old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

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old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 209617Post sandyshore »

hi

i live in portugal and via ebay in the uk hope to buy an old aga or rayburn, this would then be shipped out to me whole rather than dismantelled as there arent any people to put them back together in portugal

so once it gets here how do i move it? does anyone have any experience of moving an aga/rayburn

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 209622Post oldjerry »

You will need 3 or 4 pieces of scaffold pole cut (with a pipe cutter)3feet wide or at least 2inches shorter than the narrowest door you have to go through.Two strong people,for a rayburn,3for an aga.A couple of decent scaffold planks for getting on\ off trucks.and down stairs.Some decent rope(but DONT attattach it to the chrome bar on the front)You use the scaffold tubes to roll the thing along the floor,always keep 2 under and rotate the three underneath as you progress.Slide down planks without tubes just use gravity.It's not half as bad as it sounds,in the 70's iworked part time at a builders merchants and must have delivered and installed over 50 plus a couple of my own since.
You do well to fetch over an old style 'one piece' job,the newer 'flat-packed ' things are little stronger than a korean fridge,my last aga built circa 1930, would survive a nuclear explosion(though I grant you, you'd not really have much use for then ). Best wishes.

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211424Post sandyshore »

thanks to oldjerry we now have our rayburn royal in place and all our fingers and toes still!

however now we need help, as apparently we cant run it without having the back boiler, which is part of the rayburn, connected to something to divert the hot water it produces.. is this true? or can we run the rayburn without the boiler being full of water? if we have to have the boiler full of water can we just connect it to a radiator or two? or does it need connecting to a water storage tank? any advice would be greatly appreciated as its getting cold here and we want to use the rayburn!

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211427Post pelmetman »

sandyshore wrote:thanks to oldjerry we now have our rayburn royal in place and all our fingers and toes still!

however now we need help, as apparently we cant run it without having the back boiler, which is part of the rayburn, connected to something to divert the hot water it produces.. is this true? or can we run the rayburn without the boiler being full of water? if we have to have the boiler full of water can we just connect it to a radiator or two? or does it need connecting to a water storage tank? any advice would be greatly appreciated as its getting cold here and we want to use the rayburn!
We had a Rayburn Royal at our last place and we really miss it :( But when we had the place replumbed it was disconnected from the hot water system, we just used it as before, we did get some steam come out of the cut pipes but once that had evapourated it was fine :mrgreen:

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211461Post oldjerry »

Pleased you got it in OK,I've always known them as a plumbed in system,but basically what you've got is a large firebox so, as Dave says ,if there's no water in the back boiler what's the prob? (seems a pity not to use the thing to the max,but I'm sure you've got a good reason,saw one once used just to heat a huge lean-to greenhouse.)Anyhow,best wishes,have a nice warm winter! OJ.

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211466Post grahamhobbs »

Not an expert of Agas or Rayburns, but I though Agas only work with coal not wood - could that be a problem?

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211475Post Thomzo »

grahamhobbs wrote:Not an expert of Agas or Rayburns, but I though Agas only work with coal not wood - could that be a problem?
Shouldn't be a problem with the Rayburn Royale. Some Agas have a hopper feed which only works with coal but the Royale is a traditional firebox. It is a bit small if you're just burning wood so you have to cut the logs quite small and fill it up regularly. I used to put a few bits of coal on just to keep it in overnight and then keep it going with wood during the day. Oh, and if you burn skipwood, the nails do block up the riddle very easily so best take them out first if you can.

I had a Rayburn years ago that wasn't plumbed in. Just make sure the pipes aren't blocked otherwise the boiler will overheat and could explode. We just had the pipes cut off and left open and it was fine.

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211507Post theabsinthefairy »

You cannot run a back boiler empty, it will crack.

(A Rayburn is solid fuel - usually a multi fuel and an Aga is a gas/electric/oil run system)

If you do not wish to plumb in your Rayburn you can fill the back boiler with sand as a heat sink. However once full of sand you can never run it as a back boiler again.

Just stick a radiator on it but you must be aware that the water will need to circulate through natural thermo syphoning or be pumped. If you get it wrong the water will just boil, air lock and crack.

Feel free to email me any specific questions.

We run a Rayburn No3 from the 50s that we transported from the UK to France, for heating and hot water. We too bought it on ebay but had to perform a full rebuild on our 99p bargain!
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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211547Post sandyshore »

thank you all

i had heard of the boiler exploding, so thanks zoe for letting me know how NOT to make it explode. we will get it connected to a water tank and some radiators for next winter we hope, its just not easy in rural portugal to find the water tanks and radiators, at least we can fill it with firewood and get some heat and cooking done on it this winter, i wish we had coal but its not something portugal has,we do however live in the middle of a forest so we have plenty of firewood to keep it stocked up

do you think we will damage the boiler if we run the rayburn this year without it being connected for hot water until next year?

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211554Post oldjerry »

Not all rayburns are solid fuel,in fact here in the english midlands there is a good trade in buying oil-fired ones for little money and converting them to solid fuel,parts c\o Fleabay.Youf can also buy one (maybe only 2nd hand)to run off mains gas or lpg,but multi fuel is the one to go for,like Thomzo says wood during the day,and chuck a half bucket of coal or better still anthracite last thing at night before you put the washing to dry in front of it.

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211561Post Thomzo »

sandyshore wrote:do you think we will damage the boiler if we run the rayburn this year without it being connected for hot water until next year?
Hmm, I would check with a professional if I were you. I wasn't aware that they could crack if they were left empty but open to the air, I thought it was just if they were sealed, but ABSF may be right. You could try asking AGA/Rayburn themselves. If anyone knows, they will.

Zoe

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211567Post oldjerry »

Agreed,but DONT go to an official aga shop,in my experience they are worse than useless.Glynwed them selves are notoriously hard to contact,I dont personally see how they can crack if empty,still..dont know about abroad but in these parts there are loads of people who make a living servicing these things if you 're really stuck PM me and I'll do my best to find a pro who can put you're mind at rest.

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211576Post sandyshore »

a pro who could put my mind at rest would be great thank you

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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 211759Post theabsinthefairy »

sandy shore - schematic on the way via email.

yes it will crack if you run it empty, and back boilers are expensive and a nightmare to replace
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Re: old aga/rayburn solid fuel cookers

Post: # 214689Post Treelover »

nice work; nothing like a solid fuel cooker! what's more they burn anything; coal, wood, chipboard [not very hot the last but can keep a fire in a long time if you're going out, say] old shoes, the sort of rubbish the local rules won't accept in the blue bin [we've had trouble because our council is more finicky about what they take than Kent, say, and with a student home who puts what he USED to put in his blue bin in Canters this is an issue....] and of course you can dry off wood under it and in the slow oven to later burn; hot water all the time on top; bread making; etc. lovely! i only have an esse which has seen better days and i wish we'd thought of some compromise when we had a raeburn and couldn't get firebricks for it in the days when solid fuel heaters were out of fashion. my esse, which is also no spring chicken, lost its fire bars and has survived happily for the last two years with a cast iron drain cover instead. and i even more wish that the parents had brought the 1930's aga with them when they moved because i bet that would still be going strong!!!! sorry, rant over.

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