Help please Moving Aga Cooker

[wickwarglass]

Help...

Has anyone any experience in moving an Aga cooker? I need to move it 1 foot to the left as part of a kitchen re-fit. The aga is oil fueled and sits on a low concrete plinth. I got an estimate from a kitchen company and they ball parked the move at around =A31,500!!! It can't be that difficult(?)

Supplementary question: Has anyone ever raised one of the hot-plates. The left (hot) one seems to be a couple of mm too low. This means that a super-large frying pan will not sit on it as in catches on the enamel. Is it easy? Do I need an expert? Should it be considered as part of the move?

TIA Colin

[dom]

Is it a "dry" Aga or is there plumbing involved? Is the concrete plinth large enough or does it need to be extended? Is the move in a direction to shorten or lengthen the oil pipeline? Is it a balanced flue (cut new hole in the wall) or open flue (possibly awkward fluepipe)?

Don't go to a kitchen company to get the Aga moved, either phone your local Aga store and ask them to recommend a local qualified engineer - or try to find an independent Aga specialist.

On my Rayburn (brand new, not even connected yet), the hotplate sits on a fire-rope gasket that raises it that little bit - possibly this is worn/burnt-away/displaced? My hotplate lifts out on 2 hooks, like a manhole cover - and about the same weight.

[wickwarglass]

It is dry.

No, I guess that the plinth will need to be extended.

The oil pipe would need to be extended.

Open flue.

I will have a look. I used to have a rayburn in a previous house. I seem to remember them being different. I'll see if it moves.

Colin

[Terry D]

Can anyone explain the point of these hideous, extremely expensive and hard to move Agas & Rayburns, apart from their snob appeal? My Tricity Bendix electric cooker cost less than £300 and is efficient, nice to look at, reliable and easy to move. Maybe an Aga could be useful if you have a family of ten, but otherwise why bother paying £1000+ for what is essentially a cooker.

Terry D.

[Huge]

Aaaeeeiiii!!!!!! Not again!!!

[wickwarglass]

I agree. They are hard to justify. Particularly from a green perspective.

More than my jobs worth to suggest not having it in the new kitchen though...

Colin

[Mackem]

It's similar to asking why have a Merc when you could have a Lada.

[calums]

Colin I have moved a few Aga's as part of kitchen refurbs. The most common method is to dismantle the Aga and then rebuild it, which is most probably what you have been quote for. I have moved them from one end of a room to another using the Egyptian method of rolling them on round bars... although you need alot of bars to endure adequite support and you need to be starting and finishing at the same level. In your case the most economical way would be to use a series of levers on the cast base blate and gently coax it the short distance required. Hoping this helps. Calum Sabey NewArk Traditional Kitchens

01556 690544

[Huge]

Good metaphor, but you have it the wrong way round.

Agas are crap. Expensive, wasteful, space filling crap, at that.

[Steve Firth]

[snip]

No, it's like asking "Why have a Challenger II tank to go down to Tesco for the shopping?"

[The Natural Philosopher]

£6500 but its not a cooker

It's a space (and possibly water) heater that you can also cook on and in. One that carries on when the electricity fails. Which it does here for extended periods at least once a year.

And as to why people buy em - they like em. I do as well, though learning to use one is a shade different from other methods.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think the last phrase is unjustified. They are, as heaters, considerably more efficient than a normal boiler. VERY little heat goes up the chimney at all.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Expesnive. not wasteful, and if you have the space so what?

AND here are not many boilers and cookers and radioators (which together cost similar sums of money) that will last 50 years.

[Owain]

They used less coal and caused less dirt than old "kitchener" ranges. They were therefore a Good Thing c. 1930.

Owain

[S Viemeister]

:) But for some people, in some parts of the country, Rayburns work well. Mine does the central heating and hot water, as well as the cooking. I have an airer hung over it, and it dries the laundry, too. I wouldn't consider one for a dinky little kitchen in the city, but out in the sticks, in a big kitchen, I find it useful.

[Huge]

Interesting point. We once rented (on holiday) a huge Victorian house on Harris which was heated solely by a coal fired Rayburn. Since we weren't paying for the coal (well, we were, but you see what I mean), I ran that sucker flat out for a week. It was a lovely warm house, but I wouldn't have cared to have paid the energy costs on a routine basis.

We also rented a house in Cornwall once with an oil-fired Aga. That was when my amused dis-interest in the things turned to loathing. Having to have windows open to get the house cool enough to be habitable, even though it was turned down as far as possible, was hugely wasteful. We were warned not to turn it off, as the previous renters had, due to the difficulty of getting it going again (the owners had had to send for an Aga engineer.) It's also interestijng to note that all Aga owners I've ever met also have a proper cooker (with sensibly shaped ovens!)

Warm towels are not a sufficient benefit for sharing ones living space with several tonnes of red hot scrap iron.

[Andy Hall]

There isn't any snob appeal. Either you appreciate the excellent results that an Aga produces or you don't.

You would be out by a factor of about 5 on the price.

In terms of utilisation it is scalable quite readily between 1-2 people and as many as you like.

The cooking techniques are different to conventional cookers and the results superior.

[Andy Hall]

Actually they are very easy to justify even from a green perspective, even if that were important.

Exactly, and don't you forget it :-)

[Andy Hall]

What a brilliant idea. It would be even better if one can rotate the gun turret in the carpark in order to secure a parking space.

[Andy Hall]

If this includes major disassembly and reassembly with new gaskets, building of new plinth, fuel supply, flue arrangement, then it could easily be that kind of price.

Over a small distance like this it's possible for the move to be done with steel rollers, but it requires 3-4 people to do it safely.

You could do that. The plates, like most of the internal components are fitted together with systems of studs and nuts to adjust the heights. Normally on installation cold the plates are adjusted slightly low so as to be at the correct height and working temperature.

I would find out if they are proposing to partly disassemble the cooker to move it. If they are then they will have to adjust it anyway.