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How To Clean The AGA Cooker Enamel Top

Image by polanrivia Flickr

For regular cleaning on a day to day basis:

1. If you are looking to keep your AGA cooker top looking clean and sparkling I'd recommend keeping a tea towel handy on the AGA towel rail and using that with some spray cleaner. I recommend using something like the window cleaner spray from Astonish which does a great job and you can be assured that it's quite safe in comparison to other products you can get on the market. I been using it for a while and it makes my AGA shine.

If it's starting to get thick in grease and burnt on carbon:

2. Then it gets a bit trickier as this is pretty difficult to remove. You can try using the scraper that AGA sell in their AGA Shop but I would suggest switching the AGA off so you don't burn yourself. You also need to make sure that the blades you use are new and that you change them regularly. This may be after just a few scrapes as the blade needs to be at its sharpest to do the job well. If it gets blunt then you may cause damage to the enamel. Also you need to be careful that you don't cut yourself with the scraper. So what I would really recommend is getting a company such as ours to do it for you. We use products that are safe and we have been trained and have extensive experience of cleaning AGA Cookers of all ages and levels of dirtiness and we know how to get all the dirt and get your AGA sparkling again.

AGA Cooker Enamel Top Damaged

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday as Alan was ill I was out cleaning. I went to clean a four oven AGA cooker in a refurbished house in a remote area of Devon near Crediton. The AGA was was sitting there in a beautiful kitchen looking rather sad. It was one of the original four oven AGAs with a continuous towel rail on the front. Originally they made the top as a whole piece; later ones tend to be a two oven AGA with a module attached to give the four ovens.

I start cleaning it, scraping off the dirt from the enamel top, and then realised that it had been painted. This is only the second one in five years of cleaning AGAs that I have had like this. What has happened is that a previous owner of the house and AGA had decided that a solution to rectify a damaged area on the top is to spray it with matt black heat resistant paint. This gives the top of the AGA a uniform appearance after the top has become damaged from age. The only reason for this fix I can see would be cost. The overall look with a completely matt top isn't a good one especially on a newer 'delux' type AGA.

I scraped off all the paint and underneath was a gleaming AGA cooker with just a small area of matt on the top where the damage had occurred. I have noticed that even on newish AGAs, say ones that are eighteen months old, there can be enamel damage if the AGA has been well used. Just moving around heavy pans on the top without lifting them will cause the damage. I think its okay to live with it myself but I do know people who want to keep their AGA looking perfect like new and they decide to get the top re-enamelled by a company such as the AGA enameller Hytech in Highbridge in Somerset.

Oven Cleaning Marlborough

We tend to clean lots of ovens in the Swindon area and also we are getting more in the Marlborough area. So if you have an AGA cooker, a range or other oven we will be able to help you clean it until it gleams

We now clean Fridges and Dishwashers

Image by scmtngirl via Flickr

We are now offering a fridge cleaning service to complement our oven cleaning service. For this our process is:

1. We use high-specification steam-cleaner to ensure that the fridge is cleaned thoroughly first and using the steam cleaner also allows us to do a quick defrost.
2. So we sanitise the whole fridge and/or freezer with the steam cleaner including all interior compartments and shelves interior door panels and rubber seals.
3. We also sanitise the outside of the fridge including the door handles.
4. If your fridge is full of food then we can if required, remove food and store in our cool boxes whilst work is being carried out, and put them back afterwards.
5. All our guys have been on a food handling course and have the certificate.

We are also cleaning dishwashers. For dishwashers our process is:

1. Again using the steam cleaner we clean the interior of the dishwasher including the seals on the door, to sanitise it.
2. We ensure that all food debris is removed.

Spring Weather Brings Spring AGA Cleaning

Image by Darwin Bell via Flickr

The number of calls have increased in the last week or so for AGA cooker cleaning. As it has been lovely and sunny it looks like people are thinking 'lets get the AGA cleaned' so that it look sparkling and clean.

If you would like to book your AGA in for cleaning please give us a ring on 0800 45 82 357.

Action COACH - Progress Report

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We first became aware of Action COACH Business Coaching five years ago and about three years ago we went to a local seminar where we decided to go to one of their 90 Day training Days. This was fine except that we ended up being the only people there. This went well and we started to make small changes in our business. Unfortunately after the session we only had a couple of emails from the coach and then nothing. We later found out that he had gone out of business.

Two years ago we got an invitation to see Brad Sugars in Birmingham and whilst there we bought a package of Brad Sugars videos and the board game 'Leverage' and the whole set of his books. We also asked if could be put in touch with a business coach. We booked in for a seminar in Las Vegas which we attended in October 2007. We really loved it in Las Vegas and thought the seminar was fabulous. If you go there yourself we stayed in two hotels the Golden Nugget for a couple of days before the seminar and then the Venetian where the seminar was held. We preferred the Golden Nugget as it was a great hotel at a great price whereas we didn't like the rooms too much in the Venetian as they had got some small things wrong in the rooms.

By the time we went to Las Vegas we had already started with a weekly business coaching session from a Action COACH. We did this for 9 months and then we decided to stop as we felt that the value we were getting didn't equate to the amount we were spending for the coaching.  It was our original plan to recommence after a period where we could catch up on and implement the small changes the coach had been suggesting to us as by then we had a backlog. However our coach went out of business a couple of months after that so we didn't start again. We have kept in contact with a another local ActionCoach and we are still waiting for the time to start business coaching again. We don't feel that now is the right time. We also want to make sure that if we get a coach again that we find someone who is a 'good fit' for us and our business.

During the time we had the coaching we made some significant changes to our business and we are benefiting from them now - and we are still implementing small changes all the time.

AGA Kettle

Image by dhammza via Flickr

We have had our AGA Kettle since Christmas - it was a lovely present bought online from the AGA Cookshop but unfortunately we haven't used it. I think its because as it's stainless steel it seems to take forever to heat up. I think we may get another one but this time we'd go for one that is made of something that heats up quickly such as the AGA Aluminum Kettle or the AGA anodised Kettle or the Le Creuset Kettle.

Oldest AGA Cooker Competition Winner

In yesterday's Daily Telegraph newspaper the Daily Telegraph's AGA-Rayburn competition to find the owner of the Oldest AGA cooker was announced: oldest AGA competition winner  and the winner was of the oldest continuous working domestic AGA was the Hett family. Aga expert Richard Maggs confirmed that the Hett Aga was a genuine 1932 stove. Though I can't remember the actual rules saying that the AGA had to be the 'oldest continuous working domestic AGA'. It will be an interesting follow story to see if they accept the prize of the new 13 Amp AGA Cooker install it and use it. I'd be interested to see if their bills increase with the new 13 Amp AGA, and their thoughts of the new AGA?

The prize of for the best story went to Nicky Gill for this story (copied from the AGA Competition Story Winner on the Daily Telegraph site):

Nicky Gill from Dorset, for example, fondly remembers her Aunt Maidie warming her chest on the family's elderly 1940s AGA. ''She was a matronly figure with a booming voice and a magnificent bosom who would return from bracing winter walks and beg a few moments alone in the kitchen,'' wrote Nicky. ''If the kitchen door was ajar we could see Auntie Maidie raise her jumper, lean over the hot plates and emit a deep sigh while uttering the words 'ah, one of life's great pleasures'.''

Happy Easter from OvenGleam

We would like to wish you a Happy Easter from all of us at OvenGleam. After your weekend holiday please look at getting your oven and/or barbecue cleaned professionally to ensure that it is sparkling clean for the next time that you use it. Call us in and save yourself time, energy and the inconvenience of having to do it yourself.

AGA Cooker Refurbishment and Replacement

I bought my first AGA Cooker in 1996, it was a 'standard' reconditioned AGA with a Dons oil conversion. Looking back even though the enamelling looked good when I got it deteriorated over the years, especially on the top as it started blistering, so when I came to move out of the house in 2002 it didn't look that good and I can see why the new owners decided to remove it. People who haven't used AGAs before often decide that that they can't stand the AGA in the house they have just bought. A complaint I have heard often is that 'it's just too disgustingly dirty'. This even after we have cleaned it thoroughly as, to the person not used to an AGA, it will still not be 100%. Unfortunately older AGAs with small chips, dirty seals and the enamelling beginning to wear on the top don't look like they've just come out of the showroom. To get the as new look it usually means refurbishment or replacement of the cooker.

1.  Refurbishment: Taking the AGA apart and sending the bits off to be re-enamelled to AGA enamelling companies such as Hytech (who have moved to Highbridge in Somerset) and also getting new seals, new door insides and new lids. If you get a local plumber to take it apart he should be able to keep it all in position relatively well and he will send off the bits to the enameller. I have seen an AGA that was propped up waiting for the bits to return. Keeping the current in-situ this way will be the most cost effective way to get the AGA refurbished.

2. Replacement: Getting a new AGA as a replacement for the current AGA. Now this means that someone has to dismantle the current AGA and then bring in the new one and assemble that one. There are specialist companies who will dismantle your AGA for you. Or you could sell your current AGA to a restoration company, and the current rate is still £500. They will come and dismantle it and take it away for that price. So if the AGA is relatively new you are going to be loosing a lot of money on it. But it does mean that this company could sell you a reconditioned AGA that is guaranteed and take your old one away.  If you  decide to sell your AGA yourself you may get more for it on EBay depending on its condition but you will either have to get the buyer to pay for AGA dismantling or pay a company £250 to dismantle it for you. From what I have seen on Ebay older Oil AGAs seem to be difficult to sell and People don't like white AGAs. If you buy an AGA on Ebay you need to check that it is dismantled and then you need to find some one to install it for you. For a reconditioned AGA you need to check that the price of the AGA includes fitting it. I have bought a new AGA and the cost of putting it in place was included in the price. I have also bought a reconditioned AGA (my 30 Amp one) and the price of the that included assembly. But I do know that some companies will charge you approximately £250 to either dismantle and assemble. Also some companies will charge a delivery charge to deliver the AGA to you.