My new restored kirby vacuum!

[washernoob]

Plastic fan

Yea the new fan is kevlar (spelling?)

They are very very hard to break but dont give you that unique sound that the metal ones do.

The kevlar fans also may give you a better cleaning performance as they are lighter than the metal ones.

But I will take metal anyday over plastic/lexan/kevlar ones.

Thanks for the comments again!
Brandon

 

[tolivac]

The plastic-nylon,lexan-break quite easily-the vac places out here replace more of the plastic fans than metal ones-and the plastic fans get eroded easily from the sandy soil tracked in-esp at the beach areas.As far as performance goes some say the metal is better because of the metal fans taller blades.And in the earlier plastic fans Kirby used-in a Legend-I bought from a swap shopthe machine worked great with the floor nozzle-when I tried the hose-the fan exploded from age cracking.Metal fans don't have age cracking.The fan bursting was quite startling!

 

[washernoob]

Breaking fans

Yea I have broken a sanitaire fan once! Oh my thats quite a startling experience! Such a dramatic bang, and the motor roars up. Scary.

I have noticed the erosion on the plastic fans too. Interesting issue they have.

I have 2 hoover commercial convertibles model 344s, one has the original metal fan, and one has a replacement plastic one. The one with the plastic fan seems to spin faster, but just doesn't sound right. (also because the restored one with metal fan had its motor overhauled)

But as I say... Metal fan always wins.