I had an interesting email from someone with a Dual Control this week, and it has highlighted how little people seem to understand about this and why I think it is the best Aga ever. This is what I replied to her:

I had a DC for 7 years and loved it - I cooked on it at its launch and came home and suggested to my husband that whatever I had earned that day might not be enough as I had ordered a new Aga! He was very understanding.

The DC was designed to halve the fuel use of a conventional Aga. A traditional gas, oil or electric 13amp or 30amp Aga was intended to be on all the time, and the fuel consumed was usually a pretty low once it was at full heat, but if you put anything into the ovens it tripped the thermostat and more heat was produced, using more fuel. The most expensive part of a traditional Aga was the hotplates, you can imagine how much it takes to keep the boiling plate at 360C 24/7! The answer was the DC, where there is a 1500w element heating three ovens all the time, and then the 2.4 kw elements in the hotplates that could be turned off when not in use. Instant saving of up to 50% of fuel. This made complete sense to traditional Aga owners, it was a true Aga from the waist down and a turn on turn off from the waist up and much more familiar and preferable than the TC where everything turned off and it could take 3 hours to heat up properly.

The DC was sold with the eco mode (sometimes called slumber, they could never make their minds up about what to call it) as a way of further reducing fuel use. It was not intended that people cook in Eco, but that they turn it up to normal temperature to cook. I threw all this out of kilter by using mine on Eco for a year - when I told head office they freaked, but then changed their advice to allow for this.

In Eco setting, the thermostat is switched off, so that when you put food into the ovens, they do not recover heat and therefore it was not deemed safe to use for cooking, especially if you put a cold chicken into the oven it might not get the centre hot enough to cook it to safety. They were completely happy for it to be used to reheat cooked food, bake cakes and make casseroles etc as long as the latter were at boiling point when they went into the oven.

This was fine, but I really wasn't getting the proper Aga experience as the ovens were a bit unreliable and there was a lot of guessing as without an active thermostat, the oven temperatures fluctuated massively depending upon where I was in the electricity draw cycle.

After a year, I turned my DC up to normal and never turned it down again. I economised by using the floor of the top oven as a hotplate, which meant I didn't have to use the top of the Aga and it could continue its role as ironing board and washing up dryer! This meant I had a proper Aga running at proper Aga temperatures and my running costs didn't change - that year of Eco which had seemed such a good idea was over and my cooking went back to normal.

If you have a fan switch, this is the external vent which will draw steam and moisture out of the ovens and send it outside the house. This is designed to replicate the effect of a traditional Aga with a flue, where the heat at the bottom of the pipe draws the oil or gas fumes and steam and cooking smells up the chimney and outside. The DC was available as a room vented cooker, where the steam comes out of the cowl between the two hotplates on the top and you will get some cooking smells, and the externally vented model with the fan. When the fan is not switched on, it room vents. Some people have commented that the fan draws heat out of the ovens too, but this can be sorted by getting your engineer to slow down the fan speed. The idea is not to suck all the moisture out of the oven, but to gently draw it away, keeping the food crisp in the oven.

I hope that all this makes sense to you! I suggest that you turn the ovens up to proper temperature and turn the hot plates off. You will then get a proper Aga cooking experience rather than a half hearted why did I bother getting this cooker it is no use experience.

Use the floor of the oven as a hot plate to bring things to the boil, fry etc - the advantage of this is anything spitting fat or giving you cooking smells will go out of the vent so no greasy steam in the kitchen.

It makes me really sad when people have a DC or its successor the R7 and don't have it at full temperature, because it simply is not an Aga unless it's on properly. You are lucky to have solar panels, so that when you cook in the spring, summer and autumn it will cost you virtually nothing to run and what it costs in the winter months can be spread across your budget for the year. It will warm the kitchen so you shouldn't need a radiator in there, another cost saving!

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Total Control, which is now the ER7

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The TC was Aga’s answer to the always on : running costs : eco : saving the planet debate.

The idea was a cooker that could be switched off when not required and fully controllable, yet a proper cast iron aga oven to give the all-round indirect radiant heat that we love. The solution was to remove the single burner heating the entire cooker and replace it will a series of electric elements.

The elements were placed in the roof and floor of the roasting oven, the roof and floor of the baking oven, the floor of the simmering oven and in each of the two hotplates. Seven in all.

The ovens were pre-set to roasting 230C, baking 185C and simmering 100C. Each could be turned on and off to be used individually or all together This was the only Aga ever made where the simmering oven was not specifically ABOVE 100C (traditional Aga simmering ovens run at 115-125C on average, half the temperature of the roasting oven on each individual cooker).

There was a ‘slumber’ setting where the roasting and baking ovens ran at 120C, ie normal simmering oven temperature in a traditional Aga.

You could set the ovens on and off and to slumber through a handset or through a phone app. Unfortunately, the app weas compromised and withdrawn not long after it was launched. This is probably a good thing because the cooker had to have its own sim card at £10 a month.

All this was, in theory, wonderful. A totally controllable Aga with minimal running costs, yet a proper cast iron Aga.

There was a debate between the marketing department and the R&D department about how long the cooker should take to heat up. A traditional cast iron heat storage cooker takes up to 24 hours fully to saturate with heat and cook the way we expect an Aga to cook. Obviously, this was not practical with a turn on and off model.

The marketing department wanted it to take 10 minutes to heat the oven up fully. R&D knew it took at least an hour, preferably two. The compromise was that the flashing light, indicating that the oven was heating up, would flash for about 20 minutes. In this time, the oven elements superheated, then lowered the temperature to allow the cast iron to absorb the heat and spread it evenly around the oven. Oven thermometers in the oven would suggest that the oven was hot enough to cook in. Unfortunately, the oven would be too hot at the roof and floor, but not hot enough in the centre, since the cast iron was not saturated with heat. Never mind, it made the marketing people happy who then proceeded to sell the cooker as ready to use in 20 minutes – if it’s blinking it’s thinking, if it’s steady, it's ready, to quote one shop manager. But it wasn’t.

At its launch in the shops, every single demonstrator in the country had a problem, especially with the baking oven.

If you turn the entire cooker on from cold, the ovens heat up in turn, roasting, simmering, baking. The baking oven was not ready to cook safely for at least two hours. It heated up from the back to the front and everyone had issues with cakes being burned at the back of the oven and raw at the front. By turning the entire cooker on from cold, you were also using a vast amount of electricity to heat up the great big lump of cast iron. The hotplates were sold as heating from cold to full in 11 minutes for boiling and 8 minutes for simmering – again, using a huge amount of electricity to heat them up. It got hot, but at an enormous fuel cost.

Customers were advised to keep the Aga on all the time, in slumber mode, ie. roasting and baking 120C, simmering 100C. From slumber to full heat was much faster, as the ovens were already saturated with heat. Brilliant!

Then people started reporting issues with the ovens. The floor of the roasting oven was too hot to use in the traditional way to bake pastry and brown roast potatoes, everything burned. To counteract this, the floor grid was introduced, an oven shelf without feet that sat on the floor of the oven, breaking the contact between the element and the food, which worked well.

Next, people started reporting that the simmering oven was switching itself off when a casserole was left in all day in the usual Aga way. The element embedded in the floor of the oven could not communicate with the sensor on the roof of the oven around a large casserole pan, and was turning itself off. A floor grid in the simmering oven sorted this out.

Then, there were complaints that the ovens were rusting. Of course they were – you cook a huge roast dinner in the oven, leaving moisture in it and turn the oven off as soon as it is cooked, the raw iron will rust. The solution was to leave the oven on for a bit longer after cooking until the steam had dissipated. Better, still leave the oven on slumber and the steam would dry out in its own time, no more rust in the ovens. Oh yes, and you were advised to brush the inside of the ovens with oil to help prevent future rust.

Lots of customers were unhappy to be told to brush the rust off and live with it when they had paid £10,000 for the best cooker in the world.

Over time, the cooker was tweaked by R&D – the hotplate elements had a waterproof layer underneath to prevent them shorting out from steam in the oven, the floor grids made a huge difference to the burning issues.

So that was the TC. Superseded by the ER7 (stands for everyday radiant heat, presumably 7 for the number of elements?). The latest version has controllable oven temperatures, so you can set it to any temperature you like, rather than being pre set to standard Aga temperatures.

Perfect for people who have never cooked on an Aga and who think that you need specific exact temperatures to cook, rather than traditional Aga owners who just throw things into the oven and know that the Aga will get it right every time!

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Aga 60 and ER series!

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The Aga 60 was developed as the ‘baby Aga’ and initially made in baby blue, baby pink, baby yellow, white and cream. It is 60cm / 24” wide, hence the name. The boss of Aga at the time rushed it to market and changed the profile at the last minute, calling it the City60 and aiming it at people living in flats or in cities. In fact, the biggest early market for them was as the ‘summer’ Aga, sitting close to a traditional Aga and used in the summer when the oil, gas or electric traditional Aga might be turned off.

Being half the size of a traditional Aga, it is half the weight too.

There were three versions – traditional, with a standard Aga domed lid and rail, contemporary, with a flatter lid and no rail, and the one with 4 gas hobs instead of a hotplate on top, but all still offered proper cast iron Aga ovens below.

The genius is that it will fit in any space where a traditional freestanding normal cooker will fit – it even has wheels at the back to make it easy to install. Yet it is a proper Aga, pre-set to standard Aga temperatures and the ovens are all the same size as every Aga.

There are two ovens and one hot plate. The top oven can be set to roasting or baking temperature and the bottom oven is a simmering oven and runs above boiling point. There are three elements in the ovens, in the roof and floor of the top oven and in the floor of the bottom oven. It should be supplied with floor grids for both ovens to protect pans and pies from the intense heat emanating from the elements in the floors of the ovens. It bakes as well as a 4 oven and the hotplate will boil a kettle in 8 minutes from cold, faster if the ovens are on.

The hotplate can be set to boiling or simmering temperature. There is a split cast iron plate around the hotplate that must be levelled when the cooker is installed so that it is completely level with the hotplate. You can then draw a pan onto the extra surround but have it still in contact with the hotplate and thus pans can simmer gently on the boiling setting, or you can fit up to 6 pans on the top, with some offset. I have had 6 pans all bubbling on the top of mine, just to prove the point!

There are no fancy electronics in the 60, it is electro-mechanical like the original DC. The dials turn with a satisfying clunk to the various settings.

The 60 was so popular that it was expanded to add the ER3 (every day radiant heat, 3 ovens) to the range – this is basically a 60 that has been stretched and either a warming plate or an induction hob added, and either a warming oven or a cupboard added on the right hand side. These now come in various guises as 90 and 100 cm wide and with long narrow or standard Aga size ovens on the right hand side. Now they are offering a unit to sit on the left of it with a simmering plate and a fan oven below.

You do, however, need an extractor fan above a 60 or its children, because there is no opportunity to vent externally.

I’ve got a 60. It has never been switched off in all the years we have had it, it runs with the top oven on bake setting, which means that the bottom oven is saturated with heat and simmers without being switched on. It warms the kitchen like a traditional Aga and cooks brilliantly.

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What is AIMS?

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AIMS was Aga’s first foray into energy reduction.

It is a clever computer programme, the letters stand for ‘Aga Intelligent Management System’.

It was designed to reduce the temperature of the Aga (and therefore reduce the running costs) and was available on the 13amp electric and gas cookers.

If you turn an Aga up and down manually, it uses a huge amount of fuel to recover from a slumbering temperature to full heat.  This pretty much negates the amount of fuel saved by turning it down, especially if you do this every night.

The AIMS system wors by turning the cooker down (low temperature and slumber modes) and then bringing it back to full temperature over a long period of time so that the massive surge of fuel is not used, thus doing it more cheaply.

The slumber setting takes the cooker heat indicator pretty much to the top of the black and the low heat to half way between the black and the line.  It can take up to 4 hours to raise from slumber to full heat on the line, since it does so very gradually and efficiently.

The real genius is that you set the time you want the cooker to be ready at, rather than the time you think it should start heating up to be ready.  Unlike a central heating timer, it starts heating the cooker up hours before the time it is set for, so that at the time you have set it, the Aga is hot and ready to cook. It was proven to save about 26% of gas as against a non-AIMS Aga.

There is also a 365 day timer so you can set it to be on slumber all week and full all weekend if it is in a weekend cottage, and a little image of a suitcase to switch off and come back on ready to cook as you return home from a holiday. 

Absolutely brilliant!

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Conversions –

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There are several conversion kits on the market – there was even one produced by Aga until a few years ago.  That was based on the electric AIMS 13amp system.

 

Other manufacturers offering conversions were Newton, Snugburner and more.  I am not totally up to date with them, if they do exist now, I haven’t cooked with them so cannot comment.

The two main, widely available conversion kits are ElectricKit and E control.

ElectricKit has been around for about 13 years and was the first really popular kit.  It is tried and trusted and most of the Aga engineers are very happy to supply it.

The original version took out all the guts from your Aga and replaced them with more efficient insulation and an electric element between the roasting and simmering ovens of a 2 oven, and also under the floor of the baking oven on a 3 oven.  In a 4 oven, there was a separate element in the left hand side where the simmering and warming ovens are.  There were two cast iron hotplates with electric elements embedded in them, both of which could be set to any temperature, so two simmering or two boiling lates if that was what you needed.  The oven control set the element temperature and the bottom oven ran at about 70% of the heat in the top oven, so if the top oven was set to 210, the bottom oven was about 170, turning it into a baking oven on a 2 oven Aga.  There was a digital temperature display so you knew exactly what the ovens were doing at any moment.  They have sold thousands of these kits over the years and they are easy to cook on, efficient and economical to run.  The only downside is they don’t heat the kitchen like a traditional Aga, because they are better insulated and don’t waste any heat into the room around them!

Recently, Oilwarm who manufacture the ElectricKit in Devon, have updated the system. 

They now offer two versions the ElectricKit Classic, which now has elements in the top of the top oven, between the ovens and in the floor of the bottom oven, making it cook far more like a traditional Aga than before.  Ther are still the two hotplates, but they heat up much faster and there is the option of an induction plate on the left hotplate for instant heat.  Digital readouts still.  I have cooked on it and it is very easy to use.

There is also now the ElectricKit Advanced, which is a lot like the Classic in that it has three elements in the 2 oven and elements top and bottom in the baking oven of a 3 oven, but it has the option of not only an induction plate, but a rapid reaction ceramic hotplate instead if you prefer.  It is computer controlled with timers and the most versatile Aga version on the market.  Set it to come on anytime at any temperature from a phone app!  You can set any oven to any temperature.

I cooked on this at its launch and think it is great, I wanted to take it come with me that day.

E Control

E control are designed and manufactured in Bedfordshire by UK Innovations Group and they have been going for about 4 or 5 years.  The first E control model was pretty much a Dual Control, it had elements in the roof of the top oven, between the ovens and in the floor of the bottom oven and could run at full temperature or Eco.  The cast iron hotplates had electric elements that heated up quickly to boiling and simmering temperatures.  It was all controlled by three large flat knobs, quite similar to those on the DC.  I cooked on this and loved it.

Shortly after that, the Series 2 was introduced, where you could change the temperatures in the ovens to any heat you like.  There were more complicated knobs and dials.  There was no temperature read out, so you had to get used to where the dial was to show what temperatures you were running the oven or hotplate at. It had the Eco setting for economy and an instant heat ceramic hotplate option.  I cooked on this and was a bit confused by the lack of temperature indicators.

And then came the Series X, more complicated, with digital temperature read outs and much easier to use.  It has the Eco system for economy and a ceramic instant heat hotplate option and a built-in grill, which is operated by leaving the oven door open. I have cooked on this one with much more success!

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