AGA cooker
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The AGA cooker oven is a Swedish
oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...
and
cooker Cooker may refer to several types of cooking appliances and devices used for cooking foods. Cookers * AGA cooker – a heat storage stove and cooker, which works on the principle that a heavy frame made from cast iron components can absorb hea ...
. Invented and initially produced in Sweden, since 1957 all production has been located in the UK.


History

Originally developed to burn coal or anthracite, the Aga cooker was invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish physicist
Gustaf Dalén Nils Gustaf Dalén (; 30 November 1869 – 9 December 1937) was a Swedish Nobel Laureate and industrialist, engineer, inventor and long-term CEO of the AGA AB, AGA company and inventor of the AGA cooker and the Dalén light. In 1912 he was award ...
(1869–1937), who was employed as the chief engineer of the Swedish
AGA Aga or AGA may refer to: Business * Architectural Glass and Aluminum (AGA), a glazing contractor, established in 1970 * AGA (automobile), ''Autogen Gasaccumulator AG'', 1920s German car company *AGA AB, ''Aktiebolaget Svenska Gasaccumulator'', a ...
company (
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
''Svenska Aktiebolaget Gasaccumulator'', English ''Swedish Gas Accumulator, Limited''). Dalén lost his sight in an explosion while developing his earlier invention, a porous substrate for storing gases,
Agamassan Agamassan is a porous substrate used to safely absorb acetylene and thus allow the transport, storage and commercial use of the otherwise unstable gas. It was developed and patented by the Swedish Nobel Laureate and industrialist Gustaf Dalén. ...
. Forced to stay at home, Dalén discovered that his wife was exhausted by cooking. Although blind, he set out to develop a new stove that was capable of a range of culinary techniques and easy to use. Adopting the principle of heat storage, he combined a heat source, two large hotplates and two ovens into one unit: the AGA Cooker. The cooker was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1929, and was manufactured there under licence in the early 1930s. Its popularity in certain parts of British society (owners of medium to large
country houses An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
) led to the coining of the term '
AGA saga The Aga saga is a subgenre of the family saga genre of literature. The genre is named for the AGA cooker, a type of stored-heat oven that came to be popular in medium to large English country houses, country houses in United Kingdom, the UK after i ...
' in the 1990s, referring to a genre of fiction set amongst stereotypical upper-middle-class society.
David Ogilvy David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
was initially hired as an Aga cooker salesperson, before writing the 1935 sales manual for the product. The
cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
parts were cast at the
Coalbrookdale Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge. This is where iron ore was first s ...
foundry in the 1940s, where they were still made by the Aga Rangemaster Group until November 2017 when Middleby closed the site with the loss of 35 jobs.


Energy use

A small, traditional two-oven AGA running on gas will use approximately (perhaps half that if switched off during the summer months). The average standard gas oven and hob uses , only 2.6% of the AGA's consumption. AGA's own figures for expected energy consumption for their two-oven AGA support this criticism, suggesting average consumption of 40 litres of
kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
or
diesel fuel Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...
per week, 60 litres of
propane gas Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used ...
per week, 425 
kW⋅h A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bi ...
of natural gas per week, or 220 kW⋅h/week for the electric models. This would indicate that the smallest traditional two-oven gas AGA providing simple cooking functions (i.e. no water heating or central heating) consumes thirty-eight times as much as a standard gas oven and hob, almost as much gas in a week as a standard gas oven and hob in nine months. AGA has provided an analysis of their own, which includes the steps taken to reduce energy consumption. One owner, Kerstin Rodgers, has talked about how the AGA has reduced her electricity bills while making her gas bills "slightly higher", as the AGA reduces her usage of such things as electric heaters, the tumble dryer, electric kettle and toaster, and is not simply a cooker. The vast majority of AGAs sold today are programmable and AGA announced an upgrade initiative in 2009, meaning that owners of older AGA cookers can have them modified so they are programmable. The latest model, the AGA Total Control, uses the same radiant heat to cook, but is designed to be switched off like a regular cooker when not in use, using far less energy as a result. Oil burning AGAs can be fitted with a modern pressure jet
oil burner An oil burner is a heating device which burns #1, #2 and #6 heating oils, diesel fuel or other similar fuels. In the United States ultra low #2 diesel is the common fuel used. It is dyed red to show that it is road-tax exempt. In most markets ...
in place of the standard wick burner which burns the fuel more efficiently and so reduces oil consumption.


Models

AGA cookers are available in 2, 3, 4 and 5 oven models with the 4 and 5 oven versions wider than the others. AGA cookers have a boiling and simmering plate, or in models with one hotplate this can be set to either boiling or simmering mode. While the classic AGA models are on all the time, the ovens and hotplates of the newer AGA cookers (AGA 60, Total Control, 3 Series) can be switched on and off as required and the hotplates on the Dual Control cookers can be switched on and off, meaning there is heat in to the room but energy is not used unnecessarily. The AGA 60 is the smallest in the range and is just 60 cm wide. The AGA is known for its longevity, with many cookers still operating after more than 50 years. In 2009, in conjunction with ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' and to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its founding, AGA set up a competition to find the oldest AGA still in use. There were thousands of entries, but the winning cooker was installed in 1932 and belonged to the Hett family of Sussex.


See also

* Aga Rangemaster Group


References


Further reading

* James, Tim (2002). ''Aga: The Story of a Kitchen Classic''. Absolute Press. .


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aga cooker Fireplaces Cooking appliance brands British brands Ovens Linde plc Swedish inventions