Kirby Tradition - Make it suck baby!

[brettsomers]

YES, jeff...

a lightweight royal-style upright with removable nozzle. the key word here is *lightweight*. and then a more deluxe model that weighs a ton.

 

[compactc9]

Roayl did make a model with removable nozzle that came off like a Kriry's.

 

[urarachu]

Fun Royals...

I always wanted to try one of those Royals with the removable nozzle. My oh my do I love Royals...

*whispers* Speaking of Royals...they're coming out with an 8-pound commercial and household upright really soon. Someone from Royal came into the shop today and showed it off, hoping we'd pick up a bunch of em' when they were released. They are relatively quiet, but our Riccar Supralites definately clean a lot better. There were all sorts of little annoying things that I noticed about it while it was in our lobby. Anywho look for em' soon! They'll be available exclusively at your local Electro-Hygiene dealer!

 

[tolivac]

Love the bag mod for the Tradidtion-and yes the new HEPA filtration Filtrete bags will fit it.Better filtration and performance!!!
On the removable nozzle Royals-beleive this wasn't done because it would infringe on Kirby's patents on that design.I don't beleive Royal wants to go thru that trouble.
I have two Powercasts-the Red and the Blue models-may look for the "Black" one.Its supposed to have a twin fan suction motor-and the deluxe tool kit.When you use one of these-it feels like you are pushing a Certified Pile lifter vac!!but the Certified would still do a better job-its a 75 pound machine used by some commercial carpet cleaners-they use the machine before a carpet is cleaned or shampooed-and then after-the carpet has dried-that big roller brush it has really fluffs and deep cleans the pile-it reaches all the way down to the pile backing-something standard vacs don't do.Would love to add one of those behemoths to my collection.older ones used a tornado type suction motor for suction-and a one- third-to half HP induction motor to turn the enormous brush roll.Newer ones use a 10A Royal suction motor(like on royal uprights) and the induction motor to turn the brush roll.
As for the "tools on borad" Kirby-still waiting for that one-due to the Kirby design-beleive this would be impossible-unless you want to use a bulldozer to push the machine and a forklift to carry it between rooms or up stairs.
On the Kirby Diamond "G" switch-you could almost call it a four speed machine-still has the two speed switch on the front of the powerplant.Still runs at "lo" for the floor and carpet nozzle" than "hi" for the hose.The additional switch on the top of the powerplant allows you to slow it down in either hose or carpet modes-giving you additional low speeds for each of those modes-say for hose mode-a low speed for vacumming drapes without the tool inhaling them,and additional low for vacuuming delicate carpets or rugs.Kirby now sells a hose attahment so you can from the attachment end of the hose-select low or high speeds!-and then you can get the additional speeds from the switch on top of the motor.
Green vacs-yes would be nice-but not the green color the Dual 80 was in-that machine performs great-but that green is unappealing--Liked the nice Brown-or "copper" the dual 50 was-was more attractive-and liked the all metal upright handle bar better.The plastic upper handlebars have atendency to break after a while.The get age cracks.Metal ones don'tand they are lighter in weight.
another thing-the Royal "Classic" and Royal "Everlast" direct air uprights performed better than the Powercast with less weight and power consumption-I pit my Royal Classsics against the Powercasts and the Classics beat them!!Too-the Powercast has a TERRIBLE bag design.They should have used the Royal "B" bags in it and gone to Filtrete.The Roller brushes in the classics-(with the stiffeners)are better than the roller brush in the Powercast.The Hoover "Z" vac is even heavier than the Powercast!!Go to Sears or Best Buy and lift and try one!!Better bring your strong arms!!Its almost like pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks!Oh- on the Kirbys-please of please bring back the metal fans and give us metal wands and tools!!and locking ones at that.The "friction fit" is a joke-either they come apart while using-or they get stucktogether.
In the future me and a friend may be selling Kirbys-guess I had better review the salesmen demo tape!!They are an interesting machine to demo--the kirby can do MANY things besides vacuuming.And I have PLENTY of dirt meters for them!!and yes dirt pads.They say you should pull 50 -100 dirt pads per demo!