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Technical: Brief history and Design Information by G.Thornhill C.Eng.

The Eco Range Cooker company was born to bring the traditional design of an iron cooker with the use of modern technology and design to make a clean, efficient cooker and room heater that will turn any house into a home.

Britain has always been blessed with a good energy supply, and coal gradually replaced wood as the main source of heat from the end of the 16th century onwards.  Wood is best burned on a bed of ash but it was soon realised that, to burn coal efficiently, a smaller grate for wood was required, and it must be raised to cool the grate and allow for the collection & removal of ashes. In Europe there was less coal and distances were greater, so it is here that the wood burning stove has its origins. The British were introduced to the ideas in the 17th century where they saw them in the Dutch & German communities in the ‘New World’ where coal had not yet been discovered.

In much of England, coal remained cheap, with female and child labour used in the mines. The British continued wastefully to burn coal in open fires, with the exception of their kitchen ranges.

The 18th century saw rapid changes in England with the coming of the industrial revolution. Abraham Derby was one of the instigators when, in about 1709, he dramatically reduced the production costs of casting iron as he perfected his method of smelting iron with coke. This method is still used today in small foundries all round the world. Cast iron and steel are ideal materials for stoves and cookers, and this major production cost reduction allowed more efficient fires and stoves to be designed and built.

Paintings of cottage interiors show large fireplaces with sides built in brick. In the centre was a small wood fire or, for the better off, a small grate for coal, over which cooking pots were hung. This crude system remained current in poorer houses until well into the 19th century.

In large country houses and palaces where money was no problem and households larger, we can see the start of the modern range. Open spit cooking was used a lot for the meat and hobs could be used for pans.

Cast iron ranges were in common use from the mid 19th century as the costs of transporting heavy goods were dramatically reduced with the coming of railways. Large examples can still be seen preserved in country houses and palaces.

This one shown below would have suited a large Victorian family with a small number of servants, but small ones with open grates (early Esse and Belle ranges) are often found in architectural reclamation yards.  The early Cornish Range became a standard feature in mining communities around the world, and were also fitted into all British lighthouses, by Trinity House.  Some of them lasted for a hundred years.

The author’s Grandmother Polly Black, circa 1906 @ Withdean Court, Brighton. (Possibly an early Esse range with additional gas hob and oven) Withdean Court was pulled down and is now the grounds of Brighton & Hove Football club.

The comfortable, homely, solid enameled look, so appreciated by the British (and increasingly so in Europe) dates from the late 1920’s early 1930’s, with some of the original solid fuel models still in use, 75 years on.

The ESSE foundry, dating from 1854, was probably one of the first with this look – Florence Nightingale used an ESSE in the Crimea - but the AGA, originally Swedish, has probably become the most famous and the name is often used as a generic term to describe heavy ranges. 

Electric, gas, fan, microwave & steam ovens have come, but still they cannot match the delicious flavour, texture and evenness of food cooked in a heavy cast iron range cooker.

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Modern cast iron ranges fueled by gas or oil come in many shapes and specifications, but can be roughly divided into three design classifications:-

 . Stored heat cookers with or without a domestic hot water (DHW) boiler. The main manufacturers;- AGA & Redfyre.

• Single burner dry cookers without water heating. The main manufacturers of these are;- Eco Range, ESSE, Rayburn & Stanley. 
• Twin burner type, cooking and central heating. The main manufacturers of these are;- Eco Range, Sandyford, Marshall, ESSE, Redfyre, Heritage, Stanley & Rayburn.

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Stored Heat Cookers. ( AGA, Dunsley & Redfyre)

Dr Gustave Dalen, a Swede, invented this concept in the 1920’s. Hitherto, ranges had been open fires where the heat could be diverted around various ovens and griddles, giving a “range” of different cooking choices. The stored heat concept is nearer the ‘hot box’ principle; a small heat source (2-3 kW.) is constantly kept on heating a massive griddle and the top of a heavy, well insulated oven. The temperature rises slowly but stays relatively constant. There is a large temperature gradient in the ovens and the cook moves items up and down to control the cooking rate. For cakes a ‘cake box’ can be used inside the oven to give even heat. Because the heat up time is about 6 hours, the cooker has to be on 24hrs a day, 365 days of the year. Domestic hot water can be heated off a small boiler, but the burner has to be increased in power to do this.

The only sop to modernisation from the original design concept is the change of fuel from coal to oil, gas or electricity. A chimney is required for all oil models. The AGA and Everhot Electric and the Redfyre and Esse gas flueless do not require a chimney but there is also a power flue and balanced flue gas AGA.

MAIN POINTS TO CONSIDER.

They give off a steady heat to the kitchen, which is very nice in winter and damp autumn days. A kitchen radiator can be removed (if fitted) with commensurate fuel saving.

Oven temperature is steady and constant, as is the temperature of the hot plates.

Due to the small power source they cannot run central heating, but can be used for domestic hot water, though this uses considerably more fuel and they are very inefficient boilers. There is a common misnomer that the hot water is 'free', it most certainly is not!

The heat up time is at least 6-8hrs from cold.

Care has to be taken when doing large amounts of cooking as, if a lot of heat is taken from the oven or hot plates, it takes a relatively long time to build back up again.

In the summer the kitchen can be hot if the cooker is left on all year for cooking. For this reason most AGA &  Refyre Traditional cookers owners usually have a second cooker for summer use.

The running cost of these cookers is about £450-700 per annum.

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Single Burner Ranges.( ESSE & Stanley Super Star)

Thousands of simple coal fired ranges were installed in British houses over the last 70 years, made by many different companies. These can heat up in about 2 hours and can run all the DHW and one or two radiators. At the end of the 1970’s one company, Stanley, from Waterford in Ireland took the concept into the 20th  century and redesigned the inside to take a pressure jet burner, sealed the doors, and put a passageway for the hot gases between the ovens.

A pressure jet burner using a fan can give accurate air/fuel ratios, this means greater efficiency, lower emissions and instant large amounts of heat (3-4 minutes for hot plate cooking). The passageway between ovens means a beautifully even heat and a total heat up time of just 20 minutes from cold! Even on the Stanley solid fuel, one can be cooking in the oven in 40 minutes from first lighting the match.   Wood fired ranges also run full central heating.

 MAIN POINTS TO CONSIDER

Pressure jet burners are always more efficient than atmospheric burners and some models have a balanced flue, which means that you don’t need to have a chimney, just have the cooker on an outside wall. 

The rapid heat up time means you do not need to have another cooker, nor does the kitchen become unbearably hot in summer, as you only turn the cooker on when you need to.   

The running cost will depend on the efficiency of the burner and the amount of heat you ask from it. If you already have a central heating system, the house energy running costs will be the same, or lower, as;-

1. You will not have an additional gas or electricity bill for your existing cooker.
2. The kitchen will be heated by the cooker in winter, saving a radiator in the kitchen (increased wall space, cheaper fuel bill)

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Twin Burner Ranges (Condensing by ECO Range Cooker Co. - non condensing from ESSE, Marshall, Heritage, Sandyford, Stanley, Rayburn 400’s & 800’s, Redfyre Central Heating)

To make a range cooker even more in tune with today’s cooks, and to get higher boiler outputs for larger houses in a smaller unit, all the manufacturers now make a range of twin burner cookers. One burner runs the boiler and the other  the oven.   You get timed warmth for your kitchen, instant cooking, a cooler room in the summer and efficient burners.   When the water/central heating burner is on, the cooker does not heat up.

MAIN POINTS TO CONSIDER

1. A condensing boiler will save up to 20% on you fuel bill, depending on your existing boiler. They also produce less CO2/kW
2. The cooker controls are behind the top left hand door, with the time clock often built in to the cooker but more usually located separately. 
3. The top oven’s temperature can be varied to suit what you are cooking, and the bottom oven’s heat is proportionate to that of the top oven.   This is very different to using an Aga/stored heat range, where the oven temperatures are set, and the heat recovery is slow.  Using the hot plate is easy, too, as the thermostat will ensure the plate is always hot even if you are cooking marmalade or simmering a delicious soup.  The oven temperature will not be affected by using the hot plate, again unlike the Aga. 
4. An efficient ‘S’ plan system of heating can be used, controlling domestic hot water, central heating and cooking/kitchen heating individually.
5. It is no viable to make gas twin burning cookers, its cheaper to buy and to run separate boiler and a single burner gas cooker, especially the ECO Range flueless which has 3 oven and is 100% efficient.

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Electric Range cookers & modules

The ECO Range cooker company, as with AGA and ESSE, make a 2 oven electric module to go beside the main cooker to make it a 4 or 5 oven unit. The ECO unit can be fitted on either side and have doors hinged either side.

ELECTRICITY IS A MORE EXPENSIVE FUEL AND GENERATES MORE CO2/kW THAN ANY OTHER FUEL.

The simple fact that electricity is a means of transmitting energy not a source of energy, means it is generated in the UK mainly from coal. The approximate costs are N. Gas 4p/kW, oil 6p/kW, LPG 8p/kW, coal 8p/kW & electricity 12p/kW.

ESSE make a pretty electric version of their gas and oil models for people who want the traditional range cooker look with a standard electric cooker. For a heat storage cooker one has a choice of the electric Aga or the very clever Everhot. With the Everhot, each oven and each hot plate is individually temperature controlled. This is as economical as one can be, but none of these cookers provide economical heat to the kitchen, so a radiator is still needed.

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Wood fired ranges (Marshall, ESSE, Broseley, Stanley)

The drive towards bio fuels and carbon neutrality has inspired manufacturers to redevelop earlier solid fuel ranges, now burning wood cleanly and efficiently. The Stanley cooker has been around for years because they burn peat in Ireland, having no natural coal. To burn wood a long large firebox is required, as wood has a lower calorific value than coal. ESSE’s and Marshalls new wood burning cooker can take 24” (600mm) logs, this saves a lot of cutting.  

A separate cooker is advisable for summer as the kitchen does tend to get warm – ideal in the winter, though.

We are currently testing our own design of wood burning cooker which incorporate the patented T3 technology used by Burley Appliances in there range of wood burning stoves, click here to read more and hope to have the appliance tested and ready by spring 2011.

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Do I get free hot water?

One of the many misconceptions that we come across almost daily is that ‘it is a waste not to have hot water from the cooker’, or that the hot water is somehow free. 

This is just not true, you cannot get ‘ought for naught’: even in an AGA the burner is bigger and uses more fuel to heat the water. Furthermore, the boilers are uncontrollable and inefficient. So much so, that the work required to put the water on your efficient oil or gas boiler only attracts 5% VAT. The modern cooker boilers that do central heating incorporate a cooker and efficient boiler in the same beautiful housing, which not only looks good, but saves space.   If your boiler is working well, or the pipe work is miles away, it is not wasteful to have a separate, dry cooker.  Most range cookers also do stalwart duty as drying racks, and the heat in the kitchen is not wasted if it is keeping you warm, especially in the autumn and spring when you don’t need so much central heating. With gas it is just not viable to incorporate a gas boiler within the housing, always buy a separate boiler and a 100% efficient flueless 3 oven ECO.

Remember it's not an AGA its an ECO.

Eco Range Cookers are designed for you to be in control, heat when you want it, saving you money.

Heavy iron oven have a deserved reputation for cooking gently and evenly, with out dry out the food. The Eco Range is no exception and you can show your culinary skill to their best with one of these beautiful cookers.

Built to last a lifetime, these British cookers will complement the finest kitchens.