Reconditioning a range cooker 

Reconditioning a range cooker is a great way to breathe new life into an old cooker. It’s a popular conversation point among Aga owners at the moment who have grown tired of servicing costs and high fuel bills. A word of caution though, converting an Aga to electric can come with some compromises. You have to bear in mind that an oil, gas or solid fuel Aga was never designed to run on electricity and therefore it is difficult to achieve the same efficiency as a range cooker designed from the outset to run on electricity.

Converting an Aga to electric

Both oil and gas fueled Agas can be converted to electricity. However most electric conversion kits advise you not to leave the hot plate and simmer plate on 24/7, and to only turn them on when needed. This reduces your electricity usage, but you will no longer benefit from the radiant heat coming through the lids of the cooker – which is useful for airing laundry and drying winter clothes after the Sunday afternoon wander. You’ll get less heat into the room and waiting a quarter of an hour for the hot plate to heat up to boil a kettle doesn’t seem much fun either.

The true test of a heat storage range cooker is how much it costs to run when left on at temperature and ready to cook. Make sure you find out these consumption figures before embarking on the reconditioning process. Often when you drill down into the comparative fuel costs the savings aren’t as good as they first seem. Spending thousands to recondition your Aga with the latest electric conversion and ending up with a shiny cooker that in reality isn’t much cheaper to run begs the question – is it really worth it?

Buying a reconditioned Aga

If you are looking at buying a reconditioned range cooker, like an Aga, again be warned. Interestingly it could end up costing almost the same as a brand new Everhot Cooker. Especially when you consider the cost of running an Everhot, versus other heat storage range cookers. The initial outlay will be more, however, overall an Everhot uses less than half the energy of most other heat storage range cookers so the saving over the lifetime of the cooker is huge. If you are considering buying a reconditioned Aga, then let us first try to convince you why you would be much better off with an Everhot! And a brand new one to boot.

Find out the cost of running an Everhot.

White Everhot 120 in a duck egg blue kitchen with fire behind

The benefits of a brand new Everhot

  • No servicing needs Everhot cookers are designed and built to negate the need for servicing costs. Once you own an Everhot, you won’t have to arrange expensive annual services to keep it going. British designed and British built by our expert technicians in our carbon negative factory in the Cotswolds, an Everhot cooker simply plugs into the wall using 13 amp sockets. No flue, no plinth, no complicated wiring, an Everhot is built to just work. Better still we have never made a product obsolete and still provide support for cookers built in the 1970’s.

 

  • Lower running costs An Everhot is the most energy efficient heat storage range cooker on the market, despite what our competitors might advertise. During warmer months we advise our owners to use our auto ECO function which drops their cooker into half temperatures overnight and automatically brings the hot plates and ovens back up to temperature in the morning. You can set different ECO times for each day of the week if your daily schedule differs and even put a delay on the times your ovens heat up, giving you further savings. Everhot is the only company publishing the 24/7 left on running costs of each of our cooker models, where you can compare models. All you need to do is multiply the kWh by your electricity pence per unit, which you can find on your electricity bill. This will give you a weekly cost for running your Everhot Cooker.  When comparing the running costs of other heat storage range cookers, or conversion kits, you should make sure you use the same calculations, ensuring you are allowing for all of the heating elements to be on 24/7 for a direct comparison. You’ll see for yourself that an Everhot can be as much as £35 a week less expensive to run that comparable manufacturers’ cookers.

 

  • Solar panel integration Our ‘trickle feed design’ showcases just how well Everhot cookers work with solar panel installations. Our cookers are designed to use a ‘trickle feed’ of electricity. This means that, apart from first thing in the morning when the cooker comes out of ECO and initially heats up, they tick along at around 600W an hour. Our maximum draw on most of our cookers is only 2.85kW, which leaves the typical 4kWh domestic solar system with energy to use elsewhere in the house. Our programmable ECO setting means you can ensure your cooker is warming up whilst the sun is giving you free energy, making use of solar power at the right time. Whereas other heat storage range cookers consume far more power and require as much as a 6kWh supply – which is beyond the limits of most domestic solar systems. If you want to know more about running an Everhot from solar panels, we have a number of case studies you can read.

 

  • More space to cook Our ovens are the biggest there are when it comes to heat storage range cookers. Every single one of our cooker models has at least two capacious ovens measuring 56 litres. In real terms, that means a 30lb turkey will fit in comfortably come Christmas! Our ovens use radiant heat in the same way as a traditional heat storage cooker. This results in moist joints of meat, perfectly risen sponge cakes and no soggy bottoms on your pastry. Because each oven, and the hot and simmer plates, have their own heating elements, you also won’t lose heat in your ovens when you lift the lids on your hot plates.

 

  • Cast iron versus steel Traditional heat storage cookers used a single heat source powered by solid fuel, gas or oil. In the 19th century cast iron was the material of choice as it retains heat well. However, anyone who has cooked on a traditional range cooker will know that when the heat drops it can take an age for the oven to return to cooking temperature. Everhot designer, Ossie Goring set out to use the latest technology and the best materials available when designing the Everhot. He deliberately chose to build our ovens out of steel. There is one simple reason for this – steel heats up more quickly than cast iron. Modern efficient heat storage cookers, like an Everhot, have an element in each of the cooking zones, and a steel oven allows for a more consistent oven temperature. Cast iron is still the best material for the hot plate, simmer plate and doors so we use it to make these parts of the cooker.

 

  • Versatility The Everhot control box is built for versatility. Alongside our ECO times and oven delay function – you are able to increase or decrease the temperature of the ovens and the hot and simmer plates by five degree increments. Giving you unrivaled cooking versatility and precision, enabling a multitude of cooking scenarios rather than simply roasting, baking and simmering!

 

  • Simple decisions Everhot cookers are available in seven sizes, from 60cm to 160cm. That’s it. The wider the cooker, the more ovens or cooking space. After this, your only decision is whether you also want an induction hob or additional cast iron hot/simmer plates, and finally which colour to choose. We like to keep things simple and easy to understand. In fact, our owners often tell us that the hardest decision is which colour to choose! No complicated list of multiple models, sizes and functions to choose from. We keep it simple and it works.

How much does a reconditioned range cooker cost? 

Prices for reconditioned Agas on the internet can range from a few thousand to close to £10,000 depending on the number of ovens and the age of the cooker. In contrast, new Everhot cookers start at £7,095 including VAT for an Everhot 60. Even though this is our smallest model, it still features two huge 56 litre ovens, a powerful grill and a hot and simmer plate. The top oven reaching up to 250 degrees and the bottom oven reaching as high as 200 degrees but designed perfectly for long, slow cooking and simmering at lower temperatures. At the top end, our Everhot 160i features four full size ovens, a two zone induction hob, two grills, and double hot and simmer plates, costing £16,125 inc VAT.

Everhot 60 in mustard yellow within a green kitchen

Discover our full range of Everhot Cookers  

Can I buy a reconditioned Everhot cooker?

Are you set on buying a reconditioned range cooker? Then take a look at our second hand Everhot Cookers. Any second hand Everhot you buy direct from us will have been fully refurbished in our workshop by our highly experienced technicians. Typically, they will look ‘as new’, with new elements and a new digital control box. The insulation will be upgraded to make use of the latest advancements in efficiency, and we’ll replace the lid and door seals with new rope. Only reconditioned cookers from Everhot have been through this transformation, we don’t provide spares to any external companies so be sure to ask what work has been carried out if you’re looking at a reconditioned cooker from another source.

Once the work is done, our reconditioned Everhot cookers come with a full one year warranty for the UK Mainland. Each cooker also has its own serial number which is registered at our UK office in Gloucestershire which means we know its full history. In contrast, other reconditioned range cookers do not come with this guarantee. As Aga admits on its own website, “A reconditioned Aga may already be over 30 years old and made up of parts from different Aga cookers.” We think it’s better to know the full provenance of a product when purchasing something as expensive as a heat storage range cooker.

Occasionally our retailers sell ex-display models of our cookers, we would advise you to contact your local retailer to find out about this if you are interested.