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The Happy Thread


Duncy H

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After almost three weeks since ripping out the kitchen and having no method of cooking proper food, we're getting thoroughly fed up with take aways.  Just got this installed and commissioned this morning :)

It's an Esse Cat, 2007 vintage, RRP 5ish grand - same as used by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the river cottage kitchen.  300kg of gas fired, flueless cast iron range cooker.

52 quid on ebay, 115 quid on service parts and 105 quid to get it setup.  Toasty warm kitchen here we come (not that it was cold anyways!) :D

Bonus husband points for me and the wife can make cakes now!

DSC_1350.JPG

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They were on the towel rail, I took them off whilst doing the initial burn in, access to gas controls and all that jazz :D

The hotplate surface temperature was 330°C last time I checked :o

edit: now the cooker is in I've got to design and make the rest of the kitchen, from scratch, by hand, in proper wood, to wife approval standard!

Edited by forteh
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Dunno, good luck or people just don't want to buy 300kg of cast iron when they have to go collect it?  Fortunately the father in law runs a small transport company (collection from Guildford and delivery to Lichfield sponsored by Corrick Transport of Dorstone, Herefordshire!) who said he would be happy to go pick it up :)

Bizarrely enough this was the second gas fired esse range I bought on ebay within a fortnight, the first one also sold for 50 quid, however we realised that it would be physically impossible to fit it due to needing a flue and the seller kindly relisted it.  I didn't expect the newer flueless version to go for the same money but hey ho, I'm not complaing :D

I won't mention the double belfast sink with a 300 quid set of taps I picked up for 40 quid!


Edit : holy f**king shit, 2 minutes to bring a pan of cold water and frozen peas to the boil. The kitchen is currently 26°C and the doors and windows have been open all afternoon, the bathroom above the kitchen is super toasty :D

Edited by forteh
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I'm thinking that the doors will be open 24/7 :D

On slumber mode it's kept the entire kitchen, dining room, bathroom and back upstairs bedroom warm.  Central heating has been turned down a couple of degrees as well so we at least get a cooler part of the house we can retire to!

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Soph's mum used to have an old Aga and just turned it off through the warmer months as it became a little unbearable, even opening the entire house up to let things cool. Since renovating the place she's replaced the old oil-burner with an Everhot, which appears to be a similar kind of setup but runs off a 13A plug - somehow very efficient for what it is (costs pence to run) and means it can be socially acceptable if we're fortunate enough to get some warmer weather again next year but still available at short notice for cooking on, which was the downside of the Aga being off, obviously.

I'm a mere peasant with an electric oven and gas hob. Never have any issues with it overheating the house mind...

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To be fair, from cold the esse got the hotplate up to temperature in about 15 minutes and the oven to 250ish°C in about 30-40; a fair amount of condensation but that is to be expected when rapidly heating a large lump of cast iron :)

Although since when do we get warm weather in the summer these days? :D

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1 hour ago, Luke Rainbird said:

 if we're fortunate enough

In the unlikely event.

Sounds good though. Good to see so many players on offer over recentish years too - for years Aga, and to an extent Rayburn, had a pretty hefty market share of that sector (from an outside view at least) where as now there seem to be companies bringing things a little more up to date and modern-daily-liveable rather than being such a compromise. Lovely looking bit of kit too (Y)

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Bearing in mind that esse have been making stoves since 1854 and were used by Shackleton and Nightingale, hardly a new player :)

There are a couple of minor niggles like the left hand cover doesn't quite sit concentric on the hotplate, they can be adjusted on the hinges but there isn't quite enough wiggle space.  I may strip the hinge and take a few mm off the end of the arms to allow it to sit better but it's not a massive issue.

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Just to urinate on precipitationavian's washing machines woes :D

Machined some new delrin hinge bushes for the two oven doors at lunchtime. The original polyethylene ones had disintegrated and the doors had dropped causing sketchy seals and the handles to not click shut cleanly.

Pulled the old ones out, pushed new in, reamed to size and dropped them on the hinge pegs. Fiddled with the eccentric pegs to get the door straight and true again then dove into the fibreglass insulation to adjust the stops on the catch mechanism.

Doors all swing nice and easy and close with a gentle click when you lean on them :)

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Yea it's all tongue in cheek. We've just finally bought a place, doing small stuff around the house now is great knowing it's ours. Although your improvement isn't to my tastes, I can see how it's a massive deal because it's a big improvement. Enjoy!

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