Kirby Vaccuum Cleaners

[Mr.BsMom]

Does anyone own one? Are they REALLY worth the money??

We just had a guy do a demo for us and I thought he would NEVER leave!! He arrived at 5:45 tonight and did not leave until 9:10. That's almost 3 1/2 hours of my life I'll never get back...

I was impressed (or should I say embarrassed ) with the amount of dirt it could pick up, but $2100 for it??? DH was able to negotiate the price down to $1190, but neither one of us is willing to spend that kind of money for a vaccuum! Are we the only ones who think that's just ridiculous??

 

[lizfromfl]

About 10 years ago I too got presured by the Kirby man (and the dirt his vacuum picked up out of my carpet and bought the vacuum... It lasted 10 years and still works fine but recently developed an issue with the mechanism that makes it stand upright. Instead of fixing it I just decided to buy a new (much cheaper) vacuum that has one of the cups that you empty instead of a bag. I can't say that I see much of a difference in the way that the new (cheaper) one works.

I think at the time that I bought my Kirby I paid about $1000...

 

[Disney Doll]

I had a Kirby, and now I have an Oreck. The thing that amazed me the most was the first time I vacuumed with the Oreck, how much "stuff" I heard being sucked up out of the carpet. You know how you can hear the "pinging" noise when you're vacuuming? Well, there was a lot of "pinging" that day!!!!!Plus, the Oreck was a heck of a lot cheaper!!!!

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

My mom has a Kirby that is about 40 years old. I guess it still works, because there isn't a lot of debris on her carpet. It is metal, and is probably worth more as an antique than a new one. I just keep buying vacuum cleaners every five years or so that cost around $100. I have thought about getting a really "good" one, but I am afraid of it not being any better than the "cheap" ones I have been buying.

Anyone know of a good one for picking up A LOT of dog hair??(4 very large dogs that shed a lot!)

I had no idea that Kirby's cost so much. I never thought of my mother as an "extravagant" woman..actually, quite the opposite.

 

[Lars624]

We have one-bought it from an in home demo too......paid about 1400.00 for it 3 or 4 years ago............Do I like it? Yeah......Do I think it's any better than a cheaper one? Nope......wish I'd known that before I bought it though.

 

[Lisa F]

I did extensive research before buying our vacuum and ended up buying a miele aluminium. Yes, it was very expensive for a vacuum cleaner, but I have been unhappy with the way every single $100 vacuum I have ever bought worked. I LOVE my miele and it was worth every penny (it's a canister type as I have mostly hard surfaces but with a power head for the bedrooms that have carpet). The suction is great and it's just a wonderful machine to use, fully hepa sealed (we don't have allergies but have friends and family who do and 3 cats, if I vacuum with this thing before they come they have no issues). Supposedly they last forever also, which led me to think it was worth it rather than buying a new piece of crap vacuum every year.

The "dirt test" that the salespeople do with the kirby vac is a hoax. You can do an internet search and find out how they do it and how it would happen with any vacuum. When I did research about kirby's I generally found that they are decent machines that are worth probably about half of what they go for (around $500 instead of $1,000). They are also supposedly very heavy... if you are going to a canister type and want to spend btwn $500-1000 for a really good vacuum, I suggest you look at the Miele and Sebo (both german manufacturers.)

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

I heard that Kirby vacuums really suck. Unless you connect the hose to the wrong end but that really blows.

Jeff

 

[Mr.BsMom]

Originally posted by AZ JazzyJ
I heard that Kirby vacuums really suck. Unless you connect the hose to the wrong end but that really blows.

Jeff

LOL!

 

[jipsy]

My mom bought a kirby many years ago, after her 25 year old electrolux died. She always said liked it, except it was fairly heavy and to put the hose on for the attachments was difficult. She finally admitted a couple of years ago that she wished she had never bought it. She went and bought one of those uprights that don't need a bag.

My next vacuum will be a Dyson.

 

[wilderness01]

I have the Dyson Animal and love it!

 

[arminnie]

I have a Kirby in my garage that my 87 year old uncle left here before he went into a nursing home. It's over 50 years old so I guess it's an antique. I use it to vacuum off the deck - don't want to take my good one out there.

I have an Oreck that I bought about 5 years ago and I love it - especially the fact that it is so light. It works great on hardwoods which is why I bought it.

I think the Kirby is decent but just WAY too expensive.

 

[Madi100]

We have a Kirby. Yes, it was expensive. However, we were buying a new vaccuum almost every year. We had just bought one when the Kirby lady came to our door. The one we just bought was the canister type. The biggest problem with it was when we got done vaccuuming there was dust all over the outside. So, how much was it missing? We spent $200 for that one. At the time, I did daycare. We have dark carpet so you see every little piece of paper, etc. I was using it all the time.

I really like it. Yeah, it's a little hoaxy that you can blow leaves with your vaccuum, but I do like it for my carpets. We've had it for four years, and we've not had a problem with it yet. We have the shampooer also, and I love to be able to shampoo my carpets without having to go and rent one.

 

[2BigKIdz]

My aunt is a cleaning freak and she swears by her Oreck vaccuum. I would never consider paying $1000, I think that is just outrageous.

 

[CindyKansas]

DH bought a Kirby before we were married and that was almost 17 years ago. Still works great and my only complaint is that it is very heavy. My best friend and her husband just bought one 2 weeks ago. They paid $1400 for a new one.

 

[Barbmouse63]

Dirt just freaks me out...........so much so that I not only bought the Kirby after a demo but a few years later I bought a Rainbow. I still have and use (when I'm not on the computer) the Rainbow. I like it so much better than the Kirby..that thing was heavy!! Man, I just realized I could have paid for a Disney Cruise for the money I spent on those vaccuums! Oh well, live and learn!!

 

[Cindy B]

My FIL has had one for a long time, but he never uses it.

I drool over the Dysons, but i'm waiting for mine to die first.

 

[Liz]

A Kirby salesman just left our home and I immediately came here to do a search. You can always count on the DIS! When he'd leave the room to dump solution or something I whispered to my teenage son (who was very impressed and wanted me to buy) that I couldn't buy anything that expensive without consulting with 3000 of my closest friends on the DIS!!!

We thought it was very impressive and I'd love to have it but the price . . . oh my gosh!!! We had a Rainbow vacuum demo a couple of months ago (favor for a friend because she got a gift if we did) and I liked that too but it was even more expensive than the Kirby. The Kirby guy said the Rainbows were crap.

The pushy guy that came to our door first said it would only take 20 min. and when I asked what the catch was (to shampoo one room) he said to just tell my friends if I like it and how it was a new method of carpet shampooing so I felt like they totally misrepresented what the purpose of the visit was.

When the salesman first came in I mentioned that I was told it would only take 20 min. and he said "well you want me to do a good job don't you"? He stayed 90 min. but was very nice. Somewhat pushy but not too bad. We didn't buy but would have if it was more reasonably priced.

 

[KristiKelly]

We don't have a Kirby, but a sales-girl came to our door a few years ago & stayed almost 3 hours!!! DH came home during the demo & told me "there's no car in the driveway" someone dropped her off & then left, she was stuck we had to watch the demo. If I were a salesperson, I wouldn't feel very safe being left in a strange persons house. What if we'd had to leave, she would have been out on the front porch in the rain - yep it was raining hard that day.

 

[SC Minnie]

DH sold Kirby's in college 30 years ago. We have one that is 30 years old. He refuses to get rid of it The thing ways a ton and I constantly complained about lugging it up and down the stairs- so I would make him do it . At our church yard sale last year someone had put one in for $30-- it had been a wedding gift to them and they didn't need it. DH bough it and we keep that one upstairs now.

I would rather have one that has the attachments on the cleaner. The kirby is so confusing on how to hook everything up-- again I make DH do it.

 

[Big Dude]

AHHH Yes. Kirby. I know them well. I used to sell them way back when and still believe in the product. I used to love it when people told me they had a Rainbow salesman scheduled to come to their house and I would jump at the opportunity for the customer to view the Kirby and Rainbow side by side. The Rainbow rep was always very confident because it looks like it is picking up a ton of dirt when mixed with all the swirling the water. I would go along with it for a good portion of the presentation saying what a great machine the Rainbow looked like....then I would reach into my bag and sprinkle a bunch of baby powder on the carpet. When the Rainbow guy said "no problem" he brushed his machine over the pile only to find that most of it came out of his machines exhaust. He didn't realize that the oil based baby powder wouldn't agree with the water. The look of astonishment on both his and my face would be very apparant. I would then glide my Kirby over the pile and it would vanish. The Rainbow rep would be leaving as the customer was signing the papers for their new Kirby.

You can difinately barter with the Kirby salesmen. The lowest I was able to go back in the late 70's was $600 and my commission would be somewhere around 50 bucks.

Adam aka Big Dude