I want and AGA - please tell me about yours..new or re-conditioned?

[ChacunaSonGout]

I sooooooooo want one and need one as cooking for 8 daily on a 1972 monstrosity !

Went to look at local showroom and was swooooooning by 5 minutes in!

I would love new but re conditioned is obviously more economical but is there a downside?

Do you love yours - any advice DO tell!

thankyou all

its a bigger picture to me - the constantly cosy kitchen is a huge plus

our house is big and old and COLD

what do you all think new (8k)!!! or re conditioned?

x posts othersideofthefence

ooh cissy what a lovely idea

It's funny you should say that osotf because an engineer who services AGAs told us not to bother with reconditioned!

hmmm jury is out still then

I guess it depends on the quality of the reconditioning (trying to sound as if I know what I'm talking about!)

Neighbours of ours have a 2 oven AGA that they bought 2nd hand in 1955 - the father of our engineer reconditioned it and about 15 yrs ago converted it from solid fuel to oil and they have never had a days problem with it.

In fact my neighbour says apart from servicing and the Summer of 1976 it has never been turned off.

I have to admit the cosy factor in the kitchen maked it all worth while - although I do wince when we get the bill for refilling the oil tank

i know i know re cosy...

shoving brochure under dp nose

not amused!

lived with an aga for two years and desperate to get one for our new house. husband needs no persuading luckily...

i have budgeted 8k for either new or reconditioned plus installation, but will also have hob rings and single oven for the summer.

we have a 1930s four oven cream aga, which was in the house when we bought it. it was converted to oil in the 1950s ( see photo on my profile)

i love it...great to cook on, dry washing & wet/muddy shoes/boots/dogs, heats several rooms

only downside is that its not very green

I rented a house with an aga this summer. I loved it. I loved cooking on it and drying clothes and generally being toasty. I looked into getting one at home and the stanley ranges seemed technically superior. I was finally disuaded by the £2k pa gas bill for tunning the beast. They are disasterous for the environment.

running - not tunning!

i never fly Pigleto - to counteract it - cant afford to!

Womble princess - i was wondering about the whole turning it off in summer bit...

the man in the showroom dissuaded us

I just drape clothes over the rail, folded on the simmering plate and things like socks all over (not on the boilign plate lid though as they scorch). I keep a load of stuff on a rack next door and just swap them round during the day, it's a tiny bit of a faff compared to chucking it in a drier but I really couldn't justify the expense or the un-econess of it.

Hi I have two 'Aga's',one is a converted original aga, now running on oil, from solid fuel. It is costing so much that I am seriously thinking of getting it changed back to solid fuel. I have lost count of the number of times I have put stuff in the oven and forgotten about it until I got up the next day and was greeeted with the smell of a crematorium wafting through the house.
The other is a multifuel Stanley, which is in our cottage, runs all the ch and hot water and cooks, great!! Its got a bigger cooking area and is a bit cheaper to buy. I would not want to replace them if I moved, they have their good points, always somewhere to dry clothes, I use a sheilas maid rack hanging over the aga which is great. Its not very easy to control them and the only thing in summer is to turn them off which means using electric immersion for hot water, quite costly. On the plus side it makes great baked potatos, hope this helps

Oh and by the way, if you need a really good cooker that will stand up to lots of wear, try a Falcon or a Britannia. Falcons are used in restaurants and are quite stylish in a modern kitchen yet look ok in a traditional setting as well. As I cant see the cost of fuel coming down its worth reconsidering the Aga as they are very costly to run.

I have a Stanley as I needed something to replace the Rayburn that was in the house when we moved in. The Stanley does all the heating and hot water and is on a digital controller that lets me set when I want heating on/off etc. It is an 80,000 BTU beast, so keeps my old stone house in Cornwall warm. I get through about 2500-3000 litres of oil a year (no mains gas in the village).

It has two ovens and a large hot plate to cook on, so all the Le Creuset fits. It is very controllable, so one can set oven temps and direct the heat to oven/hob/central heating using the baffles. It's great for baking and I can get a 24lb turkey in it. The oven is both deeper and wider than a Rayburn.

I've had mine about 14 years now, and might change it when I get back to UK, depending what the tenants have done with it. I currently have to cook on a poxy ceramic hob, the rings of which are too small for my Le Creuset and an electric oven that is not huge. I insist on going back and inspecting my house once a year just so that I can see my Stanley!!

i have never heard of a stanley

its the whole warm room drying clothes toast on top thing that i am yearning for

I am a sahm with a lot of kids and think my lifestyle would benefit from one

thanks for all the advice

www.waterfordstanley.com

I get the whole warm room, drying rugger shirts over it, making drop scones on the hot plate thing, only for much less than an AGA, and it does the central heating too. Mine is red and beautiful.

I also miss warming my bum against it whilst having a coffee on cold Cornish mornings. Standing up against an electric ceramic hob on a cold Belgian morning just isn't the same!!

There is an offer on at the moment - £1500 discount off the electrical model. It's also designed to use electricity overnight so much much cheaper to run than conventional models.
Thought you'd like to know, CSG.

I have a 4 oven cream one and it has been in for nearly a year. Just love it. We had it going over summer just to see how hot the house got and admittedly it did get quite warm to the touch, I don't think it did any worse than a window without blockout curtains on it - and I'm talking 40+ days here in Oz. I noticed the ducted heating doesn't come on as much, as the house stays the same temp, but is so easy to use. All the kids use it (12, 14 & 16). It did cost a bomb though, although the gas bill has not been any more than it was when the ducted heating was the only thing heating the house last year. I want one of those laundrymaid racks for drying, but throw things all over it to finish off, and put the drying stand in front of it in the meantime

Hi Scaryteacher, if you need another stanley give me a shout, its been used in a holiday cottage for just three years and is now disconnected. Stanleys are much more versatile I think and just as good if not better to cook onm imo. selling uup as now widowed so nothing wrong with either of them.

we've got one in our holiday cottage but I haven't used it myself! great for heating the house tho.

VVVQ used it and thought it was great!

I always used a sheila maid to dry the clothes over the aga, havent used the tumble dryer for donkeys years, but you made me smile when you said you warmed your bum on the aga. My niece was staying with us and came in from horse riding frozen, sat on the hotplate and burnt right through her jods. I have scorched loads of socks etc by leaving them on the hotplate top but my fault not the Agas. Nobody has mentioned the TOAST!! I would say it was worth getting an Aga for the toast alone, I blame Aga toast for my ample girth, there is nothing so delightful, unless its the home made bread mmmm... why am I getting rid of them?