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aga
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Posted by pnbrown z6.5 MA (My Page) on Tue, Dec 19, 06 at 20:20
| I know this has pretty well nothing to do with gardening, so I apologize in advance. I was hoping y'all could help with some information.
I'm nuts about aga cookers. Problem is I need a stove that heats the kitchen, and I don't want to do that with gas or oil (currently I use an antique american-style wood cookstove). I recently learned that aga used to make a coal-fired cooker, and anything that can burn coal by definition can burn wood.
The chances of finding a used aga coal-fired cooker in the states is about nil. I was wondering if they are seen at all in antique or used shops over there.
Thanks, and if anyone has any aga stories to tell - do tell. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: aga
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| Have you tried contacting Aga themselves? They are still made and sold here, including solid fuel versions. I'm not sure that burning wood on a coal Aga would be recommended. We have had regulations about burning coal since the 50s and I believe most solid fuel Agas of that and later vintage would have been designed to burn 'smokeless' coal-based fuels. A friend's family burned wood on theirs and it was always very dirty and smokey. My parents burned 'Furnacite' on ours. My current Aga burns gas and runs the central heating and hot water plus it keeps the kitchen warm and I cook on it. It is 20 years old and now very old technology in the Aga world. I can't say I've ever seen an Aga in an antique shop. They tend to stay in houses for years and then get scrapped as the newer designs are more efficient and environmentally friendly. The chap who services mine says he sees many still running at 50 or 60 years old. They are also immensly heavy to move and basically need to be built in. Maybe an architectural reclamation business would be worth looking at. Google on Aga for their site. The link has an interesting potted history of kitchen ranges and explains that an Aga-type cooker is technically more complicated than you might think and that just swapping wood for coal is unlikely to work. |
Here is a link that might be useful: info on stoves
RE: aga
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| My grandma had a similar item called a Rayburn. I think she put both wood and coal on it. We used to make Hovis toast on it with a toasting fork made out of a coat hanger. Happy days! |
RE: aga
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| So far as I know, all Aga cookers run on oil or gas. They have a range of "stoves' which operate on wood or solid fuels, but these are just for heating a single room, no cooking. Rayburn, don't know why the different name but they are Agas which also provide hot water and sometimes central heating, do produce models which are designed to run on wood or solid fuels. I don't think the Rayburn Ranges are available in the USA, odd that. |
RE: aga
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| I guess the company is called 'aga-rayburn'. I have been to the website, but wasn't able to find any sign of modern coal-burning cookers. Most likely they aren't made any more. There are problems with burning wood in a stove designed for coal. Usually the firebox is very small, and the loading door or port is inconveniently small. I'll probably be better off keeping what I have, but I was liking the idea of going to england on a tramping-about-looking-for-old-aga mission. We are getting an aga companion to replace a small antique glenwood range that we have now. What's "hovis" toast? |
RE: aga
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| I know nothing about Agas, but Hovis is a brand of bread. |
RE: aga
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| Here are some of the wood burning Rayburn ranges, but like I said I don't think they are retailed in the US. Also, they don't seem to be available as cooking-only ranges. But they exist, so a hunt might be worthwhile. Or you could contact them and see what they can offer you. |
RE: aga
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| you might like to try the link below seems to have an extensive range .... but pricey !! Merry Christmas !! |
Here is a link that might be useful: woodstoveswarehouse.com
RE: aga
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| Thanks for that link, Shrubs. I wasn't aware of those, very interesting. Nice that they pretty well match the aga line, though I don't care for the square covers. I need to find somebody in the UK who covets american antique cookers, then we'd only have to pay for mutual shipping, aye? |
RE: aga
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- Posted by deeds1 the far SWUK-9 (My Page) on
Sat, Dec 23, 06 at 8:21
| I have a coal/wood burning Raeburn in my dining room - the idiots who owned the house before me smashed holes in a granite inglenook fireplace to link it to an immersion heater in the cupboard next to the fireplace. They also smashed the original doors to the cloam (bread)oven. The Raeburn is still in place at the moment, and it works, if anyone wants it, it's their's, free of charge, all they have to do is remove it and take it away. |
RE: aga
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| Is it a cooker or only a heater? Shame about the damage -it's amazing how little respect some have for history. |
RE: aga
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| I would have thought ebay is the best place to look for used models. www.ebay.co.uk for the UK version |
RE: aga
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| Aga do make solid fuel versions. See the link. |
Here is a link that might be useful: solid fuel Agas
RE: aga, a Swedish invention
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| I have to quote here from the Aga Range homepage: Most people associate the name Aga with good food and fine living. And although it’s often thought of as quintessentially British, the Aga actually began life in Sweden. The celebrated cooker found in 750,000 households worldwide was invented by Dr Gustav Dalén, a blind Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Appalled that his wife and their maid had to constantly tend to their old-fashioned range, Dalén set out to design a modern cooker that would look after itself. It’s unlikely Dalén could have predicted that his invention would go on to be widely acclaimed as a design icon, but it has. In the year 2000, the BBC published a retrospective of the 20th Century highlighting what it considered to be the top three design icons: first was the Coca-Cola® contour bottle, second was the VW™ Bug and third was the Aga cooker. (It has not been manufactured in Sweden since 1957.) I have no personal memories of an Aga but my husband has and he was ecstatic when he saw one in the kitchen of the home of Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. He didn't hear a word of what the guide was telling the group of visitors and stayed behind to touch the red ball on the cooker. It seems he spent his lonely childhood turning this ball in and out. I don't remember what it was for. BTW, the Coca-Cola "contour bottle" but known to some as the "hobble skirt" bottle, was created in 1915 by a Swedish former glassblower, Alexander Samuelson, who had emigrated to the U.S. in the 1880s and was employed as a manager at The Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana. But I don't think any Swede had anything to do with the VW beetle :-) |
RE: aga
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| Hovis is an early example of branded goods. It has been made since the 50s (if not much longer, I can only remember that far back) and is made with wheatmeal flour. My grandma bought small Hovis tin loaves with the word Hovis imprinted on the side. You can still get it but now it come in plastic bags like all the rest. You mean you don't have it in the US? Bet you don't have Marmite either, which is what I used to spread on it. |
RE: aga
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| If you put your zip in pn, I bet you might find one. http://www.aga-ranges.com/where/dealer_list.asp |
Here is a link that might be useful: AGA
RE: aga
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| Dealers in the US don't carry Rayburn, nor solid-fuel agas. I have someone checking with the central distribution point in NJ about the possibility of getting one. |
RE: aga
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RE: aga
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| I used to have an old instruction manual for an Aga, which was absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure of the date, but I would guess it was around 1950s/1960s. On one of the pages it was demonstrating how easy an Aga is to maintain. It said, and I quote, "In some hospitals, Agas are operated soley by certified lunatics" accompanied by a drawing of the said lunatic and his Aga. Sadly, I no longer have my copy of this little gem. I lost it when we moved house. If anyone has an old Aga manual they would like to get rid of I would be delighted to take it off your hands. It caused great hilarity in our house. |
RE: aga
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| Funny. I love how un-selfconsciously arrogant things were in those days (as opposed the current administration of the US).I wonder if aga re-prints stuff like that? |
RE: aga
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| Got our new AGA 'companion' the other day. What a outstandingly fine product. I love knowing that I've invested in something that my grandchildren could easily be using when they are older than I am today (presuming they have access to propane or methane gas and 220volts of juice at 30amps!). |
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