AGA Rangemaster has launched a cooker with built in M2M capability that can be monitored and controlled remotely which the company says allows you to control the cooker from anywhere.
The new AGA Rangemaster iTotal Control range cooker uses a proprietary M2M management platform and SIM cards from Everything Everywhere.
Everything Everywhere said, “AGA customers can maintain complete remote control over their ovens, wherever they are. Those with no Internet connection can text their oven with simple commands such as ‘baking oven on’ or ‘all ovens off’, and will receive a reply confirming the action has been taken. “
Apps to control the range cooker can be downloaded from Google Play or the Apple App Store that give “a visualisation of the AGA iTotal Control oven, which can be controlled by touchscreen.”. There is also a web portal that enables the oven to be controlled from any web browser.
Everything Everywhere also said that its management platform will also “provide AGA with a self-service portal through which it can quickly and securely access and manage all account information, with complete control over all SIM accounts and the potential for integration with CRM systems. Connection profiles, call detail records and tariff bundles can all be managed by AGA directly through the portal, as well as the direct ordering of additional SIM cards.”
The iTotal Control AGA will be available from June 1 in the UK. It retails for £10,090 and the remote access service cost £5.95 ($A9.46) per month and is mandatory for the first year which adds up to a whopping £10,161.40 for the first year of oenership alone. Although we’d bet that if you can afford the cooker in the first place you won’t be too bothered about the £71 a year for the feature.
We still question the need or usefulness of these features though and would say that, currently, they are probably not worth the trouble.
For example, this particular itteration of a web controlled cooker only allows you control of the ovens, not the hob zones or grill etc therefore limiting just what can be cooked by remote control. But, even at that it still cannot fetch the food from the fridge or freezer (where it is stored for freshness) and get it into the oven for cooking, you have to remember to do that bit. But, if you have to remember to do that and it is food you can leave in the oven all day then you could just set the delay timer and save a packet on the cost of having internet of messaging system enabled cooker.
The only realy benefit is being able to switch on the oven to pre-heat when you’re on the way home. And, to do only that, this seems a bit on the expensive side.
