AGA cookers??? [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

bae

11-10-13, 2:01am

My horrible super-high-end Viking wall oven just died, thank goodness. I spit on its grave.

Anyways, I need to replace it. The smart move would be to buy a low-end GE or something, for about $1100.

The Shiny Way would be to chainsaw up the kitchen, convert to propane instead of electric, put in an AGA cooker which could heat the house too, remove the electric cook surface in the middle of the kitchen and replace with work space and sinks, and a few other minor changes. I can't imagine this would cost any more than $50k if I do the work myself.

And I could finally get rid of the polka-dotted indoor-outdoor carpet the kitchen is floored with.

So, umm, help?

danna

11-10-13, 9:57am

What do you really want to do? Is the money an issue or the work?
By the sounds of the carpet I know I would have a hard time not tearing it up! But, that is me...lol......

kib

11-10-13, 11:37am

I have been hoping you'll talk about how your Islands are coping with the cable-cutting disaster in terms of preparedness; I think one thing to consider is the access you could expect to have to various types of power. I hate electric stoves for exactly that reason, one little downed line and voila, no food (or heat, if you're also depending on an air blower in your furnace or an electric heater).

The shiny way is also a whole lot sexier and it sounds like you spend a great deal of time in the house and specifically in the kitchen. I vote for that one.

SteveinMN

11-10-13, 1:48pm

Like putting new buttons on an old coat. :)

If you really want to drop $50K+ on a remodel, you just got the engraved invitation to do it. If you have the money and the time and if putting in a Monogram or Dacor or Gaggenau seems like cheaping out and will leave you chafing, go for it.

But speaking personally, as someone who loves to cook and is married to someone who wouldn't mind the house being warmer year-round, that level of remodel would not make my life $50K+ better or bump the price of the house $50K. I'd convert to propane, rough in a connection to the island for possible future use, replace the carpeting, and call it good.

iris lilies

11-10-13, 1:57pm

I would do anything to get rid of carpet in a kitchen. Renovating the kitchen for more workable space is good and worthy.

But I will not talk you into that AGA, we like low end appliances here. We don't even have a window in our Sears oven, we were too cheap.

ah, the cost? The AGA istself has to cost at least $50,000. Didn't we recently talk about this on this site and the baby AGAs, the new-fangled ones for the low end market, even they are $50,00 (?) A real AGA is something like $175,000 (?) I am pulling these numbers out of my head. Sure I could Google but not gonna.

bae

11-10-13, 2:00pm

But speaking personally, as someone who loves to cook and is married to someone who wouldn't mind the house being warmer year-round, that level of remodel would not make my life $50K+ better or bump the price of the house $50K. I'd convert to propane, rough in a connection to the island for possible future use, replace the carpeting, and call it good.

Wisdom!

early morning

11-10-13, 2:04pm

An AGA is my dream cooker. It will never happen - they are simply no where near my budgetary limitations - but if I were in your shoes, Bae, I would SO have one. I think IshbelRobertson had an AGA, though, and replaced it. Maybe you could ask her about her AGA experiences. Anyway, I think the Shiny Way sounds great. If we get to vote, then cast mine for SHINY, lol. Kitchens are the heart of the home, after all! :)

bae

11-10-13, 2:47pm

In my experience, messing with anything in the kitchen, or involving home remodeling in general, is like pulling on the thread of a sweater... Pretty quickly, everything is unraveled, and the cat is caught in a giant snare.

Wife points out that our wood stove may be nearing its end of life. And that Vermont makes this:

http://www.woodlanddirect.com/core/media/media.nl?id=716057&c=483668&h=e8903cc6e977088ed67a

bae

11-10-13, 2:59pm

One thing that irks me is that Viking does not seem to allow normal public any access to the service manuals. Looking at the parts list, there are only a couple things that could be wrong with it, and they seem trivial parts swaps. However, each possible part is $300+ at the discount online parts store, more like $500 if you pay retail from the Authorized Repair Guys.

Who charge $75 to come out and look at it, then *they* have to go order the parts, wait 2 weeks, and come back, for another $75. Plus they charge by the hour for the time they are actually on-site, the $75 is just to show up. Last time they did this, when the oven was under warranty, the guys who showed up were capable of doing nothing other than talking to the real repair guy over the phone, took them 3 different visits to replace one single circuit board.

If I could score a service manual, I could fix this myself in about 10 minutes.

Jilly

11-10-13, 3:10pm

Oh, just look at that soapstone!!!!

catherine

11-10-13, 3:17pm

I vote for removing the carpet and switching from electric to gas. If you can reconfigure the work space yourself, I vote for that, too. I don't know why it would all cost $50k.. unless that's the cost of the new stove. But having just done a kitchen redo on a much smaller scale (yet still being able to create some needed efficiencies), I say do what will increase the quality of life in your kitchen. And ask yourself where the point of diminishing returns would be. For me, little things like my narrow 5-inch three-shelf spice rack next to my new stove is a treasure. And I wanted a slide-in stove, but DH didn't care. The slide-in would have been more expensive, and I decided not to do it, and I'm fine with having saved a few hundred bucks there.

And is that wood stove Vermont Castings? They make great stuff. I bought a Vermont Castings grill for DH years ago and it is solid today--and the same model new is about 4 times what I paid for it.

ETA: Those AGA stoves are pretty nice--can't blame you for being tempted: http://www.houzz.com/aga-stove

AnneM

11-10-13, 5:25pm

Don't the Aga's use an awful lot of propane compared to other gas ovens? I have had my Dacor double wall convection ovens for 15 years, and still love them. I have a Dacor cooktop as well. Have never had issues with either. I have to admit though, that the Aga looks pretty cool!

SteveinMN

11-10-13, 5:32pm

bae

11-10-13, 6:14pm

So bae, I take it you've looked t sites like this one (http://steprightupmanuals.com/appliance-service-manuals/oven-range-manuals/viking-oven-and-range-service-manuals/viking-electric-ovens-service-manual-for-models-veso127ss-veso527ss-vedo127ss-vedo527ss-veso130ss-veso530ss-vedo130ss-vedo530ss-deso127ss-deso527ss-dedo127ss-dedo527ss-deso130ss-deso530ss-dedo-detail) and this one (http://appliantology.org/files/file/1000-viking-wall-ovens-vedo-veso-dedo-deso-service-manual/) as alternatives to Viking's own site?

Indeed. Alas my model is ~10 years old, and not listed on any of the handy 3rd-party manual providers. I'm going to see which of those that they have manuals for share common parts in the area I suspect has failed though - maybe I'll get lucky. I just want to be able to determine *which* board is toast before ordering the super-expensive parts. It is not evident from inspection, and lacking a circuit diagram I am too much of a coward to go probing around :-)

IshbelRobertson

11-11-13, 4:28am

We had an Aga when I was growing up and that's how I learned to cook. Our house had an Aga when we moved in anf I cooked happily on it for many years. We had a new kitchen a few years ago and decided to remove the Aga and replaced it with Neff appliances.

We were able to sell the Aga for much more than the cost of the appliances!

There's a brisk trade here in second hand Agas. Perhaps you could investigate that?

bae

11-27-13, 5:33pm

catherine

11-27-13, 5:41pm

Ha. Ha ha!

Decided I didn't have much to lose, took apart old oven, found:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-srZKtPHBd2Y/UpZiyYskNMI/AAAAAAAAI1I/e2Uiac_GqkA/s640/Awesomized.jpg

New part arrived 10 minutes ago, oven working fine again. $275 part, and Lord knows how much for the electrical engineering degree, but...win!

Wow! Doesn't that make you feel great? You just won $20k-30k+, for a kitchen you didn't have to remodel! (Sounds like that might have paid for a couple of those engineering classes anyway)