Aga's again

[jocelyn plummer]

Has anybody taken the plunge and bought the new Aga City 60? :roll:

 

[LadyArowana]

This hadn't crossed my radar. Would I have bought one if it had been around before I refurbished? No, absolutely no. I don't particularly like cooking, but the idea of one hotplate and two tiny ovens seems silly, when on the same footprint you could have 4 individually controllable burners and a really big oven. My daft ( but extremely pretty ) espresso machine is allowable as a kitchen decorative feature because it only cost a few hundred and I can make coffee by other means, but this would be a step too far. Which means it will probably be wildly successful

 

[kreyszig]

+1 i DO enjoy cooking and this seems especially silly

 

[Feltwell]

Half the size and only 5 grand! Bargain! I'll have two!

Ohh, hang on................

Feeling grumpy right now. Workshop heater has finally died, after being on it's last legs for a long time. A cold Feltwell is not happy.

 

[discobarry]

We decided on an Everhot cooker, with an induction top. They look and feel like a great product, i've seen the aga 60...if i was to get an additional cooker it would be a wood burning cooker. No space and it wouldn't look right mind.

 

[angrybird]

I have got the Rayburn 370SFW only because I can cook on it, it supplys us with domestic hot water and serves 13 rads! I prefer the look of the top of the Aga but I suppose you cant have everything!
Not sure if I would want a PINK Aga though :shock:

 

[piper]

We are getting an Everhot - the narrow model without the induction hob. Having had an oil-fired Aga Thermic (small Aga made in early 60's) already in the house when we moved here 28 years ago, and had a warm kitchen plus excessively hot water (not rads though) all this time, we finally turned it off for good in March. It was too expensive, and the smell had finally become intolerable, but we loved it for most of those years. We need to keep the kitchen with constant low background heat, because otherwise it's damp.
After much research, and long indecision we decided on the Everhot. Though expensive, this does seem a good product. Everhot were first with the design of a low energy, trickle-fed electric storage range cooker, originally designed to utilise power generated by a waterwheel at the factory. The Aga city is a shameless imitation of the Everhot, with a smaller hotplate, and more power consumption. A decision which has followed logically from going for the Everhot, is to have photovoltaic panels installed too.
Considered a reconditioned Rayburn, but it would have to be gas, with all the associated hassle of having the flue altered to conform to regulations, and the expense of extra pipework if it was to do radiators.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I.m interested in your comments Piper--I will check out Everhot--thank you.!

 

[discobarry]

We should get out Everhot just before or just after Christmas we went for the 100i

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Thank you--looks good! Enjoy yours when it arrives xx

 

[1610ness]

discobarry and piper, having had the everhots for a couple of years, what are your thoughts on them?
I'm after a heat storage cooker but I want to fuel via electricity. I'm torn between the everhot or the new esse electric cookers.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Everhot has a good reputuation--- and I hope the Esse is better than the one that I had for a very short while a few years ago! There again I can highly recommend the 3 oven electric traditional style Aga --------------- :wink: :wink:

 

[JanJonWestWales]

Esse Ironheart for us- none of your electric/gas/LPG nonsense - wood only heating and cooking ....gulp!!

 

[1610ness]

I have to fuel by electric but want the most efficient heat storage cooker and an aga is definitely not it! The average weekly costs is apparently £35/week and the esse claims to use £7/week but I've seen some strange reviews about condensation issues and I don't think it's going to generate enough warmth for my largeish chilly kitchen. So would like to know others experiences of anything electric but not aga!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I had a CAT enabled gas Esse,from 2009-14. The converter was very efficient, no particular condensation problem.

 

[Bevmarley]

zWe have an Esse oil cooker although we havent used it since we moved in as it needs servicing and it is near impossible to get anyone out to do it but we have also been told it costs a fortune to run and as we cannot afford to replace it with a new version(this one is donkeys years old) we are toying with the idea of getting a la Nordica wood burning range.. Anyone haf any experience of them.

 

[Minkeycat]

We considered Aga last year because we inherited an old, inefficient white boiler standing prominently in the large kitchen fireplace when we bought the house. We went to an Aga showroom and, while the staff were lovely, they told us that we had to order within 2 weeks because Aga have been bought by an American company and the price was going up 5%. We weren't ready to buy and 5% was too much anyway especially as the materials it was made out of were at a record low at the time. We wanted it to run the heating as well as cook so it had to be a Rayburn but Aga's price increase was across the board. Throughout the year we kept getting calls and notifications of more price rises. In short, Aga priced their entire range out of contention and the sales staff are clearly exasperated by them.

Eventually, having considered Esse and a few others we came across Heritage Rangecookers. We were really impressed with the engineer, the engineering, the customer service. We're on oil and it meets all of our requirements. It's not cheap with prices approaching Aga (before they put them all up) but enables heating (with control via Wifi) using an efficient, separate boiler and "Aga style cooking" in good sized ovens which has my wife very excited. We haven't bought one yet because we're still not ready for it but we're going to. I think if you're considering an Aga product, it'd be good to look into the company behind it all and their motivations.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I completely agree with both Minkycat and Bevmarfy, Aga have made the most awful mess of themselves. Their constantly changing 'energy beating' products are a far cry from the real Aga experience and the time honoured way of Aga life . Added to that , their sales staff are no longer trained in the specifics of Aga usuage merely to gain the sale of the latest model as quickly as possible no matter whether it suits the customers requirements or answers the customer's concerns. They have cut the number of engineers from just over a thousand to a mere 600 to cover the whole country and are struggling to keep up with call outs . I bought my first Aga in 2003, a 4 oven oil--at the time oil was 17p a ltr!!! When it had been installed I noticed that the cast iron shape was somehow 'thinner 'than the one in the show room, which was a good solid lump of cooker--I queried why mine looked different and was told that Aga was 'streamlining the' shape---!!! Since then, due to house moves, I have had 2 other Agas, and each has been a shadow of the previous! That said I am happy with my City 60, but have no doubt, as time goes by , that it will cease to function in the faultless way of the pre 2000 models which were the true heat store Aga without bells and whistles.

So sad and so annoying--nothing can be built to last, it just has to be for quick turnover and profit with as little quality as possible.