Fixing bag on Kirby Heritage II

[chuckdk]

Hello All,

We have a Heritage II that we bought new in the late 80's. We sent it in once, 10 to 15 years ago, to get refurbished.

For quite some time now, maybe from the refurbishing?, the bag does not stay connected to the hanger. See photo.

The metal brackets are not strong enough to hold it against the tension. Not sure if the brackets are defective or the design is flawed.

I have thought of a couple of hacks to fix it, but first, is there a good, standard, way to make the bag stay on? It is very frustrating.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[panasonicvac]

I've never had that problem before. You did try bending the metal brackets back on right?

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Never seen this issue either. I question if it was reassembled correctly during rebuild.
I actually find it a little challenging getting these off.
You are inserting the folded areas of the bag up into each of the metal prongs, one at a time?
Are the metal prongs easy to bend? They should not be.

 

[lesinutah]

Show

Us a pic of tge emtor. The bag could be overlapped or tucked too much on the emtor.

I'm making an educated guess that you have had to cut your fill tube. This will make it so the tube height is lower than usual causing excess strain on the top of the bah.

 

[chuckdk]

Thank you for the replies!
@panisonicvac: yes, I have to bend the metal to get the bag back on and then squeeze them together as best I can.

@texaskirbyguy: yes, they are fairly easy to bend. I think that's the problem. The tension pulls them out.

@lesinutah: Hmm, I see what you're saying. I didn't cut anything myself. If they did in the refurbish I don't see where.

My three thoughts are

1) send it back in for another refurbishing. This time check the quality of the hanger when it comes back.
2) Take out the screws that hold the metal pieces onto the handle. Put a spacer of some sort in between the metal and the handle reduce the tension on the bag.
3) Take out the screws that hold the metal pieces onto the handle. Somehow, drill holes through the bag and other side of the metal. Put in bolts to hold the metal pieces in place.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you again.

 

[human]

As others have noted, I have never experienced that problem with any of my Heritage/Legend series machines, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. From what I've read above, it sounds like the problem is metal fatigue on the metal prongs of the bag topper. Repeated bending in the same spot will cause metal to weaken over time. The easy (and fairly inexpensive) fix would be to go on eBay and buy a replacement bag topper. You can probably get one for about the price of a fast food value meal. Another option, if you have an old-school vacuum store nearby, is to go and see if they have a parts machine they'd be willing to sell you the bag topper off of. The fortunate thing is that of the three color variants for that series, the black Heritage II topper is the most common. The gray Heritage and dark red Legend ones are somewhat less plentiful.

 

[chuckdk]

Thanks Human. I looked for the part. It's from $40+ to $70+. Since there are a couple of other things that are wearing out, I'll send it in for a rebuild.

Thanks all. Appreciate the advice.

 

[human]

Holy inflation, Batman!

I know it's been a few years since I bought one, but WOW! I think I paid maybe $10 or $12 for it. The ironic thing is with a little patience, you could probably find a whole Kirby for that at a thrift shop. I picked up a Legend II earlier this year for $10 at Goodwill, and justified the purchase by telling myself it was worth many times that for its parts, not that I've parted it out, of course. But you certainly can't go wrong with a rebuild

 

[panasonicvac]

If you can, show us all the pictures of before and after the rebuild. We like restoration on vacuums.

 

[chuckdk]

Kirby restored

Hello All,

Thank you again for your earlier help with our problem. My guess now is that in the earlier restoration the bag was shortened somehow. We did send it in to get restored (about four months ago!) and have finally received it back. They had to wait on some parts. The bag looks much better. They did a great job and were very helpful.

Since you asked, I am uploading some pictures of the vacuum. Enjoy!

Chuck

 

[human]

Glad you got it all fixed up. It looks beautiful, and I know it will continue to serve you well for many years (decades) to come.

 

[panasonicvac]

Excellent!

It's like brand new! I love that Kirby has this offering, you basically never have to buy another vacuum again Out of curiosity, how much did this whole rebuild cost you?

 

[chuckdk]

It wasn't bad. The rebuild was $100. Then shipping from sw Michigan to Toledo. $32 each way?

 

[panasonicvac]

Not bad at all!

That's a really good deal for a full rebuild Actually it's cheaper than buying a whole new bag assembly from partswarehouse.org which is like $230 currently.