Fair Test?

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ned_flanders

Well-known member
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Apr 26, 2012
Messages
129
I recently came upon this video and was surprised by the results. Do you think it's a fair test? Why or why not?

 
It is an entirely fair test... They just don't finish it out by using the miele after the kirby.


ANY vacuum cleaner will do that. If they vacuum 20x with the kirby, and then pull the miele over again, it would have the same results. A vacuum will never clean a rug 100%.
 
It's accurate.
As Brandon said no machine is 100% efficient, and she was going very slowly.
However, you will always find more dirt with a Kirby. That was a light weight, thin pile carpet. The Kirby was able to pull it up and move air under it. This is Kirby's triple cushion vibration at work.
 
That Miele is a new model but it needs a cleaning. Clean the agitator housing, pull the strings off the brushroll. I want to see how the bag and filters look. Also there are 2 switches on the handle. I think those Mieles are similar to the Riccar Tandem air system? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The Riccar Tandem air system uses direct and clean air design fan systems. Two different suction systems for dirt removal and the agitation shown in some youtube videos of the Riccars look phenomenal.

That Kirby inside is brand new/ spotless, and no bag installed so it has full airflow capacity.
 
Zach,
There is a difference from this video, and the "test" your friend Eric did.
This video directly followed on the same day, whereas, Eric's test was a week of this then that test. There are may variables that can come into play from the amount of traffic to the relative humidity.

I know you were trying to put me in my place, but in this case the Kirby is a direct air machine with greater airflow. And yes, I admit, read my screen name I am biased and admit it. But I have been in the homes when Ladies have cried, not with a dirt pad that is roughly what six square inches which takes approximately a teaspoon of dirt to look full. This was done with a full size Baird meter and it was full.

Also, I stated that I was in agreement with Brandon that no machine (Including Kirby) was 100% effective.

Do the sand test yourself. Go out to the sandbox, or if not available take a pound of plain table salt. Pour it into the carpet. Now you have a measurable amount of what went in. Now run each vacuum and see how much each pulls out. Again this is able to be weighed and measured instead of a subjective--look at this. I again will state the Kirby will be able to hold it's own.
 
Brandon is right No machine will clean a carpet through one hundred percent. I once went up against a Kirby in a demo with this situation, so I asked the guy to put a clean pad in and vacuum the area again and wow the pad was dirty. So I said If your machine cleans so well why did it leave all the dirt behind. The guy was stumped.

A friend owns a Kirby dealership here and he told me that they have stopped doing this test because the husband ( who is not wanting to spend a fortune on a vacuum ) will often take there Bag less Electrolux or Bissell empty it out and then vacuum the area were the Kirby has Just been and pull out loads of dirt.

This is a cheap nasty TRICK that has been used for years to Scare housewives. Put that devise on the Miele and you will get the same result. I own both those machines and they are both very good vacuums
 
The side by side comparison test

was devised by Kirby to prove definitively that the Kirby can get all the dirt. After vacuuming until the Kirby can pull no more dirt


3 stokes forward and back = 1 day of cleaning, count the number of days of cleaning. Do 100+ strokes with the other cleaner, then pull dirt with the Kirby.  If the Kirby is used to remove all the dirt, and the dirt container of the bagless is clean, the bagless unit cannot pull up any dirt. The problem is the SxS test is complicated, the verbiage has to be just right, and the closing questions have to be asked at the right points in the presentation. Most Kirby dealers are not intelligent enough to master the test. I know, I trained for Kirby distributors.  But, if you can master the SxS comparison, the presentation results in high closing percentage, and high dollar sales.
 
I...

Wasn't tying to "put you in your place" I just highly dislike the insane amount of bias towards Kirby on this forum. I admit that Kirby is an amazing machine but price and everything taken into consideration there are better machines than Kirby.
 
I'm betting Miele, Bissell, any Hoover Elite you have, or even your Kenmores and Fantoms can outclean a Kirby any day, even your grandmother's Heritage II from 1985.
 
Director 12...

That's rather an unequivocal blanket statement you made.  As many have stated before, the condition of the machine, and the type of carpet, and the kind of dirt all influence the outcome.


 


Josh Donnell, are you referring to the test against the Miele in the video, or the complete side by side comparison test?  If the latter, do you understand precisely how the S x S is done?  Do you mean it is unfair because the customer's machine is not new?


The point is to show the customer's machine is ineffective, and the S x S can remove all the dirt in the test area.  The dirt meter uses new filters every 3 seconds. Is that what you are saying is unfair? The Kirby is a very effective vacuum. I know there are things equal to or better, but I don't think a Hoover Elite or a Bissell is one of them, not long term.  I am not as fond of Kirbys as I used to be because of the weight and the complicated switchover.  Vacuum collectors LIKE the process of setting up for different operations, the average person who just wants to clean their home sees it differently.


 


A Rainbow is probably the best dirt pulling machine over the long term if it is properly maintained because of the consistent constant airflow.
 
Thing is...people - as collectors we can discuss until the cows come home, the differences between tandem air, clean air and dirty fan air - we can argue that Kirby is better than Miele and in some respects I feel it is a unfair judgement - having used both I'd hazard that whilst the Miele is a far more modern vacuum, I'd probably go for the Kirby because I know that I would be buying quality but not at the prices that the UK sell them at!


 


But end of the day buyers aren't going to know unless they are clued up. When someone sees a video like that at an online site, they'll automatically think that the Kirby does a good job. It's the usual Kirby trick - we had that too when we had a demo many years ago; but my parents weren't embarrassed by the dirt that our old Hoover Junior left behind; my father being the pragmatist and economist in the family put the Kirby salesman out of his misery - when all things considered, at the end of the day when you have a busy day job, you don't have time to wheel out something as big as a Kirby when a compact machine like Hoover's Junior will suffice. My father's opinion was that if the dirt can't be seen on the carpet, then the carpet is clean. 


 


But it also depends on the actual person at the time who is getting the demo - whether they are prepared to put up with what kind of dirt is left behind or the dirt that they can actually see that their own vacuum is picking up and what it is leaving behind. Tie that in with doing the opposite - using the Kirby FIRST and then the Miele and you'd probably find that the Miele picks up what the Kirby leaves behind - it isn't really a fair set up of showing a machine verses another, because there are other variables to take into consideration, not just what Trebor suggests here but also for the fact that just because you can't see the dirt in the bag, doesn't mean it isn't there. 


 
 
My point about

the side by side test was that you actually can get all the dirt out with a Kirby and a dirt meter, then clean next to it with something else the same or more strokes, and pull dirt behind that with the Kirby. Fair?  Depends on how you look at it. Unless you use and maintain the Kirby properly, one can do the same test, even with another Kirby later.


 


Hyla and the rest of the water filtration vacs with separators are probably pretty evenly matched if the nozzles and hoses are in good shape.
 

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