Are Kirby vacuums any good?

[imgoing2sleep]

Sales guy came around showing off a Kirby vacuum. He was trying to sell the unit for $1000. Wow, talk about steep.

Anyways, I am wondering if anyone has any experience with these vacuums and is the warranty really cover the vacuum for life? Any help would be appreciated.

[GotOne]

You don't have to spend 1000.00 on a vac. Call up the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) HSOforum. They have some info on vac's. Also, check Consumer Reports. I think for 300.00 or so, you can get a good vacuum cleaner. Make sure it has a height adjustment (not auto) and rotating brushes.

[Walleye Guy]

I have never used a Kirby vacuum. But I cannot imaging it being better than the Dyson vacuum we purchased a couple years ago for less than half the cost of the Kirby. The suction on it is unbelievable. When you see the crud that comes out of your carpet and rugs you will want to install tile and hardwood floors throughout your house.

[fishwidow]

We've got a Kirby. We picked it up at an estate sale, so the price was nowhere near a new one. It works well, but it's kind of clumsy for things like stairs, and ours is pretty heavy. No complaints about performance, but I don't think I would spend that much money on a new one.

[Macgyver55]

We have a Kirby, 2 in fact. They are very durable and long lasting machines and their abilities I feel are second to none. The biggest complaint my wife has is their weight. But DO NOT pay the asking price. When we bought our first one (28 years ago, still have it still works good) the asking price was 675 dollars. That was alot of money back then and still is. What I didn't know was that is a highly negotiable price. Thanks to my parents and an uncle that had previously bought one, they gave me some valuable puchasing advice. I steadfastly held to the fact that I simply could not afford one, but I really liked the machine because I had grown up with them. The salesman kept trying and trying but I held to the story that I couldn't afford that price. Then I finally told him that my uncle had recently purchased one for much less and that I was going to get the number of his salesman. To cut a long story short I ended up, getting it for 255 bucks.

At this point that works out to about 9 bucks a year and still dropping.

[bottomdweller]

If your thinking about going with a kirby, think about putting in central vac. About the same amount of money. Put mine in a couple years ago and would never go back to any other kind of vacuum. Easy to install.

[Darrell Larson]

bottomdweller, I could not agree more, did the same thing in regards to installing a central vac. I like it, no more hauling the vac up and downstairs, and the price was comparable to what the above price quoted. It is a well known vac system, (Beam) to be exact, not endorsing just saying it was easy to install and never have had a problem.

[anyfishwilldo]

We have a Kirby, and are very happy with it. It really cleans well, and it has an auto tranny that helps move it around. As far as the shampooing attachment goes, if it didn't come with the unit, I would not have paid money for it. They are a little heavy to be going up and down stairs with though.

[hondavxr]

If you are looking for a cream of the crop vacuum check out Sanitaire. I fell for the Dyson hype a few years ago until I stepped into a real vacuum store, a store where they sell just vacuums-not a big retailer like Best buy. Then the sales guy proceeded to show me the suction power of almost all the brands on the market, including Kirby, Rainbow, and Dyson. The Sanitaire vacuums blew the competition out of the water in the suction dept. It also has very heavy duty parts, like chrome metal brush heads, not cheap plastic like most vacuums. And to top it off it had a five year warranty.

[New Yankee]

We had a Kirby for years, pretty well bullet proof but as stated prior it was pretty heavy. We weren't disatisfied with it, but the boss wanted a lighter model.

I reasearched Consumer Reports and the top rated upright was the Kenmoore Progressive w/direct drive (model no. 116359) which cost around $300 from memory.

It is the hands down best vac I've ever used on carpets. Got much more dirt up than the Kirby, where we had thought the carpets were clean, they weren't. Used it two weeks and the bag was full! It's got a light that senses dirt and displays when what you're vacuming is clean - pretty neat. I recomend it, having used both. If you're still stuck on a Kirby, go to your local vacuum dealer and he'll have a bunch that came in on trade for a fraction of the cost of new.

[imgoing2sleep]

Thanks for the responses guys, I like the Kirby, looks very sturdy, buy I can't afford what these guys are asking. I will look into these other options though.

[anyfishwilldo]

Check the Kirby prices on hsolist. They are half or less than the salesman asks for.

[ishgood]

The one we had years ago had a major design flaw. The impeller was before the bag. It took a while but eventually it picked up something large and hard like a coin, busted a vane off the impellor. Then it vibrates to beat heck. They wanted some rediculous fee to fix it, so we scrapped it.

Whatever you buy, make sure it doesn't have this design. Impellor should be after the bag.

[The_Duckslayer]

Best vacum I have ever owned! Bar none! I was newly divorced and they came by the house to give me a demo. I bought into it and purchased one. Then I started thinking about it.. I figured I had a 600 dollar vacum and a piece-o-dump bed and what was wrong with that picture? I called them and told them to come get it! You have three days from the time of purchse to do that according to the law. Well here they come back to my house with no intention of taking the thing back. I did end up getting it for less than 250 bucks though! Down from just over 600 so I felt pretty good about that. Maybe you could try that approach! Any way, it was far and away the best vacum that I ever owned and I never had anything big enough or hard enough to harm the impeller. Have a good one and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo