Oven Cleaning Franchise - Training - Business - AGA

Babe AGA Clean

Before Christmas I cleaned the AGA that belonged to Dick King-Smith the author of the book Babe about the talking pig. You've probably seen the film. The house wasn't like the farm house in the film, apparantly this house belonged to a friend of Dick's and was a farm house down the road, but was a modest cottage with a rather nice garden and a small pig statute. It wasn't Babe but was wild hog statue but I remember reading an article on Dick and it said in that that he actually called this pig Babe.

The AGA was a standard AGA with enamel tops but looked, after I taken off all the muck, like a new one so it was obviously a reconditioned AGA. Dick died a year ago and his relatives were cleaning up the house as they wanted to get it ready to sell. Anyway when I had finished the AGA looked fabulous.

Cleaning AGA enamel lids

The other day I was out training new franchisee Brian Smith and we cleaned this very old and dirty Standard AGA cooker (Standard as an old AGA with enamel lid tops before they bought out the Deluxe AGA in the late fifties with chrome top lids) and standard double oven in the same kitchen of a fabulous thatched cottage. The AGA took a while as the grease was engrained on and the top of the enamel lids was particulary bad. In all, as I was showing Brian the cleaning process, it took a long time than I would have taken myself. As Brian cleaned the double oven on his own I carried on with the detail of  the AGA. So we started at 0930 and finished at 1530. A long day. The AGA looked great at the end though. Unusually the underside of the lids were both self cleaning - well rusty self cleaning coated that couldn't be cleaned. Really I haven't cleaned one of these standard AGAs for a while and I really enjoyed myself. I not sure if Brian did though! We cleaned the Falcon double oven range cooker the next day. All good practise though.

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

AGA Cleaning Chippenham

I am out training Brian Smith this week. He is the new franchisee for the Chippenham area and will be covering the towns of Chippenham, Malmesbury, Trowbridge, Devizes and surrounding towns and villages which includes the place where we used to live, Calne.

This week we have cleaned one old AGA which was a standard AGA cooker with enamel lids. It was a bit for struggle as it was very dirty. Tomorrow we are cleaning another AGA which I hope will be a more modern AGA with the chrome lids.  We will find out tomorrow.

Here is a video of Brian.

 

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AGA cleaning bristol

Today  I cleaned a two oven AGA which wasn't too bad of a job. It was a repeat customer so we have cleaned this AGA about four times before and as it was in Bristol it was a short drive from the office. In all if AGA owners get their AGAs cleaned regularly the job is easier as level of dirt isn't as great as say someone who has owned an AGA for 30 years and has never had it professionally cleaned. The end result was a very sparkling clean AGA.

 

Before and after photos attached (which appear to be in the wrong order).

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

AGA Cost of Running one - Which one to choose?

If you are looking for a budget AGA here is some general advice for you:

I have owned an AGA since 1996 and cleaned a few hundred over the last seven years. I currently have three AGAs:

AGA number one is a gas powered flue in a house I renovated which I now let. This AGA I bought from new in 2000. It seems to work very well though as I haven't lived in the house for seven years I have lost track of house expensive it is to run but I've got an idea that the price of gas has doubled in the past seven years so a reasonable guess would be about £80 a month and a service once a year is about £120.

AGA number two is the AGA in my current home we have a 30 Amp AGA which I bought renovated from Mr Cooker for £5500 (total price including fitting) in Dec 2007, and it still looks like new. It seems to work fine though I have had to replace one element this year and two last year. Each element replacement costs £150. Cost to run is - I can be accurate with this as it heats on an off peak meter - is £10 a week.

AGA number three I bought an AGA on ebay about a month ago for £123 for my training kitchen in our office. It is a PRE 1974 which means it has a step at the back of the enamel top. Here is a photo of it on this blog AGA Cleaners AGA . Really it was a great buy as it looks like new and is a reconditioned one. It had a broken burner which I think contributed to the price. I have looked at kits to convert it to electricity. GB cookers  have quoted me £1800 to fit the kit they use, that is re build my AGA with the kit. It is made by Hytech Enamellers who with GB Cooker also make renovated electric AGAs with the same kit (about £5500). Hytech AGA conversion kit. Mr Cooker also quoted me the same price for a kit made by Midland Cookers. GB cookers have told me that their AGA would cost about £16 a week to run. Mr Cooker told me that they achieve this by putting lots of insulation in the AGA to keep the heat in. Hence on the Hytech page they mention it is safer for children. So the Hytech Eco Cuisine seems to cheap to run but there is a trade off with the amount of heat. Though at the moment my kitchen is at 40C so their AGA might not be a bad idea at all. Our AGA keeps all our house, except for our front room, warm though. 

When the AGA engineer replaced my element on my 30 Amp last month he mentioned the unreliability of 13 Amp AGA and mentioned that even though they have warranties the owners still have to pay for the call out and first half an hour. So this is £100 a time to get it fixed. The fault is normally in the PCB board and this is just replaced. Obviously when it is out of warranty you'd have to pay for a new PCB board too. So beware of not very old 13 amp AGAs on ebay as they be an unreliable one. The engineer also mentioned that one of the customers he has seen with a 13 amp had a proper meter fitted to her 13 amp AGA to get an accurate record of cost of running. The meter said £6 a day! Though saying this about 13 Amp AGAs my wife's good friend has had one from new (three years old now) and it hasn't gone wrong at all and she swears it only costs £20 a week to run - on AIMS. 
So from this you may want to think about getting an older AGA on ebay and getting it converted with a kit. Though you'd need to be aware that dismantling and assembly costs can be expensive. So ideally an AGA on ebay that has been dismantled. If it needs enamelling a company like Hytech can do it for you. Though it is going to cost about £1500 for the whole AGA to be renamelled. And then in addtion to this you'd need to pay for an electric conversion kit. Not sure how reliable these are but if you get a warranty perhaps they are okay. Alternatively you can get one that is renovated already from some one like Midland Cookers or GB Cookers or Twyford Cookers but the cost is about £5000.

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AGA Enamel Top Cleaning Hot

 

Here is a video that I have done for OvenCleaning.TV on How to clean the AGA cooker enamel top whilst the cooker is on. Really I am showing how I keep on top of our AGA, it is just a case of having a cloth handy to make sure it is kept clean. I also use the Astonish Enamel and Tile cleaner that I have in the video too. This works very well.

 

I hope to get some more videos on the www.OvenCleaning.TV site in the next week or so, so keep an eye out on the channel.

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New AGA Cooker Launched Today - AGA Total Control

 

Watching todays Tweets from @agarangemaster and @jamesmcintosh they have announced the launch of a new AGA cooker that looks very much like the traditional AGA we all love but with a modern update. Today Tweets said 'AGA total control redefines a British icon: touch screen control, separately operated ovens and hot plates - redefining a British icon. They went on to say: ' new hotplates that are 10% larger and soon to be launched smart phone apps so you can control the AGA on the go; an AGA when you need it'. Looking at the pictures that were linked to by the tweets http://yfrog.com/z/h3oawxuwj it looks just like a regular 3 oven AGA but with a glass control panel under the control box door. So looking at what they are saying it means that they have gone away from the traditional 'on all the time same temperature running AGA' to an AGA that is completely controllable. So that is why I have put the old Aardman electricity ad on this post - the first character, what is he, a tortoise, says about the heating on his home: 'It is easily controllable and it need to be easily controllable as I don't have much time.  I am a very busy person. I need to have everything as I need it. It needs to be modern. It needs to be easily turn off and on able'. So there you are todays new AGA Total Control described by an old commercial - 'it's easily turn off and turn onable'. Perhaps they can do an update, change the logos and there you go instant advert all set up. I may do it myself!  Lets hope @jamesmcintosh gets up to speed to do us some videos so we can really see how it works.

 

I can see this AGA is a popular addition to the range and really it is what everyone wants sometime that looks like an AGA but can be controlled by your iphone (lets hope they do an Android app too for us HTC Desire owners). So that will be fun and awesome! :-) The 13 Amp electric AGAs have been great but they do cost a lot to run, and I have had had to describe AIMS (AGA Intelligent Management System - posh timer to you and me) to many 13 Amp users, desperate to reduce their bills, more than once.  Lets hope this is a the new AGA AGE!

On the AGA Rangemaster website they go on to say about the AGA Total Control that each of the hotplates and ovens can be controlled separately and they have achieved the control by using elements that are set into the cast iron. And the price is £9595 but it is available in 9 colours and it can be as low as £5 a week to run. So this is good as it would allow you to run with say just one oven or hotplate through the Summer and stop your kitchen being a sauna - like mine is with our 30 amp.

We look forward to offering our AGA cleaning Service to clean them. So if you have the AGA Total Control and your AGA cooker needs cleaning then please contact us. :-)

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Cleaning AGA cooker doors and Tunnels.

I've been asked twice by email this week "How do we clean AGA doors and Tunnels?" ( Tunnels are the shiny strip just inside the AGA oven) especially when they are encrusted with years of dirt/burnt on carbon.  Well if they aren't that bad,say the AGA is a just a year or so old you can most of it off just with a wet microfibre cloth and some astonish solution. This will ensure that the shine on the tunnels will stay mostly intact; that is it will be still be mostly shiny. If it is it is thicker you can probably get the doors close to 100% with a soap pad so a Brillo pad. If you use Brillo on the tunnels be aware that if you really scrub the factory shine is going to dissappear forever. You can restore some of the shine with dry steel scourer but obviously isn't going to look like the factory finish. So it's your call. If the.doors are really thick we have been taking them apart and dipping the linings which does a great job. You just have to be careful when putting the door back together that you get the seals in the right place and you do up the screws tightly. For really encrusted tunnels I use a scraper with sharp blades and back scrape, followed by a soap pad.

We do most of our jobs cold and I would recommend that you do the same or do try and do the doors hot take them off and let them cool before you try and clean them or else you'll burn yourself.

The other alternative is to buy replacement door liners or tunnels. I have noticed that the replacement tunnels are infact stainless steel which will make them easier to clean.

Also the engineer from Spillers who fixed my own AGA last year says that people put foil on the inner doors tied on with brown string to keep them clean!

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13 amp AGA versus 30 Amp AGA cooker

Image by Ivydale via Flickr

Here is a list of things that are different between a 13 Amp AGA cooker and a 30 Amp AGA.

 

This based on my knowledge from owning a 30 Amp AGA and having cleaned quite a few AGAs!

 

Installation of both the 30 Amp and the 13 Amp is the same that is you don't need to worry about a location in your kitchen as it doesn't have a flue like an oil fired AGA or gas one (conventional flue). So it can be on any wall. For the 30 Amp one you need a 30Amp electricity supply and an off peak electricity meter and for the 13 Amp you need a 13 Amp supply - which you'll already have. There is a pipe that runs from the AGA to take any gases that come from cooking. This is a 15 mm pipe and can be routed through cupboards etc to a fan that sits on an outside wall. I have cleaned an AGA recently where this run was 15 meters - really it is just for getting rid of smells etc which on a gas or oil AGA goes up the flue. On the electric AGAs you switch a switch to get the fan to work.

 

You'll need a plinth. You can build one yourself out of concrete  or get your builder to do it. The dimensions are on the AGA site. You can get a metal one which is adjustable. We have got one of these on our AGA and it is fine.

 

The 13 Amp seems to be very expensive to run compared with the 30 Amp one. For example looking at our electricity bill, as our 30 Amp runs on off peak electricity, we can see exactly the cost of running it. For the last quarter it has been  under £10 a week to run. Everyone I have spoken to re the 13 Amp talk of 'high running costs' of about £25 to £35 a week.

 

Cost of buying one: The 13 Amp is about the same cost as a gas or oil AGA and that is about £8500. For a 30 Amp they are going to be about £11000 but AGA do specials on them quite a lot. A new AGA will have a 5 year guarantee or if you buying from Twyfords-AGA you'll get a reconditioned one with a 5 year guarantee so you save some money. We bought our reconditioned 30 Amp from Mr Cooker which was like new for £5500 three years ago. The problem with second hand 30 Amp is that you might see that advertised cheaply. The problem with them is that they are very difficult to dismantle and set up again. The cost will be £2000 to £3000 so it isn't advisable to buy one on Ebay that hasn't been dismantled as dismanted.

 

I have read reviews on the 13 Amp AGA and still people are having problems with the electronics on them.  But saying that our friend has had her 13 Amp for two and half years without any problems. So really to make sure ensure yours has a warranty.

 

If you would like a professional AGA cleaner please contact us on 01275 370571

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Oven Cleaner's 30 AMP AGA COOKER

 Here is a photo that I have taken of our 30 Amp Cooker here at home. It's looking pretty good even though we have now had it it for three years. It was a reconditioned one that we bought from Mr Cooker after we had moved into our current house.  The only problems we have had with it in the three years have been: two elements have gone and the fan on the back has also packed in, but apparently these are normal problems of a 30 Amp AGA of this age (It's somewhere around 2000 to 2005 in age). We bought it and had it installed just before Christmas which looking back wasn't the best time to have it installed, or buy it as the price was higher than it would have been at any time of year,  but as we had just completed our kitchen and left a gap for it it had to be done and the 30 Amp was our only option (knowing how expensive it is to run a 13 Amp AGA) as there was no place to have a flue, and my son had just been born and we needed the kitchen to be completed.

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