Battery operated kirby

[tommymilan]

Hello,
an italian kirby dealer told me that Kirby is designing a battery operated kirby vacuum cleaner and I laughed at him...it doesn't make any sense to me but does any of you know anything about it? And more is it true that a new kirby model is going to be presented next summer? Also this voice sounds like a bulls...to me.
Greetings, Tommy

 

[kirbymodel2c]

Not as far as I know.

Hi, Not as far as I know.
Maybe he means a portable like the split second or vacuette hand held type. ANYWAY.....

Kirby Don't tell its distributors when the new machine is coming out till right up to the time, yet alone what its going to be like!!
They always play there cards close to there chest.

End of this year/sometime next year is obveous that the new model will be out as the Sentria has been out since about October 2006 and Kirby normally put a new machine out every few years anyway.

JB

 

[ian88]

I dunno, you can get battery powered lawnmowers.

Maybe it uses something like a big old car battery

 

[rolls_rapide]

Maybe...

...it is a robotic cleaner.

 

[myvacsrock]

I was told this too.....

By the local vac-shop guy who sells Kirby, hmmmm..i'll call Sherley(works for Kirby) and see if it's true...?

 

[eluxca]

There was a rumor to that effect about 10-15 years ago in the G series run, along with an on board tools machine. Neither has materialized...

Kirby is not one to set the innovation trail on fire, ya know.

John

 

[lux1521]

I have my doubts about this stuff but since the rumors are so common I'd almost have to think there was something to them. Perhaps these ideas have been bouncing around their research and development department for 15+ years and they only just finnished it. Really, I don't know what to think.

When you think of it, the Sentra is quite revolutionary in terms of design. It's the first major design overhaul in something like 15 years and it still has the G series mechanical concepts. When you think about the timeline of Kirby design you can look at the run of the 500 series which was 17 years, or 23 years if you go back to the model 2c, or 31 years if you count the Sanitronic series. The Classic through Legend models were made for 20 years. When you put the 18 years of G series in prospective it could still be in production for another 13 years before it overtakes the longevity of a previous generation. I think it could be a while before things get changed a great deal if Kirby continues its current design path.

If any of the rumors are true, this could get interesting.

 

[ian88]

Quite a standard Kirby gimmick this tbh, as it looks good but I can see no genuine reason for it

 

[kirbysthebest]

Kirby may be playing with the idea in their R&D department. When I worked for a Kirby distributor in 1981, the rummor was that Kirby was working on a power drive system. They had just put a paper bag in the Tradition so the distributor told me not to look for any major changes until Kirby had it perfected (remember the lifetime agreement to rebuild). It took them another 10 years before we saw the G series with Tech-drive.

I believe Kirby is working on a robot type vac much like Lux's Tribolite. Kirby may be late to the dinner table with innovations, but they always stay and clean up.

 

[kirbysanitronic]

i wonder.....

i wonder if the next kirby different, they only changed the handle and the headlight cap on the sentria, other than different colors and the nozzle bumper. mabey its like the dual sanitronic 80 was where they started to use new handle for their old model then they completely change it like the classic was to the 500/sanitronic series. in my opinion i dont think we will see a new kirby model this year because they usally have a new one every 3 years but there are exceptions like the g-4 it was late 93-late 97, then again the ultimate g was 2002-2003, i would be interested to know what they are planning for the future! i dont think there would be any benifets of a battery operated kirby, you would still have to charge it, and those batterys are not light!

 

[vintageroyal611]

If Kirby makes a battery operated cleaner I'll throw out my Classic Omega

 

[kirbysthebest]

My prediction remains

If Kirby is toying with a battery opperated machine, it will be some form of robitic.