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Looks like a STANDARD MODEL E COOKER 1941 – 1972. Might find more information here: https://agaaustralia.com.au/about-aga/identify-your-aga/

Can I guess, for steam?

>STANDARD MODEL E COOKER 1941 – 1972

Wow! I love reddit. connecting so many people with knowledge and with knowledge of even where to look to find the answers, thank you.

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I wonder can it be converted to a more modern back boiler without the drain cocks?

I have young grandchildren over a lot- and I'd be worried about hot water taps at such an accessible height for little hands!

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I’m sure that it could be, and you might find some tech details concerning that in here: https://agaaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/AgaDeluxeCCBESolidfuel.pdf

AGA stoves were designed to be always heated. They housed a boiler to provide the hot water. So hot water tap and drain.

checks for free award…. Has none :(

Thanks for the reply. We have a Stanley solid fuel at the moment with back boiler linked to out hot water tank - I'm wondering if this AGA can be converted to a more modern back boiler (linked into the hot water tank) without the drain cocks?
I'd be worried about hot water taps at such an accessible height for little hands!

I had one

Thanks for the thought! No need though, just paying it forward since others have randomly helped me in the past too. Plus OP is clearly a person of discerning taste and deserves help just on that basis!

gotcha bro.

Wohoo!!

Thank you! We’re on a roll now!

If it's steam, it's not open all the time. You bleed the lines once in a while, like the old radiators in the house.

This is a complete guess though

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Not real sure on that. Here is good info on AGA. I knew just enough that these had boilers but not enough on what could be done.

https://www.cooksinfo.com/aga-stoves

Can't figure why our entire family didn't all just drop dead from the asbestos coming off our one is frankly a miracle

Is that in the insulation?

This guy would be the man to ask.

The AGA Khan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aga_Khan

Edit: FUN / PUNS will NOT be permitted in this sub.

Yup - on the old models at least.

Should be fine if left undesturbed.

Same with the lead in the paint

Well they would only touch it once that's for sure

Holy crap folks, thank you all for the awards.

Get a spoonful of sugar and dump it in a pile on the left-hand plate. Close the lid. Wait until the smoke has subsided, lift and see the wonder! (My mother has one virtually identical)

I did some research into the Aga stoves and yes they pretty much can be called buy it for life ... so long as you're okay with the massive amounts of fuel they require to run.

Yeah turns out that wood isn't ideal, the need anthracite - and I have a whole load of fuel - I guess it is a Rayburn for me.

There's got to be child proof handles you could buy, instead

Looks like a hot chocolate dispenser :)

Weird 30k flex but cool

You could perhaps change the taps to "vandal proof taps" they have a separate handle that comes off. Hopefully they are a standard thread. But plumbing fittings tend to be.

personally i would be willing to deal with modern appliance bullshit to not have to deal with lead and asbestos exposure

They were frequently converted to run on "city gas" (carbon monoxide) and later "natural gas" (methane), at least in the UK. My family used to have one that had been converted to gas. They do take a lot of gas compared to a modern on-demand hot water heater, though. And having one running in an air conditioned space is just madness IMO.

Why would you be concerned about the taps and not literally everything else? If a toddler has access to the taps they can also open the oven and even the fire place.

There's not really anything to deal with if the asbestos isn't disturbed and you aren't eating paint chips off it.

Also the fact that heat pump water heaters are 3-4x more efficient than gas this is not something I would use. My Rheem costs me 100 bucks a year in electric and that is with 2 people in the home.

They can be converted to run on Oil, Gas or even electricity.

Not really - those doors are cast iron, they're quite heavy. You've got to lift them up to open them.

But the front surfaces of the stove are hot enough to burn, and yes, the taps are an issue. Perhaps a fence or guard around the whole stove.

I've got a solid-fuel Rayburn but I never needed a kid-guard, when they started crawling, we went through a few lessons of what "hot" means.

Whatever you run them on, they use a huge amount of it

I bought an old type 2 rayburn for fun, to restore it and use it as a cold-weather party stove.

I was petrified that it had asbestos for insulation. Imagine my relief when I found out asbestos was only used in AGAs, and Rayburns used rockwool.

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Can you replace the knobs/spouts for one with a square key? Then you can keep the key itself on a hook up high or something.

I mean, asbestos is pretty nasty as we now understand, but it's more of a long-term exposure danger and really only if it turns into little dusty fibre particles (don't break the insulation!). It's right to be weary, and wear a filter mask if it's exposed, but merely being in its presence inside another item won't harm you.

Well, I had to disassemble the rear of it where the insulation was located.

The previous owners had run it "dry", i.e. run fires in it without the boiler having any water in it, so this beautiful heavy-gauge copper boiler had a great big hole burnt in it, so that had to go. The plan was to replace the boiler with firebricks, so,

1. the back panel had to come off. I swear it hadn't been unscrewed since it left the factory in the 1950s
2. the insulation had to come out (this was the scary bit). It was still a bit nasty because it was all kind of decomposed. I think it was originally in sheets, but it came out in handfuls.
3. the boiler had to come out
4. I had to measure up the void and cut firebricks to fit (this is also scary, because firebricks need a diamond saw to cut, and you've *got* to keep it all wet because of a. heat, and b. danger of silica dust
5. fit the bricks and secure them with refractory cement - also a silica dust risk when mixing
6. apply sheets of rockwool or fibreglass insulation
7. screw the back panel on
8. test fire.
9. damn, it leaks, there is smoke coming out everywhere.

I eventually got it working, though. It's not nearly as efficient as the one in my kitchen, but then there's about 40 years of design and manufacturing improvements between them.

Man, just reading that gave me the shivers.

Huh?

People here are tearing them out now. Even for the sorts of rich bastards who tend to own Agas, they have become mindbogglingly, ball-crunchingly unaffordable.