History

The AGA was first designed primarily for function and ease of use, not looks. (Still, it has been recognized worldwide for its timeless design.)

In 1912, Dr. Gustaf Dalen, a Nobel Prize-winning Swedish physicist, lost his sight following an explosion during an experiment with pressurized liquids and gases. Recovering at home, he learned how his wife was exhausted by the constant need to care for and watch over food as it was cooked.
Although unable to see, Dr. Dalen was determined to develop a cook stove that was both capable of every culinary technique and easy to use, with perfect results. Adopting the time-honored principle of heat storage, he combined a small and highly efficient heat source, two large hotplates covered by well-insulated lids and two generous ovens into one robust and compact unit-the AGA Cooker.

After Dr. Dalen recuperated from his injuries, he continued his work as Managing Director of his company, the Svenska Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator. The AGA Cooker is named after this company.

AGA’s were first manufactured in the UK in 1929 and are now solely manufactured by AGA-Rayburn in England. All the principal castings for AGA Cookers are made at the historic Coalbrookdale Foundry in Shropshire, where in 1709, Abraham Darby became the first man to smelt iron using coke instead of charcoal. This breakthrough heralded the modern industrial age.

Every AGA Cooker is custom made by hand. Every single part of the finishing and assembly work is performed and repeatedly inspected by human hand and eye. The enameling is done by hand, a process that takes three days. Each of the three coats is built up, individually inspected and dried, then fused in the furnace up to 1517°F for 45 minutes. Right up to the final coat, any minor imperfection is considered a reason enough to send the offending item back for shot-blasting.

In England, and in a growing number of homes worldwide, AGA Cookers are regarded as the ultimate range cooker.