Interested in range cookers but don't know enough about them

[Phooey]

We are hoping to have a new kitchen next year so just starting to look at appliances...

The current thinking was 2 x Miele built-in ovens but after visiting an appliance shop today we were liking the look of the Everhot range cookers. I'm trying to justify the price of something like the 110/120i. I need to read up on the pros and cons of them but am I right in thinking you leave them on all year round? We like the idea of it heating the kitchen (open plan kitchen/dining area) but maybe not the cost of doing so! Does anyone have any advice on electric range cookers and using them vs standard built-in ovens? Is the extra cost (probably £5k) over 2 x built-in's and a separate induction hob justified? What do you do in Summer months? The Everhot website recommends not turning them off - surely if they are electric you can just come home, switch it on and throw your pizza in it or does it take too long to heat up?

Thanks

[rustyuk]

I know two people that had an electric Aga, both were paying more than £8k per year in electricity charges.

[dickymint]

Pro's - none
Con's - pain in the arse having to bend down and not being able to see how things are looking.

[gangzoom]

Phooey said:

We like the idea of it heating the kitchen (open plan kitchen/dining area)

What's wrong with a normal central heating or UFH in the kitchen? I like open fire but even than I acknowledged they really are for the odd occasional, for actual heating there are better options.

So what's the appeal of using a cooker to heat the kitchen?

[smifffymoto]

We started married life with a gas Rayburn and Mrs S was in love with it.
They are a lifestyle item rather than a cooks cooker,purely because they take an age to heat up and you cook by oven position and time rather than temperature.

[PlywoodPascal]

rustyuk said:

I know two people that had an electric Aga, both were paying more than £8k per year in electricity charges.

I have a gas one, using 50 kWh per day, only a few quid a day.
Electric ones might make sense if you have solar and or a battery to charge overnight to run it from.

[PlywoodPascal]

dickymint said:

Pro's - none
Con's - pain in the arse having to bend down and not being able to see how things are looking.

Our only cooking device is aforementioned aga

Pros

-once you know how to use the ovens anything you cook in the, will be really nice cooked
- it is nice to lean on to get warm
- radiant heat feels really nice, like an open fire
- You can dry washing on it
- Fun to make toast
- ovens clean themselves
- don’t have to preheat it

Cons
- miss a gas a hob
- not so good for things that need very high heat (steaks, stir fries). You can manage steaks, stir fries not so much
- bit of a hassle to clean the top.
- if you cook when tired or distracted you burn yourself a lot
- if you like baking might be harder to get used to it

Ours came with the house, it was a bit intense learning to use it at the same time as moving house. I have enjoyed learning to cook on it. I really like cooking on it now. The ovens cooks things beautifully. I do like cooking though.
We do plan to get a new kitchen and I really want to keep it /another range cooker when we do.

Edited by PlywoodPascal on Saturday 26th October 20:56

[Snow and Rocks]

We have an ancient Stanley oil fired range, it's not efficient in the slightest but it's like having a living breathing, roaring beast at the heart of the house and we wouldn't be without it. It's in a 200yo stone cottage halfway up a North facing hillside in Aberdeenshire so the heat it belts out is generally very much appreciated.

It would though be absolutely stifling for much of the year in most normal houses but I believe the modern Everhot models are much better insulated - so not only use much less electricity but output much less to the room.

The specs should list the output to the room I would think? What sort of house is it going in?

[DonkeyApple]

Phooey said:

We are hoping to have a new kitchen next year so just starting to look at appliances...

The current thinking was 2 x Miele built-in ovens but after visiting an appliance shop today we were liking the look of the Everhot range cookers. I'm trying to justify the price of something like the 110/120i. I need to read up on the pros and cons of them but am I right in thinking you leave them on all year round? We like the idea of it heating the kitchen (open plan kitchen/dining area) but maybe not the cost of doing so! Does anyone have any advice on electric range cookers and using them vs standard built-in ovens? Is the extra cost (probably £5k) over 2 x built-in's and a separate induction hob justified? What do you do in Summer months? The Everhot website recommends not turning them off - surely if they are electric you can just come home, switch it on and throw your pizza in it or does it take too long to heat up?

Thanks

Things like Agas are superb but you do need to consider their application. More than a few people have had horrors as they've bought the dream and not considered the reality.

If the kitchen is a good size and a bit of a 'family space' then a range cooker can really add to the space. They shove out a radiant warmth that is different from radiators. They're more like a log burner in this regard.

The next thing is that you have to enjoy cooking with them. Some people genuinely struggle but personally, I think they're superb. No dials, no nothing and you suddenly realise a lot of stuff talked about cooking is a bag of balls.

But here's the big thing that some people don't realise: you still need another cooker and hob to really get the most from a range cooker. You want to be turning it off around Easter and looking forward to firing it up when the first storm takes the leaves off the trees.

Re heat up times, usually 12-24 hours.

[WelshRich]

Had an Aga in a house we rented once, with no other oven/hob. Great when we moved in (late autumn) and fabulous over Christmas but a pain once the weather warmed up.

No point even turning it off if we were away for a week or so because it took about two days to get back up to temperature

The whole top surface (not just the rings) was too hot to touch, so impossible to clean. Any food spills basically stayed there and cooked/baked in place for the next six months - I literally had to use one of my sharpest wood chisels to scrape it off before we moved out but fair play to Aga, the enamel was tougher than diamonds and completely unmarked underneath six months worth of baked on rogan josh…

[AndrewCrown]

Phooey said:

We are hoping to have a new kitchen next year so just starting to look at appliances...

The current thinking was 2 x Miele built-in ovens but after visiting an appliance shop today we were liking the look of the Everhot range cookers. I'm trying to justify the price of something like the 110/120i. I need to read up on the pros and cons of them but am I right in thinking you leave them on all year round? We like the idea of it heating the kitchen (open plan kitchen/dining area) but maybe not the cost of doing so! Does anyone have any advice on electric range cookers and using them vs standard built-in ovens? Is the extra cost (probably £5k) over 2 x built-in's and a separate induction hob justified? What do you do in Summer months? The Everhot website recommends not turning them off - surely if they are electric you can just come home, switch it on and throw your pizza in it or does it take too long to heat up?

Thanks

Phooey
We've had an Everhot 90i for 10 years... will get back to you with a long term user review after dinner

[dickymint]

PlywoodPascal said:

dickymint said:

Pro's - none
Con's - pain in the arse having to bend down and not being able to see how things are looking.

Our only cooking device is aforementioned aga

Pros

-once you know how to use the ovens anything you cook in the, will be really nice cooked
- it is nice to lean on to get warm
- radiant heat feels really nice, like an open fire
- You can dry washing on it
- Fun to make toast
- ovens clean themselves
- don’t have to preheat it

Cons
- miss a gas a hob
- not so good for things that need very high heat (steaks, stir fries). You can manage steaks, stir fries not so much
- bit of a hassle to clean the top.
- if you cook when tired or distracted you burn yourself a lot
- if you like baking might be harder to get used to it

Ours came with the house, it was a bit intense learning to use it at the same time as moving house. I have enjoyed learning to cook on it. I really like cooking on it now. The ovens cooks things beautifully. I do like cooking though.
We do plan to get a new kitchen and I really want to keep it /another range cooker when we do.

Edited by PlywoodPascal on Saturday 26th October 20:56

I grew up with one (solid fuel) and yes some fond memories but useless for cooking in this day and age - too hit and miss.

[Aluminati]

We have a gas Rayburn that stays on all year, and an eye level Neff that’s usually for Sunday lunch, big guest meals. Air Fryer as quick back up.

Do not buy an electric range, you will cry every time a bill lands.

[Phooey]

Thanks for replies

It sounds like we would (ideally) benefit from a standard built-in oven in addition to a range. That's not really a problem and does make sense the more I read about them, but the other consideration that DA pointed out is the hob - thinking about it I would say we probably use the hob (veg) more than our current oven. We use our Ninja air fryer daily for stuff like chicken, salmon, chips, etc. I wasn't overly impressed with the hob area on the Everhot cookers. An additional hob might be useful? I think it's the look of the cookers that we were drawn too - if budget allows we are hoping to have a shaker kitchen made by a local company... a range cookers is (IMO) the focal point of a shaker kitchen. Lots to consider like cost of running it etc and of course the number of appliances and cost is starting to run away with the budget a tad..

[rustyuk]

You could just buy a normal range stove. We have the Rangemaster Professional and it's ok for the the price point.

[CrgT16]

We thought about an AGA but it would have to be electric as gas was not allowed in our build so we didn’t think the energy costs would be good value as we have UFH throughout the house.

So we went with a 1.5m Lacanche range induction which it has been great.

You will need both if you go with a radiant heat one.

[omniflow]

Ignoring everything else (which would be a long list), the biggest problem with this type of cooker is that you need to bend down to put things in, take things out and check on things.

This alone would be enough to put me off.

[NorthDave]

What about something like a Lacanche if you just want a focal point? Probably a lot more usable

https://www.lacanche.com/index_en.php

[DonkeyApple]

CrgT16 said:

We thought about an AGA but it would have to be electric as gas was not allowed in our build so we didn’t think the energy costs would be good value as we have UFH throughout the house.

So we went with a 1.5m Lacanche range induction which it has been great.

You will need both if you go with a radiant heat one.

Going off in a tangent but your post made me wonder, re a new build, whether an electric Aga could actually be a really useful element in a modern heating and energy system?

It's basically a thermal battery which is deliberately inefficient but with a back boiler that fed into a whole house underfloor system on the output side and then a solar feed into the battery on the input side and all within a very thermally efficient modern house envelope you potentially have an archaic battery solution that's more efficient by cost and practicality than a box of laptop cells bolted the wall?

Cheap grid electricity at night, maintaining the floor temps 24/7 and the water tank thermal store and then taking in whatever solar is available during the winter day while that solar array dumps into the grid all summer when the heating is off?

[OutInTheShed]

DonkeyApple said:

Going off in a tangent but your post made me wonder, re a new build, whether an electric Aga could actually be a really useful element in a modern heating and energy system?

It's basically a thermal battery which is deliberately inefficient but with a back boiler that fed into a whole house underfloor system on the output side and then a solar feed into the battery on the input side and all within a very thermally efficient modern house envelope you potentially have an archaic battery solution that's more efficient by cost and practicality than a box of laptop cells bolted the wall?

Cheap grid electricity at night, maintaining the floor temps 24/7 and the water tank thermal store and then taking in whatever solar is available during the winter day while that solar array dumps into the grid all summer when the heating is off?

no.
No, No No.
NO!

In a new build that's not a complete joke built by cowboys, you don't want your primitive stove dumping that much heat into the kitchen.
8 months of the year, you'll need aircon to make the place habitable.

Agas are a tolerable idea in old houses with solid walls and no damp course and all that, where the heat is needed to keep the house dry, and the house has enough mass to keep a stable temperature.

It's an expensive 'lifestyle choice', either the Aga or the cottage that goes with it, some people now seem to realise that heating costs a lot of money.