I thought I'd tell you how we manage to get the tight difficult bulb covers off. For example on the Smeg A1 Range we would use either one of our microcloths which are pretty effective or else we also use some material that we got from Ikea that is supposed to be 'anti mat slip' material but it's great for getting a firm grip on the covers. If the bulb cover happens to be broken then we would use pliers to remove the glass bits.
Sometimes the bulb itself is difficut to remove and again we would use the microcloth or the anti slip material. If the bulb is broken we would switch the power off to the cooker and then remove the bulb with pliers.
Hurry – today is your last day of securing a 30-amp night storage Aga with a 20% discount
Aga have been offering 20% off for 20 days*
Inspired by EDFs brilliant Eco 20:20 campaign AGA –
maker of the only cooker designed specifically to work on Economy 7
electricity launched its own campaign to help you switch to off-peak electricity.
For 20 days – from 2nd March – AGA has been offering 20% off every 30-amp night-storage cooker in its range*.
More than 20 years ago AGA had the foresight to design the first
cooker to run on Economy 7 and to this day it remains the only one. And
– as all AGAs are made mainly from recycled materials, last a lifetime
and reduce the need for other household appliances, such as tumble
driers and electric kettles – it’s easy to see why this is a
not-to-be-missed offer if you’re looking to save money and stay green.
Phone lines open at 8am on Monday 2nd March, the offer closes 20 days later at 5pm on 21st March.
*Terms and conditions apply – call or visit your local AGA Shop for more details
For more information on 20:20 vision visit www2.savetodaysavetomorrow.com/green_and_eco.html
I own one of these Agas and we love it – my wife is now a convert – it took her a while to adjust to Aga cooking methods but now she just is completely passionate about cooking using the Aga. We also have the benefit of the Aga heating most of our home with the residual heat that it gives off. We have an open plan kitchen/dining room with open doorway to the rest of our home. The Aga costs us about £10 per week to run and I think that is excellent value for heating my house as well!
Anyway – don't let me keep you – hurry and get your 20% off TODAY – I only wish I was on commission from Aga for the number of people I have recommended Agas to!
We are cleaning more and more ovens, ranges and AGA cookers in the Cardiff and surrounding areas. We also clean ovens in the Newport and Chepstow areas. So if you would like your ovens cleaned in this area please give us a ring.
As we are trying to fit in at least four jobs a day for our guys and oven cleaning is very physical all of our guys are very fit. So if you want to have an enjoyable job with great satisfaction that keeps you fit you might want to consider running your own oven cleaning business.
We cleaned a commercial range for a Cafe in Weston Super Mare recently. The cafe had just been taken over by a new owner. We tend to get lots of commercial cleans from new owners as they can't believe how dirty the oven etc have been left by the previous owner.
Alan went and cleaned and it a tremendous job but when we got the cheque from the owner he wrote a letter with it to say that he 'was somewhat peeved by the fact that there was a notice on the front of the range cooker saying 'DO NOT USE' and that he had wasted his money. This is strange to me as most domestic ovens only cost at the max £100 to fix.
On speaking to Alan he said that he had seen the small sticky note but it was greasy and the writing had run and so it looked like an old note. He had asked one of the people from the cafe there if they knew whether the previous owner had used the range. They replied positively to this saying that yes he had them that he had been using it right up to before handing over the business.
So in all we will be now be making sure that new owners, especially, check everything about their newly acquired commercial cooking apparatus before asking us to clean it. I personally get the owners to show me at the beginning that everything is working before I start. I will make sure that Alan does this in future.
I gave someone a quote this week – they had taken over a pub just outside Yeovil and were in the process of completely refurbishing it – and I told them to check everything out before we cleaned it. As they were waiting on a delivery of LPG which had been delayed they are going to get back to us. Apparently you can't seem to get fast LPG deliveries which is strange to me especially when you run a pub and depend on it for cooking.
I really love the AGA cooker but I know that for whatever reason people will decide to buy another range cooker for their kitchen. Perhaps they find the AGA slow for cooking (it can be) or perhaps they don't want the running costs of an AGA or perhaps they think the AGA cooker is difficult to use (it isn't).
So my list of alternatives are:
1. Mercury Range Cooker. This is a conventional quality range cooker. So in comparison with the AGA you won't get the 'cosy house feel' and of course none of the expensive on going cost of running it. I really love this cooker though it looks great especially with the Mercury Cooker Hood over it. Mercury cookers look and feel the business and they are a true quality item. I really love the way that the gas burners light when you turn the control knobs. They cost in the region of £3500 so compared with an AGA it's a lot cheaper.We regularly clean Mercury ranges and I really love cleaning them.
2. Lacanche Range Cooker. Again a quality conventional range cooker. You can really feel the quality of these cookers when you clean them with really solid build. They are more of a professional build quality then other range cookers, and I have been told by some people that they find them 'too heavy' in use and that they have problems opening the doors. I wouldn't be put off by the poor website these cookers are the real deal and everyone I've met who has one (we clean lots of Lacanches on a regular basis) loves it's cooking performance.
3. Redfyre Range Cooker. This is more of a range cooker in the model of an AGA cooker but with some differences to an AGA Cooker. They look very much the same as an AGA but, for example, you can have one that looks like an AGA but using a 'Warm Front' technology they are warm and give off heat like the AGA but without the expense. To tell you the truth I haven't cleaned many of these. In the five years that we have been trading we have only cleaned a handful of them. I don't think this necessarily because there aren't many around I think it's more likely that they are very easy to clean. 
4. Everhot Range Cooker. Again this looks like the AGA and they also do a 60cm one for smaller spaces. The whole range are electric and as far as I can see work very much like the 30Amp AGA cooker in that they are storage heaters that you use for cooking. Looking at their site I love the colours available and the style of the cookers. The only thing I've noticed from looking at them in a show room and talking to a demonstrator is that as they are powder paint coated on the outside (as compared with enamel as in the AGA) they might be just a bit more difficult to keep clean.
5. Esse Range Cooker These are like AGAs but a bit smaller in size. We have cleaned lots of these over the years and I think people tend to love them. They have a large selection of different fuel and flue types. I particularly like the look of their Woodfired – see Esse Woodfired comprehensive guide. In all a fabulous website and a great range of cookers.
Of course I have missed out lots of alternatives but I remember seeing a lot of these ranges at an openday we were invited to at their Cook Centre in Chard in Somerset in October of last year. See AGA Cooker Centre for their whole range of AGAs, Rayburns and other cookers.
I noticed the following flavel safety warning in the newspaper over the weekend.
This is the first time I've seen such a serious safety warning for any oven. Basically you need to keep the grill door open when you are using it or else there is a serious risk to health because of a build of carbon monoxide. So please check to make sure that you haven't got one of the affected models on the beko site: flavel safety warning
We have noticed that the number of oven cleaning bookings has increased recently. It must be the oven cleaning season! We also know that as the weather gets warmer people will be able to live without their AGAs on for a day or so and they will call us in to clean them for them.
I saw in a paper over the weekend that AGA are offering 20% off their 30 Amp AGA for 20 days. See 30 Amp Electric AGA. So you have got to order the AGA between the 2nd March and the 21st March 2009. You will need to put down a deposit and then pay the outstanding amount two weeks before installation. The installation has to be before 30th June 2009.
Well to me this is a fabulous offer as we have now had our 30 Amp AGA since December 2007 and we just love it! It's the cheapest AGA Cooker to run (about £11 a week) as it uses off peak electricity to heat up over night and therefore you are making a saving off 50% on fuel running costs compared with all the other AGA cookers using other fuel types (including the 13 Amp AGA which I have been told is very expensive to run). Also you can use the economy 7 electricity to run your washing machine etc to make use of the cheap electricity and make even more savings. And you don't need to have it serviced every year like say a gas AGA, or twice a year like the oil AGA (though AGA to recommend that it is checked yearly). Also installation costs are cheaper.
To me I have never really understood why the 30 Amp model has been so expensive compared with other fuel type AGAs so for them to cut the price is a good move by AGA. I think all new AGAs come with a five year guarantee so you can be sure that it's going to be okay for that time (30 Amp AGAs do apparently have problems with the elements inside which are expensive to replace).
