Only 2002 eh, almost up to date by recent old thread standards.
Brian

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On Wednesday, July 10, 2002 at 4:02:47 PM UTC+1, gill wrote:
We are about to move to a house which has an Aga. (House is empty at
present, Aga turned off, no instructions!)

Does anyone know what fuel it uses - I think some sort of anthracite but
are
there different types?

Also the books I have read say solid fuel Agas should be serviced once a
year by a specialist - my husband says this is a waste of money as there
is
nothing to go wrong, it will just need a bit of cleaning - is he right?

TIA

Gill

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.