Range/Cooker Question for UK and European members

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dragnlaw

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I've been watching the British series, Midsomer Murder.

Holy Cow! does everyone in England have an Aga Range/Cooker! It seems to me that every scene in a kitchen has one!

They are horribly expensive here. I would give my eye teeth to be able to afford one! We were building a house in 2000 and I saw a small range that I thought would be perfect. Very narrow, actually came in a green enamel that I loved. Then I found out it was about $7,000. and that it ALSO was "just" an add-on to a full size range. That was 16 years ago - still don't think I've recovered from having my dreams burnt to ashes. :ROFLMAO:
 
I used to watch Midsomer murders but stopped once I discovered Murdoch mysteries now called Artful Detective. BTW has the new season of Artful Dectective started yet? We get a delayed beginning of season in the USA.

I can't answer your range questions sorry.
 
I used to watch Midsomer murders but stopped once I discovered Murdoch mysteries now called Artful Detective. BTW has the new season of Artful Dectective started yet? We get a delayed beginning of season in the USA.
I can't answer your range questions sorry.

Midsomer Murder takes place in different towns in Midsomer County in England. Artful Detective takes place in Canada. It is one of those great shows that Canada sends us. Two different casts. Murdoch is the last name of the Detective who is stationed in Toronto.
 
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Midsomer Murder takes place in different towns in Midsomer County in England. Artful Detective takes place in Canada. It is one of those great shows that Canada sends us. Two different casts. Murdoch is the last name of the Detective who is stationed in Toronto.

Yes Addie I know where they take place. I started watching Midsomer on Netflix then discovered Murdoch which I liked better.
 
msmofet - Addie... do either of you happen know what an Aga Range is? :angel:

LOL I don't mind the thread being hi-jacked... but could you at least let someone answer about the range first? LOL
 
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msmofet - Addie... do either of you happen know what an Aga Range is? :angel:

LOL I don't mind the thread being hi-jacked... but could you at least let someone answer about the range first? LOL

Are those the stoves that are at an instant heat? You put the cover up and the top is hot enough to cook on. :huh:
 
Aga is a Swedish invention and not that popular in Sweden. My granddad had the old fashion wood burning aga, it also heated up their warm water and was extra radiator.

Aga in the UK, is seen as a country kitchen staple, it must, it often replaces the radiator in the kitchen, how ever it is the Rayburn or Stanely model that can do both, cook and heat a house or so I been told my husband who used to sell them.

Also when you buy Aga, they last, for many years the oldest still working is from 1932. So if the previous owner of you house put in an AGA , there is no reason to replace it if it still works.It is great workhorse and that why they are still around. And compared to the old stoves back in 1930- 1940 , a coal or gas burning Aga was cheaper to run then any other cooker.
 
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Yes, they make a lot of appliances, from wood burning, gas, electric - the ones I like are cast iron, enameled, gas.

You lift that lid and your kettle boils! It is always on.

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Guess we were both posting at the same time CakePoet!

Yes, I knew it was Swedish and am surprised to hear you say it is not more popular there. I can fully understand its popularity for supplemental heating. Makes for a very cosy kitchen!

But what is their price range there? (for cast iron always on - is gas) Is gas relatively expensive or cheap in the Scandinavian Countries? In the UK?

I know my viewings are from a TV show and they can show what they want, realistic or not, but just wanted to know if perhaps they really are that common in kitchens there.
 
Well they stopped making then in 1957 here in Sweden. It all has to do with our government idea that electricity was a give right to all permanent dwellings.

Gas mains in a country where the ground in some area shift during winter isnt a good idea and we didnt have natural gas here. We had wood and a lot of it and we had water, lots of fast moving rivers. So Electricity was the way to go and then also central heating became the done thing and all this adds up to you dont need a range standing heating up the kitchen.
A little history, in Sweden idea of house building compared to UK, we had law in 1789 ( if I remember correctly, it could be earlier ) that made it impossible for the rich to build, big energy guzzling houses. They had to insulate and put in wood saving burners, masonry heaters to be exact. Soon the poor followed suit and our houses became so energy efficient in the 60 compared to English that the Aga became old fashion and not as effective.
 
Most country houses and farmhouses have Aga's. They cost an arm and a leg, but they're fuelled by wood, coal or coke or oil and stand independent from all the national energy supply networks. So in the countryside, in remote areas, in small villages they're considered the most efficient form of heating for all purposes, worth their weight in gold in a very cold winter. They're also very much a status symbol, part of the essential trappings that the well-to-do would boast. If you don't have one, you're not ONE OF THEM. Advantage: they boot the heat out very well. Downside: knowing how they work for cooking, temperature control when they have spikes and dips, can be extremely frustrating. You have to 'have the knack' as they say in England.

Here in Italy, we have a wood-burning stove that throws out the heat like a dream - it keeps most of the house very warm in winter as well. Unlike the AGA, we can turn our stove off in summer, but I believe it's better to keep an Aga ticking over all year round.

The thing about Midsomer Murders is it's a real spoof of the upper middle classes, and the social image of the people who have to have an AGA, (and other pretences) but don't really know how to use one is rather comical.

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
Remember an AGA does not heat the whole house, only one room which it stands in. The Rayburn, which is similar looking to and AGA and also owned by the AGA company, is the one that can heat a whole house.

My husband used to sell them.
 
When we bought this house, and had it done up - it became quite a sizeable job because we opened up other rooms, converted two of the ground level rooms into a laundry and wood store respectively (which we use for other things - a large chest freezer, storage shelves etc.) we decided not to put doors into the kitchen and, or on the other side of the stairs, where there's the access to the rest of the ground floor living space. We bought a very efficient - and expensive - wood burning stove. It turned out to be a big plus, as a lot of the heat wafted upstairs as well as keeping part of the downstairs warm as well and it makes a lot of difference in winter, not to mention the cost of filling the gas tank, which, thanks to the circulation of warm air from the stove, we can keep down to one re-fill per year.

We also have a double-sided hearth in the wall between the dining area and the living room and that does a good job as well.

As for cooking on the kitchen stove, I have to stand over it because it can cremate the dinner if I'm not careful! The top is a delight to cook on, and I have permanently hot water that I use for various purposes. All in all, I reckon I'm not that good at using the oven, because my OH and I invariably end up talking about something, and whoosh, the dinner gets cremated in a very short space of time! no marks there!

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
Here in the States, right up to the 60's, tenement homes were heated by the kitchen stove. Wood, oil, or gas. And we usually had a second heater at the other end of the apartment.

My mother had a cast iron which took wood and coal. I learned how to stick my hand in the oven and tell the temp with that stove.

Her second stove was cast iron also but fueled with oil or kerosene. From that stove she graduated to another cast iron fueled in the same manner. But that stove had two small gas burners at the back of the stove and gas for the oven. The primary purpose of all three stoves was to heat the water boiler and the apartment in the winter.

Those stoves became illegal in the State I live in later on, and now all apartments have to have central heat with a separate hot water heater.
 
di, Addie, CakePoet - Thank you all so much. I really appreciate the input!

So fascinating the history of various things, the why's and wherefore's. I love reading all these things. Unfortunately I never seem to be able to retain the knowledge. Only that I read about it and maybe one fact or so. :rolleyes: :LOL:

I also never seem to be able to pursue one line of thought - get distracted by another line and off I go on another read, never having finished the first! Wikipedia is great for that with their embedded links.
 
I am not in England, but I am in the UK and we do not have a range cooker. They cost over £1000 - don't know what that is in anyone else's money. I also don't think we would have enough room in our kitchen for one. However, when I was a child we had a Wellstood range cooker, fuelled by wood and coal, in our kitchen. It made the kitchen nice and cosy and was particularly good for baking. When I was 19 we moved house and bought a bright red, oil-fired Aga cooker, which my mother had mixed feelings about, but it did keep the kitchen nice and warm.

Gillian
 
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:LOL: GG is Boston not in the States? :LOL: love your dry humour!

I think she was just referring to the fact I'm in Canada, which is NOT in the States (yet, nor ever will be )... even thou I'm barely a days drive from her. (or two if you obey the speed limit).

Addie, because we are so close, it is quite possible some of those stoves were around here too. You never know!
 
They cost over £1000 - don't know what that is in anyone else's money. I also don't think we would have enough room in our kitchen for one.

Gillian

That's about $1,700 here, add in the tax would bring it over $2,000. which isn't bad actually - middle high price. But over here I'm sure the price is double or more.

They do have a great variety of appliances thou, I don't know how they are all priced.

I think you could find one that would fit except - as you say... price price price!
 
:LOL: GG is Boston not in the States? :LOL: love your dry humour!

I think she was just referring to the fact I'm in Canada, which is NOT in the States (yet, nor ever will be )... even thou I'm barely a days drive from her. (or two if you obey the speed limit).

I wasn't being funny. Of course Boston is in the United States. My point is that things are different in different states, and often even within a single state, but Addie speaks as though everything everywhere is just like it is in Boston. We don't even have tenements in Virginia, that I'm aware of, nor in Michigan where I grew up. It gives a misleading impression to people who live outside the US.

It's odd to me that you continually ascribe meaning to people's statements that are clearly not there. She was describing how tenements in Boston are heated and implying that it is the same everywhere in the US.
 
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