We've got two AGA Cookers one in our current home in Bristol and one in a house I rent out in Taunton. We entered our details into the AGA Wanted site in different names for each of the AGAs, with my name and details for the one in Taunton.
On a previous post I mentioned that my wife got her reward from AGA which was a 10% money off voucher to be used against purchases from the AGA Cookshop. This all happened swiftly with the AGA shop in Bath phoning her 7 days after we put the details into the AGA Wanted site to ask us what we would like - anAGA magazine or the 10% off. They then sent out the voucher and we received it the next day.
For the AGA in Taunton I'm still waiting for the reward! That's three weeks now.
Because of the bad snow yesterday we re arranged most of our jobs for the day for all our vans, but then in the afternoon when it had warmed up the snow disappeared and we wish we hadn't moved them as we lost a day's income. Today, even though the weather was worse, we tried to delay the jobs and get to the ones that we could do. So today we did a lot more than we did yesterday. The guys did a great job in getting to the clients even though the conditions were terrible.
People often ask me "How Do I keep my Oven Clean after you have gone?"
Once we have removed all the thick grease and burnt on carbon it's just a case of keeping on top of things. Here are my 5 tips for keeping your oven clean once it has been cleaned professionally:
1. You need to keep on top of the grease in the oven so do this you need to make sure you clean it regularly. Use a micro fibre cloth such as the ones at Nigel's Eco Store. You can use it just wet or if you want to add some cleaning product, some soapy water will do fine – especially washing up liquid.
2. Also keep on top of pans that go into the oven. If these are greasy then they can add to the burnt on carbon in the oven.
3. Put an oven liner onto the bottom of the oven. Either use a standard size oven liner or by sheets of Bake-O-Glidewhich can be cut to size. Don't use aluminium foil as it will damage the enamel of your oven.
4. The racks of your oven can be cleaned by soaking them in normal washing up water, or if you can fit them in your dish washer that will do fine too. If you have an extractor that has aluminium grills they can be put into the dishwasher too.
5. Or if this is just too difficult for you - book us in regularly to do your oven cleaning for you.
8 Costs to consider when installing an AGA cooker:
1. Which model to buy to get the cheapest running costs. If £80 a month to just run a cooker doesn't matter to you then you have got a choice of Oil, Gas, 13 Amp electricity. If £40 a month sounds better then you need a 30 Amp Electric AGA. An Oil AGA needs servicing twice a year, A gas AGA once a year, an electric AGA doesn't need servicing but AGA recommend having it checked once a year. The cost to have your gas AGA serviced is in the region of £120 (as of July last year – servicing by Spillers of Chard) or if you get a local independent then it will be cheaper.
2. Whether to buy new or second hand. You can get great savings on second hand ones that look like new. We bought our 30 Amp Electric AGA from Mr Cooker for £5500. Also see ebay and See Reconditioned AGAs. Also you need to decide on which size AGA you need – a 2, 3 or 4 oven AGA.
3. You need to install a flue for a GAS or Oil AGA. This means the AGA will need to be next to an external wall or have chimney into which the flue can vent into. A flue running up an outside wall can look ugly. You can get a version of the gas AGA that has a power flue. This means the AGA can be located in any position and it has a small pipe (about 25mm) that can then be carried along walls to the outside vent. The electric fan on this takes the exhaust fumes outside.
4. For the 30 Amp Electric AGA it has a small (15mm) vent pipe that goes to the outside – this can be run through your kitchen cabinets. A 30 Amp electric cable needs to run to the cooker from your meter board. You will need an off peak meter fitted to your property as the cooker works like a night storage heater heating up at night on off peak electricity. You can also make savings using this electricity to run your washing machine and dryer. You need to fit a timer.
5. For an Oil or LPG AGA you will need to site a fuel tank outside your house. You will need to build a base for it and install the pipework from the tank to the AGA location in the house. If you have an old cottage with very thick walls you will have to drill an hole through the wall.
6. If your AGA will be used to heat your water you will need a boiler fitted to it. This will need to be plumbed in. You may need another water tank installed for this, ask your plumber – the pipe work may be very expensive. The advantage of a water boiler is lashings of hot water. You can't fit a boiler to a 30 Amp Electric AGA, I'm not sure about the 13 Amp. The weekly running costs of the AGA will be higher with a boiler fitted.
7. For all the AGAs you need to install a plinth. You can either build this yourself or get a builder to lay it for you using a wooden frame and concrete it has to be exactly level and set for the day of installation. You will need to finish off the front of the plinth with tiles or paint. The alternative to making a plinth is to buy a metal plinth which looks very good in the matt black finish. This plinth can be adjusted on the day of installation.
8. If your house is listed you will need to get listed planning consent. There may be a saving on VAT if you are purchasing a new AGA.
As I'm not technical and these are from my experiences of installing my own AGAs you will need to get professional advice. See Installing an AGA and the main official AGA Cooker site for more technical details.
Today one of our guys couldn't get out of the village he lived in because of the snow. The road wasn't blocked or anything but the silent policemen were too icy and because of this he couldn't drive the van our them. So it was a case of waiting until the afternoon by which time they had thawed and then went off and cleaned a couple of ovens.
We're celebrating the start of February and the arrival of the first snow this year by offering a FREE HOB CLEAN when clients have their oven cleaned before Saturday 7th February. Need yours doing? Then call us on 0800 45 82 357 TODAY! See Oven Cleaning Special .
