What we love about eControl
There are so many things to love about eControl. Here we take you through some of our favourite benefits…
1. It’s incredibly flexible.
There are many ways to be an Aga owner and all of them are possible with eControl.
Love the Aga look but not the heat? eControl heat up times are the fastest on the market, allowing you to turn on the ovens as and when required, reducing energy wastage and vastly reducing running costs. The optional Instaheat offers even speedier results when those hungry teenagers just can’t wait another second!
More of a traditionalist? Leave your ovens on and enjoy close to traditional levels of room heat when on full. Be flexible with the hobs to reduce costs or indulge in ‘always on’ hobs in the cooler months with the eco mode.
If, like many of us, your needs change across the year, so too can your eControl usage. With eControl there really is no need for a separate cooker, simply treat traditionally in the Winter and use the controllability to your advantage in the Summer.
2. The cooking results are exceptional.
Unlike with other systems, there is very little adjustment to be made to your traditional Aga techniques when converting to eControl. The hobs are incredibly responsive and powerful, bringing pans to the boil with unwavering speed and the multiple oven elements give good all round oven heat. For best results allow a minimum of 30 minutes saturation time for the cast iron ovens once up to temperature. We recommend leaving on low and turning up to use rather than turning on / off for best results.
3. The hobs are fast to heat up, extra large and extra powerful.
From cold, the hobs reach full temperature in 14 minutes or a good cooking temperature in 8 minutes. Of course, full boiling temperature is rarely needed - this fiery heat can be reserved for marmalade making, steak searing or deep fat frying. For day to day use, by the time your vegetables are hot, your hobs are ready to sweat or simmer them. Not quite fast enough? Fom eco, the hobs reach full in 5 minutes or for even more rapid cooking, the optional instaheat hob provides boiling temperature in seconds. The machined steel surface of the hot plates provides fantastic surface contact with any good flat bottomed pan and all your traditional hot pate methods for cooking fried eggs, pancakes or toast can still be achieved with the aid of some bake-o-glide.
4. Oven temperatures are maintained, even when cooking large quantities.
The multiple powerful elements continually kick into action whenever they detect a loss of heat, meaning that when you finish cooking, your Aga is as hot as when you started. Of course, with the independent hobs, heat is not lost in the oven when cooking on the hot plates either so the Aga will not let you down, even during the biggest cook ups.
5. The ambient heat level provided is surprisingly good.
Although the level of ambient heat provided when in eco or normal is much reduced thanks to the impressive insulation, things begin to hot up when the Aga is set to full ambient heat mode. In this setting, the Aga will provide up to around 75% of that of a traditional Aga. Depending on the size of your room, property style and alternative heating arrangements, you may find that even Eco or Normal provides enough to service your needs. Think of an eControl as more like a radiator than a roaring furnace - hot to the touch and giving a good warm glow. Turn on the hobs and the difference is palpable. By dispensing with the expansion rings, the heat produced by the hot plates is able to transfer readily across the Aga top surface. In fact, when the hobs are on, the top of the eControl feels hotter than even many traditional models. Of course, leaving the hobs on continually is not cost effective but the joy of cast iron is that the heat is stored in the cast so to gain this benefit, the hobs need only be used for a short period - say for an hour or so at breakfast - and the top will retain this heat for much of the day.
6. It browns food perfectly.
No Aga grill is going to match up to a conventional bare flame grill, instead the effect is more subtle. Traditionally, to brown in the Aga, dishes are cooked on the top runners as close as possible to the hot roof of the oven. In eControl, a powerful element is placed above the room of the oven. In normal use, the baffle plate sits on the top runners to diffuse some of the ferocity of the heat. By removing this and placing the food which you wish to grill close to the roof of the oven, excellent browning can be achieved. To further enhance this, leave the door open ajar. This will cause the element to kick into action to try to maintain the heat in the oven. Element firing = grill working!
7. It's cost effective and reduces energy usage
In a climate where we are now painfully aware of our energy use, the flexibility of the eControl ensures that energy is only used where needed. No more pumping heat into an over-hot room or opening the windows to let out the excess heat, no more leaving the Aga on while you holiday in case it won't relight when you get back. Instead, the eControl need only be hot when you want it. That may be 24 hours a day, drying clothes and warming chilly fur babies from wet winter walks, or just for 90 minutes for dinner on a warm June day.