Flour UNDER The Carpet Test For Kirby Sentria II

[wyaple]

I bought a new 5'x7' Mohawk medium pile carpet for vacuum tests in my basement recently. I wanted to see what vacuums had enough power to pull flour up through the carpet into the dust bag.

The test was completed with only 2 complete strokes (2 forward/2 backward) at medium speed right through the middle of the flour. I think this qualifies as maybe 98%-99% total pickup?

This Kirby Sentria II was quite the winner with 137 CFM at the nozzle and an airflow density of about 4.1 CFM per square inch. AND all this cleaning power comes from a tech drive motor only requiring 7.5 Amps @ 120 Volts = 900 Watts.

Enjoy! Oh, and I will be publishing more of these tests as time permits.

Bill

 

[tig21er]

Flour test

is not new by a long shot. You are using 1) a Jute back style carpet. Most carpet have a moisture seal to prevent water (Hot Water extraction) from going thru the carpet. The test was shown over 60 years ago. One thing you can do is if had a soiled carpet back then was show how a beater bar not only picked up dirt but beat it thru the carpet getting the floor dirty. All you are doing is pulling air thru your carpet with the head sealed. All Kirby's did this in the day.
I start my 62nd year in vacuum repair on 7 April.

 

[panasonicvac]

Hmmm interesting. The G4 at my Grandpa's has always been having issues of not picking up anything a little thicker like sand, kitty litter, or ice melt pellets in the winter time.

 

[sptyks]

Alex,


 


Something is wrong with your Grandpa's G4 if it won't pick those things up. My Sentria has no problem with those things.


 


You should check his G4 for worn out belt and/or brushroll. Does the G4 still have the Lexan fan in it? That could also be a problem. Has the bag been emptied recently?


 


 

 

[panasonicvac]

Nope, there's nothing wrong with the G4. I replace the bags and the belts every year. The brushroll is fine, the brush strips hasn't worn out yet. And the fan was recently replaced.

 

[crazykirbydude]

My test rug is a small swath of high pile Berber that I pulled out of the trash. It's the most difficult kind of carpet for any vacuum to handle. The only ones that fully clean the carpet are my Kirbys and my Aerus Electroluxes. Is there a chanche you could repeat this same test, but with an Aerus Electrolux?

 

[kenkart]

My 510 and 561

Will do that!!!

 

[wyaple]

Replies,

Alex,
Hmmm, something's wrong with your G4, wonder what it is? Maybe pics of the brush roll or a YouTube video might help us figure it out?

Adin,
I have a 1980 Electrolux Olympia One, but that's the newest Lux I have. With a new hose, my airflow box says 75 CFM at the nozzle, which is good but nowhere near even 30 year old Kirbys.

Hans,
Cool! Please post before and after pics so everyone can see!

Bill

 

[panasonicvac]

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with it. I remember hearing from a few collectors before from another thread about having this similar issue, perhaps maybe it's just the carpets.

 

[floor-a-matic]

U probably have a generic outer bag instead of genuine Kirby

 

[tig21er]

G-4

Are Carbon brushes wired right?

 

[panasonicvac]

Again there's anything wrong it. Even when the vacuum is mine, I'm planning on sending this to Kirby for a rebuild anyway. I always use genuine Kirby parts to keep this vacuum going. I replaced the bag a few months ago but this now uses white Kirby Micron Magic bags that I upgraded to keep the airflow going as the bag fills up. Beside that and the fan that was recently replaced, there's nothing else that I would be interested in upgrading such as the nozzle with a better brushroll, the crush proof fill tube, and the mini emptor because I want to keep this vacuum as original as possible.

Here's the video of the G4 that was taken less than a year now. The carpet shown here is the one where the Kirby struggles on picking up sand, kitty litter, and ice melt pellets. There's also like 4 other different types of carpet inside the house and the Kirby works fine with those.

 

[kirbysthebest]

One thing I would say from the video--slow down.  This isn't NASCAR, give the machine a chance to work. 

 

[wyaple]

Alex,

Watched your video and compared your G4 against my G4 (fully restored). This is what I observed:

1) Your have a non-Kirby brush roll installed. I would recommend the standard 156294 medium bristled chevron loose tufts. It also has the magnet in it as pictured below so that the BPI can glow green.

2) When in hose mode, I spotted a massive airflow loss. This is either caused by a bad fan (doubtful) or a massively clogged paper bag. Paper bags, even Kirby paper bags clog easily and quickly when fine dust is picked up. Please switch to cloth HEPA bags as quickly as possible.

When you covered the hose with your hand, the bag should jump 3-4 inches vertically and deflate 3-4 inches horizontally. This is the performance of a re-used charcoal HEPA bag even...

3) The speed of your motor (both high and low) and transmission noise sounds exactly perfect for a G4! So no re-build necessary unless you like spending money.

Hope this helps,

Bill

 

[panasonicvac]

Replies

I usually vacuum slower than that, especially if the carpets are very dirty. I did that video in a hurry but I did the best that I could to show details of the vacuum.

I don't know if there would be a difference if I replaced the brushroll. There is a magnet, the BPI light was very hard to see in the video but it does work.

Yes the bag wasn't fresh, it was maybe halfway full when I did the video but that's one of the reasons I just recently upgraded using cloth bags because it keeps losing airflow as the bag fills up.

The transmission does sound fine in the video but it's not as fast as it used to be.