Do you or ever have owned an AGA ?

I’ve got an Everhot electric range, which functions like an Aga, but runs off a 13 amp plug. Mine’s got two halogen rings too, so I don’t have or need an electric cooker as well. If you live in a cold house ranges are brilliant, I’ve got a large, cold kitchen which is open plan to the stairs, so it’s perfect for the location.
You need to re-learn how to cook things in the oven and on the hob, my advice is to get yourself an Aga cookbook Yammy. Once you’ve mastered the art you won’t want to use a conventional cooker instead because it’s just so convenient, I’d never go back.

I had an oil aga and loved it, just shove things in and they cooked perfectly. Didn't need a slow cooker, just put stews into the warming oven and come back from long walks to a hot meal. Clothes dryer, bottom warmer - I do miss it.

But at 200L of oil per month, I wouldn't be able to afford it without serious budgeting now.

I've now got a tiddly electric cooker that takes forever to get to the right temperature.

Apparently an oil fired cooking only Aga costs £1200 per year to run. That’s just for cooking and heating the room it’s in.

We had a solid fuel Aga, apart from having to fill it , riddle it and cope with gale force winds causing havoc with it, not to mention often having wet Furnacite, we loved it for its warmth, we didn’t love using the hot plates and having the oven temp. go down though down.
And we had an electric cooker for the Summer.
I couldn’t justify the expense nowadays, it was different when the children were small and we had dogs, they all loved the warmth in our cold cottage and I warmed their clothes in it and around it before they went to school.
We didn’t have central heating in those days or double glazing either so it was worth having.

In 1974 we bought a small cottage built in 1750, it came with an old solid fuel aga, bearing in mind that I had never even heard of an aga, coming from liverpool terraces. Trial and error to make it light and I soon got used to it, definitely a slow mo way of life. It used to be wonderful for batch baking especially bread and casseroles. I could not cope with the heat from an aga now

I had a solid fuel AGA when we lived in Cornwall and had no problem with cooking - ran a tea room in the Summer and could turn out scones in the blink of an eye.
Sometimes I would put in baked potatoes and forget 'til the next day so had burnt bullets.
It was great for slow cooking porridge overnight. Heated all our hot water.
Should think it would be expensive to run now as the fuel was a special pea shape.

I’m not a fan but have only used one briefly when staying in a holiday house years ago. They make the kitchen too hot to work in comfortably and take up so much space. I also find them ugly especially when they come in bright colours. They dominate the kitchen. I prefer the complete control I get from my electric oven and gas hob. In fact if I ever moved to a house with one I’d replace it straightaway.

Certainly no snobbery from my perspective, mine is a real workhorse. And what works for Mary Berry works for me. Celebrity chefs have no relevance to my kitchen. I had to wait a LONG time for my Aga and it didn't disappoint but you do have to understand that its a totally different way of thinking about cooking. In terms of boiling the kettle, the trick is to have one with a large base with not too much water in it and keep it on one of the domed lids (using an Aga mat obviously) That way the water is already warm and takes no time to boil, especially first thing in the morning. Though if you need a large quantity of water say for cooking pasta, it makes sense to use an electric kettle.
I did have a smile at the image of you sitting on the floor to move the shelves if I had to do that no cooking would get done! But I think you really don't love your Aga and we aren't going to persuade you....

Are you talking about me?
Aga ?

I grew up with an Aga. It was a solid fuel one my parents had installed in 1939 when they got married. It was an old farmhouse where my grandmother had a black range before the installation of the Aga. It was the only method of cooking and my mother seemed to be able to control it perfectly making everything from fruit cakes to Yorkshire puddings. The bottom or ' slow oven' was even used as an incubator for new weak lambs. As children we used to sit on it on cold days despite warnings of ' you'll get piles sitting there'. I remember we even had a sort of mesh toaster for making toast on the hot ring and an iron with two bases which heated up on the hot plate and a handle clipped on so always a hot one on the go. It was riddled and stoked every day and never went out until the day my mother moved to a bungalow in 1973.

We had a solid fuel AGA many years ago when DH was a farm manager. It truly was my best friend in the winter as it also heated the water and three upstairs radiators.

The children were all under five so I would dress them in front of it and dry clothes and nappies on the overhead rack. Our dogs had their baskets as close as they could possibly get to it and if you came indoors on a freezing cold day you would warm your bum up by leaning against the front rail.

There was always a kettle of water on the boil for hot drinks and topping up washing up water. I cooked endless casseroles, soups and delicious breakfasts and the hot oven was marvellous for bread and cakes.

It was kept alight for at least eight months of the year. I used an electric cooker during the summer and the immersion heater for hot water, which was expensive but at least only used when necessary.

It's true what they say about an AGA being a way of life and there was certainly no snobbery where ours was concerned. It was DH's first management job, wages were low in the seventies and we lived in a tied house.

I missed it like mad when we moved on.

We have one and the best thing about it is it keeps kitchen warm. It is also our central heating boiler. We had to have a gas hob put in as it took forever to do most things. I don’t think I would have one put in again.

Funny we were discussing AGA's at my knitting circle this afternoon. My best friend always loved hers, (mind you, she was a lousy cook!!). I hated ever being there and trying to use it, detested the lack of control of heat both on hob and ovens.

Yes, they warm the kitchen during the winter, but then so does CH!!!

Think these are very much a 'marmite' thing, although there does seem to be a lot of snobbery attached to them, but never see any celebrity chef using one.

They are a way of life and can be your best friend or worst enemy.

Unless you are committed they are just an expensive and financially needy hunk of metal.

I love my daughters, coming down in the morning to a toasty kitchen is a delight, the dog curls up in front of it, toast tastes wonderful and casseroles happily sit in the slow oven for hours.

However life isn’t a Joanna Trollope novel and someone has to pay the bills?.