Puzzled...
I thought the point about Aga was that it stays *always* on?
Aga, oven maker by appointment to the rural chattering classes, has turned up the heat of technology on famously basic ranges to create the iTotal Control Oven, a stove equipped with a cellular modem to allow chefs to command their cooker remotely. The iTotal Control Oven not only connects to the web, but its built-in Sim, …
Always on, never used.
Okay, that's not entirely true, but an AGA really is the Leica of cookers - people who know what they're doing can do amazing things with them, but the majority of purchasers just want to give the impression of skill without the tedious business of acquiring it.
I imagine that the iPad integration is aimed at this latter, larger, demographic. The crossover would be large.
Always on? Indeed. Ours is. It comes complete with absolutely no user controls what so ever. You want a particular temperature? You use the oven that's already at that temperature. Cooks great pizzas on the floor of the roasting oven. Bake a cake in the baking oven at the same time, while simmering your vegetables in the simmering oven at the same time, and warming your plates in the warming oven at the same time. If you want you can also be ironing clothes by leaving them on the top of the simmering plate lid (at the same time). However I think this is for one of those new-fangled lectrickery stoves. Best kept in the city I think.
Hang on, I think I can smell burning. I'll be back in a moment...
I'll amended:
"oven maker by appointment to the rural chattering classes"
"oven maker by appointment to Poncy Londoners that move to the country then complain about horses on the roads, the smell of cow shit and how they can't get their favourite provincial olives from the local corner shop"
There Fixed.
Lots of ovens (maybe only electric ones) have time switches, the expectation being you put your tea in the oven and time it to come on at the appropriate moment for it to be perfectly cooked at the time you get home.
Unless you put something inappropriate in the oven it's perfectly safe.
People set timers on their ovens usually to take something out, or to put something in, or to start something after so many minutes. I really don't see a huge benefit from putting an app to do this since you will be standing by the oven anyway.
I suppose if someone absolutely wanted to start warming the oven 30 minutes before they got home or some other fairly tenuous scenario then it might be of use. Given how hideously energy inefficient AGAs are, perhaps this is more relevant than it would be for conventional ovens. It still seems like a pretty pointless gimmick though.
Anyone technically minded and so inclined should be able to network up their AGA.
Think I'm joking? Our has an external gravity fed oil pump. Simply modify the pump with a few components from RS (motor etc), control said device via RS232 and bingo, you have one networked AGA.
NB: If you burn your house down doing this I am not responsible.
I'm not going to down-vote (as you even had the courtesy to use the troll icon :-)
My problem is I am a techy (and love 'messing with the tech') - we have also just ordered an Aga. If I had a iAga I would be trying to hack into it from the web and all-sorts, just to see what I could do. The concern is that this could be an easy way to burn down an intended victims house. Can you imagine the fun/devastation a hacker could cause - and let's be honest iAga aren't liekly to have the best security on this are they.
Probably the most stupid idea I have heard for a long time.
PS. I agree, most 'techie' people wouldn't have an Aga - there again most people full stop don't have an Aga!
The device being non-techie is exactly the reason I haven't removed the one in the house I now live in, although it is only on in winter, and not even durith the last one. Whilst it might take 24 hours to come to temperature when first lit, after than even if the power fails it will still work with the gravity oil feed. A sort of continuity plan that covers heating (not the radiators but at least a couple of warm rooms), hot water and cooking.
Given that the lights may go out on a rolling basis in a few years time, I'm not changing it. Oil may be expensive but at least I can keep a couple of months worth in the tank. With that, a couple of battery lamps and a small radio the family can be quite comfortable.
To be fair, in our case the unit came with the house and I suspect that's the case for most people. Even the second hand cost is horrific and there is no way I would actually buy one.
But if it's part of the house fixtures and fittings then so be it. Ours has been in here for about 50 years.
Our old Solid fule monster kept not only the kitchen warm but the whole house and this was in the days before we got central heating.
Dad always used to say that the cooking part was an optional extra just to annoy 'she who shall be obeyed'.
Friday, beer O'Clock time with the Windies 3 wkts down, not a cloud in the sky. Not really a day for slaving over a hot Aga (or a PC for that matter)
The app isn't entirely pointless. If you consider the price of the cooker, 10,000+, then the most likely demographic for buying one are the wealthy. With a large number of owners being of the executive type, i.e. the kind of people with busy and somewhat unpredictable schedules, it means that the use case for putting your dinner in the oven and being able to remotely turn it on when you finally know what time you'll be heading home is a valid one.
Not so useless.