Has anyone seen a Kirby like this?

[lesinutah]

Black

There is a powder coated Kirby heritage that a member has. I'm not huge on painting Kirby's but it can be done and look great.
The janitronic, super sweep and comvac are painted Kirby's. I have a blue super sweep and a I want a janitronic quite badly.

 

[kirby519]

@lesinutah

Yes black is good too. However red is my favorite color.

The High School I went to had the Janitronic version of the commercial Kirby. That one had the 18' floor nozzle and was painted Soroco tan.

It was of the 500/Dual Sanitronic series design and also had a sani emptor and shake out bag.

I saw that and wondered at the time why would anyone paint a Kirby?

I would have loved to try it out just for the sake of saying I used it.

Wouldn't mind having it in my collection either.

Never saw it again after the school went thru renovations and updates.

 

[lesinutah]

Tan

Janitronic was a commercial vacuum cleaner company Kirby bought in the early 1960's. They had a carpet cleaning method Kirby adopted and the carpet shampoo system started on the Kirby model 562. The model 562 is also called the 562 sanitronic. The sanitronic is based off the janitronic name.
I believe they had commercial vacuums too. The first janitronic was tan but I don't think it had an emtor. It was a f&g setup. The tan janitronic Ben had a picture of but are super rare. There is a thread on a 560 janitronic model. It's a 560 with a cast aluminum floor nozzle. There was two green versions of the janitronic. One had a white and green label on the handle and the other was green with darker green insignia on it. I may be off a little on the descriptions of the green janitronics I know what they look like and have seen both versions for sale. I tried to buy both the lighter green the lady never messaged me back. The other he was asking too much. I found both on Craigslist in new York area and I live in Utah.
My super sweep bag adapter for the exhaust I have to use a pipe wrench to take it off and put it on. Its over 2.5" in diameter and I believe the f&g is 1.25 or 1.5". It doesn't effect the performance at all.
Les

 

[kirby519]

At some point the bag probably needed to be replaced and more than likely was replaced with a sani emptor and shake out bag. As parts were inter changeable with a few exceptions.

The middle school in the district had a Kirby Classic that was used there for a time.

 

[kirby519]

Yes Kirby adopted the Von Schrader method of carpet cleaning. Dry foam.

 

[lesinutah]

Yes

There is a collector named dj Taylor who is from Utah like myself. He posted pics of a super sweep with a tradition bag and had the heritage setup on his super sweep.
I contacted him maybe a year ago. He lost the vacuum as it was in a storage unit he got behind on.
They were commercial vacuums and were treated rough. That's probably why there few and far between.
Les

 

[kirby519]

They just didn't catch on. A Kirby is a Kirby by any name.

It was set up like a Royal vacuum. No belt lifter and a F&G disposable bag. Manually replacing the belt properly is a challenge for a novice. I have used Royals and like them.

The Belt lifter on the Kirby is the easiest way to position a belt correctly on a machine of that design.

A Eureka upright or Hoover Convertible type is easier. How ever it is still possible to incorrectly position the belt so that the agitator spins in the wrong direction.

Improperly install the belt on a Royal upright or Kirby comvac or similar the belt jumps off the pulley when the motor starts up. Which is aggravating.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

LesinUtah

Les,

Speaking of Justin's Super Sweep, the one with the Tradition bag and Heritage II Style 3 bag setup on it, here's a preview of what will be on my Super Sweep the day I actually get one.

~Ben[this post was last edited: 1/9/2021-22:02]

 

[lesinutah]

Nice

If you used a ds motor In a ds 80 body and got a single speed royal coil would be ideal. If you did this no safety switch and a 16 inch nozzle could be used. I have a hepa setup for the ds 80 emtor. The one issue is the 18 inch nozzle is NLA and making one would require alot of fabrication and probably look very bad. If you cast your own nozzle is only feasible way to get it to look good. It would costs thousands of not tens of thousands of dollars.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

LesinUtah

Les,

The non-working D80 was just an experiment, to help you understand what I intend to do with the Super Sweep the day I find one and take it home with me.

~Ben

 

[rdwdcp]

That kirby looks nice