Why kirby vacuum

Made of die cast aluminum, not plastic, our deep-cleaning upright vacuum converts to a carpet shampoo system, a hand-held vacuum, floor buffer and more! Contact a Kirby Distributor to experience Kirby for yourself. Remember me Log in. Lost your password? It is definitely not suitable for everyone, but I am a massive fan of mine.

I have used the vacuum less than a dozen times since the purchase, as it is far too heavy and cumbersome for someone my age However, to use the hose one has to dismantle the front to fit the hose, which takes some effort. I was constantly complaining that I wanted my Dyson back! We now have a cleaner upstairs to save hauling it up each time! Some people love the multi-tasking abilities of the Kirby vacuum and its heavy-duty design.

But even if it's the best vacuum money can buy, we think it's still a lot of money to spend on a vacuum cleaner, especially when there are excellent, cheaper, high street options that don't come with in-home sales tactics. Test score. Get the lowdown on the Kirby vacuum, including how the claims made in the sales demo stack up vs rivals, and owner's views.

Matthew Knight. In this article How much does a Kirby vacuum cost? The Kirby sales demo - claims examined How long will the Kirby vacuum cleaner last? Kirby vacuum servicing What do Kirby owners think of their vacuum?

Kirby vacuum cleaners: our verdict. How much does a Kirby vacuum cost? More on this Best vacuum cleaners for Vacuum cleaner reviews. Related articles How we test vacuum cleaners Cordless vacuum reviews. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by email. Latest News In Which? Best Amazon Black Friday deals for Best Currys Black Friday Deals for We compared the difference between these two motor types in detail in our recent Riccar Vacuum Reviews so check that out if you're hungry to learn more!

The Kirby Avalir 2 is really a fantastic tool for cleaning your home. It may be a vacuum, but it is also so much more than that. Yes, it comes in at a pretty hefty price, but all of the features it comes with are well worth the investment. The Kirby Avalir 2 has really great suction power. It comes with special technology which helps to increase suction power to outclass most other vacuums out there at this time. If you have mainly carpeted flooring in your home, this is where the Avalir 2 excels.

This means that you can leave the brush off to vacuum your hard floors to prevent scratching, and then turn the brush roll on when vacuuming your carpets.

Even better is the fact that you can manually adjust the pile height of the vacuum's floor head. Using the foot pedal you can raise or lower the brush roll depending on the specific surface underneath. This feature is unusual on modern vacuums. For example, when comparing the Kirby Avalir to the Dyson Big Ball Animal , one of the differences is that the Dyson has an automatic height adjustment.

What also helps make the Kirby Avalir 2 so useful for vacuuming is the fact that it comes with a propulsion system. Also, the stem can swivel where it attaches to the base for easy maneuverability. Although the Avalir 2 has good maneuverability it is fairly heavy and weighs in at 23 lbs. This is certainly not a lightweight vacuum cleaner. If you want to see the Kirby Avalir 2 in action then check out the video review below, courtesy of the good folks at Vacuum Wars.

Therefore, while you vacuum, it filters the air that it sucks in. This means that the air which it spits out has up to The Avalir's filtration is achieved via its Filter Bags, which is something to bear in mind as these will need to be replaced on a regular basis.

Concerning 'Ease of Vacuuming' we also have to consider how easy it is to use your vacuum's tools. Now the Dyson has on-board tools very nice and the Kirby does not. So you have to store your Kirby tools somewhere else most likely your closet. For Kirby lovers, this is the only complaint I have heard from them. They wish there were an easier way to put on your tools without taking off the power nozzle each time. So, for this test I timed myself going from vacuum mode to putting on the duster tool in this example.

How long does it take? The Dyson took 19 seconds for me to go from vacuuming to putting the hose on the on-board duster tool. The Kirby took me 25 seconds to go from vacuuming, shutting off the vacuum, casually strolling to my pretend closet, grabbing the hose and duster tool, returning to the vacuum, taking off the power nozzle, and putting on the hose and duster tool.

Regarding the actual ease of vacuuming could vacuum with one finger , I would say the Kirby was easier. However, including results for carrying weight and use of tools, the Dyson won.

So, including the Tool Caddy, the Kirby has 15 standard tools. The Dyson has 5 standard tools I am going to call the floor tool and animal brush standard. The Kirby has a carpet shampooer and 3 other accessory kits you can buy, as well.

The Dyson had the Zorb kit. The Kirby vacuum can filter as small as. To be considered a HEPA filter you have to filter at least. I could not find anything on the Dyson website or on the Dyson itself as to what its filtration was.

However, by doing a google search, people that were selling the washable HEPA filter said it filtered down to. I have been a lone voice of warning since the beginning of the 'bagless' craze. Everybody wanted bagless vacuums. My issue with them was when I would get them in used, the vacuum would be covered in dust on the outside, but the HEPA filter would be clean.

Doctors were actually recommending bagless vacuums to allergy patients! I felt so bad for those people. The reason that I don't like bagless vacuums is the dirt hits the HEPA filter and looks for the easiest way out. The HEPA filter is hard to get through tight filtration , so the dirt back-tracks through the system, blows out through the seals in the tubing, and back into the air.

That is why I don't like normal bagless vacuums. Now to Dyson's credit, they have a washable filter located before the dirt goes to the bag chamber that's good. Then in the bag chamber, most of the heavy dirt falls into the bagless dirt chamber while the rest of the dirt is carried out to hit the last filter. So, most of the dirt never reaches the last filter, but it still has a filter that dirt and air have to push through.

That's the good news. The bad news is that I counted 7 different seals on the Dyson vacuum. I assume there are so many seals so that you can take the vacuum apart if it clogs I cant think of any other reason. The other bad news is they are not the tightest seals. The Kirby does have 2 seals outside the bag chamber, but they are very tight.

The Kirby is not sold in stores or retail. In fact, you can't get a new one except from a authorized Kirby dealer. There are some dealers who take the risk of trying to sell some new ones on eBay or sell to someone else who will sell them on eBay.

However, Kirby is usually pretty proactive about finding out who is doing that against the rules and shutting them down. So aside from that, if you want to buy a new Kirby with the Kirby warranty you will have to buy from a Kirby salesman directly.

He will come to your home and demonstrate the vacuum for you. So, a lot of Kirby salespeople are young and a lot are college-aged. They will do a lot to get a sale. Because of that some people have a bad image of Kirby. For example, go to google and type in "Kirby Vacuum" and see what the first page is that comes up.

Sometimes there are some bad reviews on salespeople. However, many Kirby salesmen are very professional and courteous. Don't lose faith in the vacuum itself due to the distribution chain! The Dyson on the other hand, is everywhere. It is in most independent vacuum shops, most big box stores, on the internet and it is even on eBay. If you look on eBay, there are tons of brand new, in-the-box Dysons for sale.

Even some of their authorized internet dealers sell on eBay. So, just about everyone has access to buy a Dyson vacuum. Since the Dyson is for sale almost everywhere, it really can't be demonstrated, so James Dyson had to make it visually appealing to get the extra money out of it. That's one thing we have come to realize here at Great-Vacs is the 1 reason that people buy vacuums is based on looks. Most never admit it, but if it looks good they will buy it.

So, think about it. You go to Wal-mart and go to the vacuum aisle. You see about 10 plastic vacuums displayed. You know absolutely nothing about vacuums and no one is there to demonstrate them to you. So, you do one of two things: you either buy the cheapest one or you buy the coolest looking one. Usually what happens is your last vacuum was the cheap one that only lasted 2 years or so , broke down, and you want a better vacuum.

So, you are looking for a better vacuum, then you see the Dyson and it looks cool. You think that what makes a better vacuum is HEPA filtration that's the best right? So, when James Dyson was building the Dyson I believe he understood this and knew he had to make it visually appealing. However, Dyson was the first one to market it. Vacuum is very visually appealing. The Dyson looks really cool and new age. They are geniuses at it.

They continue to add models and different Dysons like the canister Dyson or the light weight Dyson and make improvements to their image and product. With the newest model of Kirby, they have done a good job of modernizing it. However, the problem with the Kirby is when people look at it in their mind's eye, they think of their grandma's Kirby and think it's the same thing even though its not.

The Dyson has this new bagless system like no other vacuum. It looks very modern and very new age. It has all these tubes and looks very cool. Plus, most people test suction with their finger or hand not an accurate test. So, when you turn on the vacuum it actually sounds powerful.

You can hear the power and when you shut off the vacuum it sounds like a turbo shutting off. Also, the suction handle is narrow at the top so when you put your finger on it, it feels like amazing suction. So on this test there was no contest. Aside from the test vacuuming up the dirt, I think this was the most important test. I saved it until the very last because I had to order some special equipment for this test. For this I used a suction plate and then I attached a set of scales that measure resistance see picture.

This test actually measures suction. Remember we already tested airflow, so the other test is to see how well a vacuum performs is suction. This will determine if the vacuum actually seals down on the carpet and gets the dirt deep down or if the vacuum is essentially a "good sweeper" with some suction.

So, the suction plate represents your carpet. What I did was to put it on the Dyson and Kirby vacuum shut off the brushroll so it does not knock off the plate and then when it seals to the powerhead, I am going to put the pull scales on the suction plate and see how many lbs of pulling it takes before the suction plate comes off.

The higher the of lbs to pull off the suction plate, the more suction the vacuum has and the better the 'Deep Cleaner' it is.