Small head Heritage and Legend
Westy,
Yes! Very good........there was a "small head" rug nozzle available for the Heritage II, Legend and Legend II. They are extremely rare are very hard to find. I know several members in the VCCC that have them. I did find one in a local vac store in Charlotte but the guy did not want to sell it. There were not many sold new. Most customers wanted the large head to cut vacuuming time even though the smaller one is far more maneuverable and easier to use, I think.
I can only speculate on what Kirby was thinking with the 562. Up until that time all the vacs were gray with burgandy trim and variations of that. Finally, the tan was introduced but still using the old logo on everything-(all tools, plug, bag, boxes, etc.) So in the evolution process, with the tan introduced it was time to update the corporate logo. When all that was accomplished it was time to think about the 2 motor concept. Kirby has never been cutting edge. The first model to take a disposable bag was the Tradition, (beautiful blue seen in Ben's pics), in 1979 and even that could use a paper bag or you could still use the shake out/dump bag. Keep in mind that Air-Way used a disposable wood pulp cellulose bag since it's inception in 1920! The Kirby made today is almost exactly the same as the Classic I introduced in 1970. Biggest change? Amperage of the motor, reduction in rug nozzle size and self propelled transmission. (The first run of the G3 had terrible problems which were corrected later on.)
One last thing for clarification, the Sanitronic VII was only a one-speed model so the evolutionary process was: 562, Sanitronic VII, Dual Sanitronic 50, Dual Sanitronic 80, then the big head series.
And........I did want to say to Ben that your Tradition is a beauty as is the Classic III. I had one of those that I rebuilt and also put on a Heritage 1 outer bag with mini-emptor. So much easier for regular use! I have done that with the Dual 50 using a "bojack" outer bag cover and with the Omega using a Legend II outer bag and mini-emptor.
On the older Kirbys, (both 12" and 14"), it is easy to replace the 2 brush strip brushroll with an upgraded 4 brushstrip brushroll. Much better cleaning and grooming of the carpet.
Charlie
