30 Amp AGA Another Element Gone

30 Amp AGA Cooker Problems

Image by Ivydale via Flickr

If you been reading my posts about my own 30 Amp AGA you will know that back in April we had a problem with one of the elements. Well the engineer actually replaced the fan first as he said that was the problem, but it still didn’t work so we had to get them back a few days later. The cost of the AGA repair was over £300 altogether.

Well now just a few months later the same thing has happened, last week. The AGA has gone cold and we called out the AGA engineer from Spillers and they told us that yes it was another element. So after 20 minutes and £159 later (£80 call out fee, £24 for half an hour labour and £59 for new element) the AGA was fixed. We have the older 30 Amp AGA so the elements are in series. If one goes the AGA gets cold. The new AGAs have banks of 6 and 2 x 4 elements in parallel, so if one element goes the AGA will still stay hot. So the cost was for replacing one element.

I asked the engineer if it was anything to do with the control knob as on both occasions we had turned the AGA down (on the 30 amp it has a knob and we put the setting to zero) prior to going away for a long weekend. When we got back we turned the knob back up (up to position 4 or 5) and then it didn’t get hot and got colder over the next few days. He said that it was unlikely and was a coincidence. He didn’t check the switch.

My wife wasn’t there and says she doesn’t think it’s a coincidence at all. We have decided not to ‘turn down’ the AGA again if we go away as it is going to put at least another £150 on to the cost of going away for the weekend.

I’m going to find out the method of replacing the elements so that I can do it myself. Well I am a trained electronics technician after all.

Maybe I should have bought an AGA care plan after all.