'Aga' style cookers that run the C/H?

[Seahorse]

Anyone have one of these?

I'm in the market for a new cooker and a new boiler and rather fancy killing two birds with one stone and getting not only a fab looking range but one that will heat the house too.

Are they really the 'dream ticket' they appear to be? I'm cooking for five and heating a largish house. Have both gas and electric, or could go for oil.

Good and bad points? Makes and models that you'd recommend? Or ones to avoid?

[Hilary B]

It always used to be the Rayburn which did hot water as well. Some Aga-types do, some don't. I never had one of the super-power types which did central heating, but I had a rayburn cooker which provided hot water (in fact 3 different homes we lived in over the years had them) I always had the traditional solid fuel types, but the gas/oil types are less work, and more powerful. The advantage of the solid fuel cooker is that it will turn many kinds of rubbish into useful heat. My sister cooks for a small guesthouse on a gas-fired Aga. I'm not sure whether it is one with a boiler, but I think it is. The 'own-brand' version of an Aga is called Alpha. Seen several (we look at other people's houses for a living) which do heating. They seem pretty good. Get the advie of a central heating person as to how much boiler-capacity your house needs (it's a calculation for an expert), then find out which model will do that output.

[JanieB]

I have a gas-powered "Stanley". Unfortunately, due to OH's demise, I have yet to have it installed. I have experienced one running and it was fab (which is why I bought one).

Runs C/H, HW and cooks superbly .

Mine should be in by Xmas .

[Kristen]

I have lived in houses with Aga, Rayburn, Stanley and Esse. The Esse was old, so I'll exclude that. My parents had an oil-fired range too, so I've known & lived with them for many MANY years. All were oil fired, so things may be different for Gas, and the models may have improved.

We hated the Aga, can't understand why they are so popular. The control of temperature was abysmal, hot water was way too abundant, kitchen roasted in the Summer (such that we had to turn it off).

The Rayburn was OK. That did cooking and DHW / CH.

By far the best we have had was the Stanley (Cook, DHW and CH). "Cooker" came on three times a day (Breakfast, lunch and supper) and there was a boost plus different timer for weekends as I remember it. The oven would come up to temperature about as quickly as an electric oven, so for me all the benefits of a Range (kettle on the go, park your bum against after coming in from the cold, dogs thinning the hair on their backs and so on) without the waste of having it running 24/7 when you didn't need it to.

The Aga has stupid convex hot plate covers, so if you put something on them to keep warm its in danger of sliding off.

I liked the little "keep it warm" hot plate on the Stanley - kept a kettle just below boiling, so you could get it to boiling very quickly (good for scaling up a kettle in a hard water area too )

However, the CH boiler part (which is separate from the cooking part) sounded like a jet engine taking off! We had a big farmhouse-style kitchen, so it wasn't noticeable, but that might be a reason not to have a combined system - although maybe Gas is whisper quite?

But my bigger question would be about fuel efficiency, plumbing runs, and all-eggs-in-one-basket.

Condensing boilers seem to be very efficient these days, and price of fuel is skyrocketting, so money to be saved by getting the most efficient. If the boiler can be placed closer to your hot water tank that is likely to save fuel (you have less pipe run and less pipes, air, and the water in the pipes to heat, and waste )

Also a stand-alone boiler is more likely to give you a better opportunity of considering a combined Gas / Solar Thermal system.

And what about maintenance? A separate boiler can be replaced when it dies; a combination system will have to be replaced when one part of it dies. I dislike laptops for the same reason; kids today seem to want one, regardless of whether they actually need to "commute" with their data. Expensive individual components, less flexible for upgrading, and so on.

[T-lady]

We have been living with a solid-fuel HERGOM for four years and I sort of love it and sort of hate it. We call him "Uncle Henry" coz he sits in the corner of the kitchen, glowering and belching out black soot.

Love the hot water, the 'ambiance' in the kitchen, the house warmth (we're also a big house) and the gentle cooking - especially for roasts. Hate the filth and nuisance of feeding him with coal three times per day. Also hate that we can't get him serviced as he's a Spanish model and no one seems to support him in the UK anymore. The side of the fire box has rotted away (damp - a bad installation) and the oven control has stuck.


I would have another range if I could run it on oil but maybe I'm with Kristen on this - it could be a pricey way of maintaining the house in a world of ever-increasing fuel costs.

[miss_corerupted]

has anyone expericened one run on wood???

i have plentiful of access to free wood so was thinking of replacing the gas ch and hot water with wood burner thing with cooker on as well and then in the summer use electric immersion/kettle for hot water and electric over so it doesn't get to hot in the house

[smallblueplanet]

Here's some info on different types of range cookers, single burner, double burner, etc...there's a bit a the bottom of the page about wood burners.

Types of Range cookers

Italian wood burners.

[Headfry]

I have an Aga and a separate oil fired central heating stove (looks like a log burner)
When we researched we found that a lot of 'combi' cooker/heaters did each job only 50%
We were told to look carefully at how they performed each task, and how they cooked and heated at the same time!!! most important.
You can get Agas that do both, but they are two separate units, and take up a lot of room.

[tootles]

We shall be getting a wood burner that will also do the central heating (not domestic hot water). My theory is that if it is not cold enough to light the fire - then you won't want the central heating on anyway. I spent last winter doing almost all of my cooking on a woodburning stove (not an official cooker one) and it worked very well (apart from the hot knees......) Most people that I know with an aga type thing turn it off in the summer, so you would need another cooking source any way - also a bummer if it runs the hot water too.

[Jardiniere]

I have a Godin Chatelaine which is a wood burning stove. It uses any kind of wood at all but oviously prefers oak dried for three years. It heats the parts of the house that we use in winter just by radiant heat and it has an oven and hot plates.I have a matching electric cooker next to it which i use in the summer.We heat water by an immersion heater.Our electric bill is about £45 a month (averaged over the year).The bill for wood that we buy from our wood man is approxinately £475 a year (average £40 a month over the year but we dont use it in summer) but we add to that with wood that we grow ourselves. we dont have gas or oil.i'm not sure how that compares - our house in engerland costs our daughters about £62 a month gas and elec (but thats going up right now by around 20%)but they are out all day at work so its not totally comparable .This is probably no use to anyone but i thought i'd share it anyway....................

[deezyb]

i'm going to look at a house tonight that has a Rayburn....so these comments are really useful! I was having a look last night on the internet, but your comments have prompted me to ask further questions at potential new house tonight!

Thanks, Dee

[Seahorse]

Thanks for the input everyone!

I have to admit that it's (as T-Lady puts it) the 'ambience' that appeals, plus the nostalgia for my Granny's Rayburn on a cold winter day!

I think the economy (or not) and the fact of it being all-in-one are probably the most important things. The various websites selling them say they're good value to use and that either 'half' can be replaced or upgraded - but then they're hardly going to say otherwise, are they!?

I don't work outside the home, so the 'on all the time' element would be a bonus, rather than wasted fuel.

Interesting that Stanley seem to be the top pick from people who've experienced lots of different makes (not just here but via my Google searches too).

[JanieB]

I have a Godin Chatelaine

Having chosen a Stanley for myself, I was also impressed by a model of Godin ( not the Chatelaine). Haven't Googled, but it does dual fuel. Main fuel would be gas/oil/electric but with the option of using solid fuel in the case of power cut/no fuel.

My main objection was the "modern" look of the cooker. I could have dealt with "ultra" modern but this was somewhat 70/80's modern. I preferred the "traditional" looks of the Stanley . Mine's blue

[Kristen]

"I don't work outside the home, so the 'on all the time' element would be a bonus, rather than wasted fuel."

I was surprised that the three-times-a-day (which we used on the Stanley we had) worked so well. I was brought up with "Range ambience", and we had the Stanley before oil prices sky rocketted, but it suited us well - and we would hit the override button if we had people staying for the weekend.

Even just being able to turn it off at night, say, would be a saving.

"Interesting that Stanley seem to be the top pick from people who've experienced lots of different makes (not just here but via my Google searches too)."

When we bought ours it was significantly cheaper than Aga too. Dunno about nowadays though.

[coomber]

I have a solid fuel Rayburn (bought off E-Bay for £100 last year), it does the cooking, hot water and heating - we currently have 8 radiators running off it with no problems. It really does make the kitchen the heart of the home. It does takes alot of getting used to, Temperature control is ok but obviously not as good as electric cookers! but I don't know how i managed without it, I use it to dry loads of herbs, tomatos and chillis and it does the most amazing roast(with some help from me!!). It does of course have it's down sides, Its far too hot in the kitchen to leave it running all summer(we also have an electric cooker) we just get it going if it's cold or we need to dry washing!! The cooker and kitchen also gets quite dusty(I don't mind too much, but some might!), you need to refil with coal (we find twice a day enough), You also need to start to get the oven up to temp about half to one hour before cooking(again not suitable for everyone).
It cost us about £200 in coal last winter(oct-April). You can use (free!)wood but I found this affected my asthma.
I don't have any experiance of any other make Ranges but I love my Rayburn!