[masraum]

Originally Posted by fanaudical

This might not be a great comparison: My brother has an AGA in his old farmhouse. The stove is great in the winter, not so great in the summer (no AC in the house and the stove is always on). That stove does a remarkable job baking and slow cooking/roasting. Takes a long time to boil something...

We watch some Brit TV, so we've seen a lot of AGA ranges. They look neat and are supposed to work well. My wife looked into them, and discovered the whole "and it heats the house" thing. I guess what she determined was that a lot of folks turn them off in the heat of the summer which is probably not that long in the UK, but in Texas it would mean that we'd only use it for 2-3 months a year (maybe). I was talking to my wife about ranges and mentioned (thinking about standard ranges), "we can move it around. Most ranges have wheels." She then said "AGA ranges don't seem to have wheels." I had to explain, that yes, an AGA isn't a normal range at 750# vs a normal range at closer to 150#.

Originally Posted by gregpark

I enjoy cooking on top of my wood burning stove using a couple of Dutch ovens. You're really in touch with what's happening, putting the pot on the bricks or moving it to the hot spot. Everything tastes better (but it's probably my imagination).
Note: using an antique oven can really heat up a room. The old stoves weren't insulated, at least mine isn't. I use it outdoors anyway

From what I read, a Chambers from the 20s-50s should be pretty well insulated.