Gas Aga

If you have an Aga or Rayburn you probably love it, accept the higher running cost and adapt your cooking, gas fired is easily the best type, but not LPG that is way too expensive.

Newer models can heat the water and the whole house, to cook you need to turn up the heat at least half an hour in advance to get the oven hot - no fan oven with instant heat.

Sorry, typo! Ignore gas Gas, it's oil fired.

Please don't get rid of it. It's a different way of cooking but you soon get used to it and I agree with an earlier post about buying Mary Berry's Aga cook book. We have an oil fired gas Gas aga so I can't deny it's expensive to run but we turn it off in April and turn it on again in September ( we have an electric cooker/hob/microwave). It is the heart of our home, the grandsons sit with their backs against it as does the cat. It does my ironing for me on the simmering plate, dries the washing overnight and everything you cook in it tastes better; a casserole cooked slowly for hours tastes wonderful and it bakes lovely bread. Ours is now 25 years old and is my pride and joy so persevere, you won't regret it.

We have an Aga c. 1980. We moved into the house in 1999 and had it converted to gas in 2001 with a renovation so it looked almost as good as new. It is still going strong and I love it. I also have an induction hob and an oven/microwave so in the summer the aga gets turned off, we also find we can turn it up and down easily. It heats the water, is the only heating in our big kitchen/dining room, does the ironing and keeps our dog cosy. When it's turned off i really miss it as once you get used to it, it is just so easy to use and on a cold day, I love to park my rear against it. It is now over 40 years old and despite what people think, we don't find it expensive to run.

PS: 2 things I liked, both of which I can do with my current set up anyway:

Heating the oven to max, then cooking a roast as it 'falls'.
Slow cooking.

I have 2 great friends who adore Agas - I don't. But when we stayed in a house with an Aga ( extended family holiday) I blessed the things I had heard them talk about over the years. Between them and the Mary Berry book, I produced decent meals for a week.
You really do have to think about cooking differently, and maybe you'll end up as an Aga lover!

Two or four oven? I really really miss my four oven oil powered Aga. It was expensive to run as it was old, in 2020 was using about 50L of oil per week. Worth the money though, it warmed the kitchen, cooked things to perfection, dried our clothes - I wish I had one still. I recommend Mary Berry's Aga cook books - and do wear a long oven glove. I did burn myself a lot on my upper arm in the early days.

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I love cooking on my AGA just get used to closing the lids after almost every action or you loose your heat.
Plan big meals ahead and make use of oven heat for a few things you might normally use the top plates for.
Careful what you clean the enamel with.
Experiment with the lowering heat tray’s.
Use the online remote if you have an electric AGA it helps you keep an eye on your heat situation.
Keep it serviced.

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Forsythia why not go online and pick up hints and tips from other users, use it during the Winter and the if your don’t get on with it you can sell it, they go for a small fortune and the buyer has to dismantle them and take them away, so win, win.
I had a solid fuel Aga back in the day and it was a nightmare, so messy and dependant on which way the wind was blowing, our kitchen is too small here to have one, but an oil fired Aga would be nice, maybe when our floor standing boiler packs up MrOops will be prepared to lay out a small fortune and get one!

Thanks all who replied. I shall definitely use it, see how it goes.

Gas getting more and more expensive as I understand it.

Meant to say also that the Aga Know How book by Richard Maggs is excellent.

I cook on an Aga and I absolutely LOVE it, best thing we ever decided on. BUT you need to think differently about using it, its not at all like using a conventional cooker and hob. If you live anywhere near an Aga showroom, they will periodically run classes to show you what it can do.

I have had a gas fired Rayburn (smaller sibling of the aga) for the last 45 years. It has heated the water, cooked lovely meals and kept the kitchen always warm. It also ran radiators though I have another boiler for the central heating.
Unfortunately last July it decided to break down and I have decided to replace it.
I am missing it. It isn't cheap to run. You can convert them to electricity.
I wouldn't rush to take it out.

Twenty years ago we moved into a house with an oil fired Aga.
I was horrified at first, but came to love the simplicity of it, and the kitchen was always warm and snug.
Downside, it does lose heat, especially if you’ve got the lids up, so cooking a big meal for a lot of people is challenging.
We replaced it with a range cooker a few years ago, but if we had had a bigger budget, I would have gone for a top of the range aga.

During the 1980's and 90's we lived in a house with an oil fired Aga. We bought about £200 worth of oil aporox. 6 monthly. It will cost more than that now.
My sister in law has a gas fired Aga, but I've never asked her how much it costs to run.
If your Aga heats your water too, then it would be useful to keep.
This might help.