Aga Cookers???

[LMAJ]

A friend of mine is looking for a new stove and asked me what I thought of Aga Cookers.
Having never heard of them I immediately thought of you guys.

So guys and gals... any thoughts on these stoves???

[RichardF]

if he's going with a traditional aga cooker, it's a lifestyle choice. it requires an adaptation to the aga cooking method. if he's buying an aga range, it's pretty-much like any range, but it's built in the aga style. they are built like tanks out of heavy cast iron. the concept behind the cooker is that they were supplied by fuel oil and always *on.* the cast iron acts as a heat sink and different parts of the top cooking surface and oven compartments are at different temperatures. if you live in england, having an oven that's always throwing off radiant heat is probably a good thing. i'm not sure how that works in florida. they are a much objects of art in a modern kitchen as they are practical for cooking on. they are also very expensive. If he’s looking for an art piece in his kitchen, have him check out la cornue or molteni.

i was smitten by the aga cooker for a long time, but realized it wasn't for me (even as quirky as i can be). if i was in the market for a high-end range that was as much for go as it was for show i'd be partial to a bluestar with the salamander. gotta have the salamander.

[slow-smoker]

I had a restaurant stove when my wife and I got married. It was huge and she said I could get whatever I wanted if I would scale it down a bit. I decided on a Viking residential range, and I've been really happy with it, it's easy to clean, and it's not at all complicated. If your friend is looking more for the aesthetics of the AGA cooker, pardon my interruption.

[deguerre]

Pretty cool looking though...

[RichardF]

Originally Posted by deguerre

Pretty cool looking though...

that's a la cornue range. guessing it's around $35 to $40k

[peeps]

Originally Posted by RichardF

that's a la cornue range. guessing it's around $35 to $40k

[deguerre]

Originally Posted by RichardF

that's a la cornue range. guessing it's around $35 to $40k

Ah. I went to a British article on Aga and their sister brand making a comeback and this was the pic.

[RichardF]

Originally Posted by deguerre

Ah. I went to a British article on Aga and their sister brand making a comeback and this was the pic.

it wouldn't surprise me if the same company owned both of them. i guess if you have a $5mm house, what's a $40k stove in the big picture. the aga's while expensive are less than the la cornue. haven't shopped them in a while, but figure from $7 to $25k. the price on these isn't so much driven by the cost of manufacturing, but whatever the consumer market will bear. jack the price up, sell fewer units with lower overhead and make more money. it's all about paying for exclusivity. nice business model.

[deguerre]

Think I'll just stick with my 70s era Kenmore electric...

[ButtBurner]

never even heard of the thing before

now I know why LOL

[scrub puller]

Yair . . . I think you folks are missing the point and one of the original the applications. Aga's and Raeburn's and other slow combustion stoves have little in common with other cooking systems.

They can be configured to run on liquid or solid fuel. All the ones I knew burned wood and were very economical to run. They used about a third the amount of fuel of the ordinary cast iron stove they replaced . . . an important consideration when all the wood was cut by axe.

The various hot-plates and ovens could run at different temperatures according to flue and damper settings and the big advantage in Australia on outback Stations the rest of the stove stayed relatively cool.

Anyone who has cooked for twenty workers on a conventional double oven woodburner in forty five degrees Celsius will know exactly what I mean. Although a status symbol now "back then" they were a life changing revelation.

Because the stove never went out there was always an abundance of hot water from the integrated system. If heat was needed this was tapped into for room heating with (on the examples I knew) a very simple and effective pumpless thermosiphon tank and radiators.

Cheers.

[Pooky]

What Scrub Puller said.

We had a Rayburn in my parents house, when I was a kid. Not as pretty or as large as an as Aga, but it kicked out plenty of heat through the hot-plates on top, and in the ovens, but the body of the thing stayed pretty cool.

We fuelled it with coal or wood and it also warmed the water tank, providing the central heating for the house in winter. We were out in the sticks where they were a pretty standard fixture.

Beautiful things.

[LMAJ]

Thanks folks.
Anyone else?