Wow, there's a lot of ignorance around when it comes to AgA and Rayburn cookers/appliances, especially when the "conversation" turns to fuel. Fact: an AgA was primarily designed to cook, and as a secondary consideration, it will heat some hot water through a back-boiler, but this will negatively impact on its performance as a cooker as some of the heat is 'diverted' to heating that water. Fact: an AgA has round hotplate lids, a Rayburn will have either two rectangular/square ones, or if older and smaller, perhaps just the one which may cover all or only part of the hotplate. In fact, some early Rayburns havee no hotplate cover at all. Fact: THE ONLY SOLID FUEL you should use for an old solid fuel burning AgA is anthracite - NOTHING else. Fact: you can burn wood, coal and various of the coal 'family' solid fuels in a Rayburn; not so in an AgA. Fact: a Rayburn is quite easy to get going again if it's gone out. Fact: a solid fuel AgA is quite difficult to get alight again once everything (in particular the flue) has cooled down/gone out. Fact: there is very little to service on an old solid fuel AgA, but obviously depending on its previous care, it may need some help. Ours had been rusting away in a corner for 10 years and needed new insulation, a new flue-box, new flue, rope around the hotplates, a new castings indicator (a bit like a temperature gauge that tells you the stored heat in the AgA's castings) and new sides as they're only made from mild steel that's then painted in the factory, rather than the heavy cast iron of the rest of the AgA. The reason there's so little to do is there are no moving parts in essence and though it's a beautiful piece of engineering, its beauty is partly its simplicity. Fact: a solid fuel AgA needs riddling and emptying once a day and filling twice a day - morning and evening, basically, but if you're going to be away one night and a day to a day and a half, filling it up to he gunnels will normally mean you come back to find it is still going - depending on the weather (wind etc, mainly). Fact: you absolutely do NOT need another cooker unless you're someone with zero patience, little common sense and a large family, perhaps. We have both a solid fuel AgA (in the kitchen and refurbished by selves) and a solid fuel Rayburn in a workshop. They are both utterly amazing things to have around and cannot be equalled, but are probably best if you are either at home or working from home a lot of the time. Having said that, the morning and evening routine does fit perfectly well with a working day. A solid fuel AgA is no dirtier than an oil-fired Rayburn; we've experienced both. Oil does not burn cleanly, therefore it's not the be all and end all. Yes, you need somewhere to store anthracite; yes you have to lug it around, but the best course of action when it comes to cooking, heating and hot water is to diversify anyway. Never put all your eggs in one basket. The all-electric house is no fun in a power cut and if your CH is a gas (boiler) powered wet radiators system you're also stuck during a power loss as the pump circulating the water to the rads will not work during a power cut. When you're slightly "off-grid" or a rural-dweller, a solid fuel appliance is king.