Aga’s eco-friendly claim puts it in hot water with watchdog

AN AGA advertisement has been banned for wrongly claiming its stove had the “lowest running cost” compared to rival electric cast iron ovens.

In a ruling last week, the advertising regulator told the range cooker firm that it was “misleading” to claim its electric model was the most ecofriendly choice.

Aga was criticised for comparing its £12,000 electric “er7” model, which is designed to be switched off when not in use, to other “eco” models, including one from rival firm Everhot, that are meant to be left on.

The well-known oven firm argued that this meant their customers could make greater savings over time.

However, the Advertising Standards Authority disagreed, ruling that customers would assume the Aga advert referred to the cost of actually cooking with the oven. In fact, the regulator found that if you left the Aga “hot plate” on full power it used 0.600 kwh and would cost 18p per hour to run. By comparison, the Everhot 110i model used 0.220 kwh and would cost only 6.6p per hour to run.

“[We] therefore considered that the Everhot model was more efficient in its energy use for the hotplate function,” it said. As a result, AGA will need to remove the advert from its website.

The ASA ruling came about after competitor Everhot complained to the regulator on the grounds that the Aga advert made an “unfair” comparison.

The managing director of British ecofirm Everhot, Guy Goring, said he was “delighted” by the ASA’S decision.

The firm produces its ovens in the Cotswolds and claims they are the “most energy efficient heat storage range cooker[s] on the market”. Its 100i model starts at £12,200, a similar price to Aga’s electric oven offering.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Mr Goring said: “Aga is a very famous brand and if you make a very clear-cut statement like that, a lot of customers will think that’s the truth. So it was frustrating to see that.

“Aga produced a figure based on the cooker being off for some of the time, which seemed unfair. It’s a little bit like quoting cars’ running costs based on it being in the garage part of the time.”

An Aga spokesman said the company had “complied fully” with the ASA ruling but that it “will continue to point out differences between products that can only be left on all the time and those that are designed to be used as and when needed”.

A spokesman for the ASA explained that Everhot was “more efficient in energy use for the hottest oven function” and as a result “we did not consider that the data demonstrated the AGA er7 had the lowest running costs of any cast-iron heat-storage range cooker”.