The day soon came when we decided it was time to start the Aga up. We had great misgivings because we knew little about the history of the thing. We did know that it was manufactured around 1940 and that it was originaly situated in the house next door to us, the old grounds of which our house was now situated in. Its previous owner had it moved to its new location for reasons known only to him.
We had the original instructions that came with the fitted Oil conversion kit so we did know what we were supposed to be doing and had little excuse not to try it ourselves rather than calling in and paying for a service engineer.
We set the burner up as per the instructions, allowing the oil to work its way through the unit and then poked a long lit match through the little door in the burner's base; we watched as the whick caught. After waiting for the specified time for the burner to get hot enough to vaporize the oil we turned the oil pump up to full. Gradually the burner's flame turned from a mucky yellow to a searing hot blue. Eventually, over a period of about 18 hours, the aga came up to full temperature, was heating our water, warming the kitchen and ready to cook on.
This is where the first real advantage of having an Aga became apparent. The house seemed to be transformed into, well it's hard to describe; I suppose the house seemed to gain a heart. A centre. I guess this is why Aga owners talk about it becoming the focal point of the house.