Seeing them in s showroom I was completely smitten and love the styling (with the square plates). I prefer them to the Agas I looked at: https://www.esse.com/range-cookers/1000-x/

yodaforpresident · 01/01/2025 17:20

We have had a range master (fab), an oil Aga (dreadful - broken more often than working) which we took out when redoing the kitchen and replaced it with a Lacanche - amazing and built to whatever spec you want. I would never have anything else now.

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