I did not set out to rescue a free curbside vacuum today...

[aeoliandave]

In fact it was to be a shopping for Cat & Davy Food & Litter day, a nice stroll around the Lake which is 3 feet below level, to see the male swan Mike, who escaped from the Winter Pen during the big wind storm a few days ago. The 12 mating pairs of white Stratford Swans with clipped wings are traditionally marched down to the Lake from their Pen to Bagpipe Parade on April 5th. But Mike caught air, glided over the 6 foot fence and has taken up residence on the Lake with the ducks.

Oh yeah, the vacuum.

Well, I was taking a back street over to the mall Pet Store comparing litter & Food prices and screeched to a halt when I saw this on the curb with a FREE Does not Work sign taped to the handle.

Quite complete with the video manual and a Zip Brush and a lot of mud splatter. I'll give 'er the once over Spa tonight and get more pictures. The house's boys were outside playing road hockey and said their Mom threw it out this morning, cursing that it did not work anymore. The outer bag is in perfect shape but the inner bag is fully hard-packed to the brim. One more housewife that doesn't get it that the paper bag is not a Total Destruct Vaporization Chamber...one bagectomy later and it runs like silk. Mwa-ha-ha! I already have a purple G5 with a missing headlight lense and a broken cord hook...and now I have the Accesory Set with hose and it's in much nicer cosmetic shape under the mud, from being plopped - if not slammed angrily - into a mud pit at the curb.

Dave, decanting 'best unit price' boxes of clumping litter into large plastic jugs because Felix likes to claw the boxes open and boy, what a mess that makes. can't be mopped up so it has to be vacuumed and the clay dust clogs very quickly. No way to start the morning. LOL

 

[aeoliandave]

a quick look and a test run

As is usually the case with a 'not working' Kirby there is absolutely nothing wrong other than a brushroll upholstered in carpet fibers and a jammed full bag right down the tube to the emptor, so naturally it's 'not working' because it's not sucking up dirt.

The brushroll spins freely, bumper rubber guard looks new, there are no deep scratches or dreaded waterspots, no cracked plastic and the headlight still lights. Transmission shifts smoothly between neutral and the motor hums pleasingly. Fan has minor blade surface abrasions, nothing to be concerned about.

This one won't need a full buff job, a simple metal polish wipe will do it.

SCORE!!! I had a brief moment of altruistic madness that I should return the vacuum but clearly this is an abusive stoopid household that wouldn't appreciate what they have lost. I wonder if she was the Lady I saw later at Zellers picking out a cheap new plastic upright vacuum????

Going to watch the Video manual now...

 

[arh1953]

Dave the prize magnet

What a find! Great you got to that before the metal salvage people. That looks like one I found in the Dogs And Cats Forever Thrift Store when they were in their former location. No, you don't want to give it back to that woman, too much machine for a K-Mart mentality. I'm kind of annoyed because one of our Goodwills has a lime green Hoover Convertible that I believe is a ringer for one I unwillingly gave up years before I started collecting. It was marked Store Use Only, behind the counter with five or more pounds of dirt in the bag. Now it's in the appliance section with the same note on it! I'm going back tomorrow to see if they break down and release it.

 

[kirbyvacuum]

G5 Rules

Hi Dave What a wonderful find. i would not give it back to the lady. For sure she could care less. Clean and enjoy it.I love the G5 and g6 wonderful colors. Take care Doug

 

[animasinsulin]

Kirby G5

Hi, Dave. I found that exact same Kirby last week for $19.99. I cleaned it up and gave it to my friend Linda. After a week of using it she pulled out her Diesoon (dyson) and vacuumed with it after the Kirby and the Dyson had ZERO dirt in its bin......Bill in Az.....

 

[crevicetool]

Dave.

Incredible, just incredible! There must something in your timing, the way you live - something. I am in awe. Couldn't happen to nicer guy though. Congratulations! I've never seen Mwa-ha-ha spelled out. I don't have to imagine the sound. Perfect. I gotta get up there someday!

One thing that concerns me...Cat & Davy food & litter day.

I gave up using litter years ago, it always sticks to my toes.

Rick

 

[petek]

A curby Kirby

Kurby Kirby to the UK boys out there.. LOL

Dave how many stars or whatever were in your horrorscope today btw with finding that?
It's like magic, micron magic

 

[camelotshadow]

You should change yout name to Lucky~

Wouldn't mind finding that myself

 

[kirbyotronic]

Well now...

You've just made me jealous! I got my G5 already in mint condition with all of the attachments and shampooer for $20 from my brother, and I had to trade him a Eureka 7450A (which he later gave back to me lol!!!).

I saw a nice looking Hoover Convertible in some guys garage when I was walking home from school, it was mustard yellow with no headlight, but it had a metal base and was all original. Waiting for him to throw it out on the curb!

~Alex

 

[animasinsulin]

People

People just make me sick at what they throw away. But me and my ex figured out the other night that at full price all my vacuums would have cost at least $15.000 bucks. Im a cheap date as I would rather vacuum than go to a movie.....Bill in Az.....

 

[kirbykid63]

A Great find !!!!

This is one of my favorite Kirby's to work on,I get many of those machines in Tucson for between $7.50 and $20.00 The motors are very easy to service and with a little cleaning up they run like new.I will be working on a G4 this week for my collection.

 

[luxg]

Dave, what can I say, There is a full moon right now and I think things must be lined up right for you. Maybe a good day to go buy a lottery ticket!!! Seriously, that is a wonderful machine and I know that you are going to enjoy using it!!! It is amazing what people will just throw out!!

 

[aeoliandave]

It's the clumping clay litter Rick, and all the Tims Cof

Very useful on a busy sunny Saturday when yer zipping between chores and it beats the rubberband and plastic bag around the man partz. Ok, just kidding.

But there have been some days when I forget to drain the spout before heading home from work, stopping at some store or other for this n that. In the sub cold weather it's a real bastard and a contortionist's dance to hold it all in while dropping the door keys in the snow carrying groceries and so on...One time in January I said to hell with it, stood in the yard and blissfully pissed my 501s - I figured I could hop in the shower and start a laundry right away.

The 1996 video manual is a hoot - 65 minutes of my life I won't get back. It's a reshoot of the G3 video manual with added opening sequences.

Begins with 2 Independent Reports from Dr Joseph A Belland, MD, Georgetown University School of Medicine showing scary photo blowups of bugs & germs & spores and how gramma's old vacuum simply spewed it all back into the air. Then Susan Goldsmith, Director of Technical Services Interbasic Resources, Inc demonstrates an upside down G5 in a sealed chamber ingesting test dirt and spewing NOTHING out the backside according to very important looking instruments. No arguments from me.

next, Jim Salk, Senior VP of Marketing introduces Gene Windfeldt, President/CEO of The Kirby Company. Jim returns at the end of the video to chat about opportunities to earn hundreds of $ per month demonstrating Kirbys door to door - just call your local Kirby Distributor.

The User Manual supplements the book Manual and covers every detail such as how to clean your Zip Brush and turn the bearing plates for the brushroll as the bristles wear. The uncredited spokesmodel is very Vanna White-like in her determined smiling ability to keep taking the vacuum apart over and over as she points out the item in question with one double-tapping index fingernail.

Speaking of clumping Kitty Litter, just guess what half the bag load was?

 

[aeoliandave]

That's Seven Kirbys for Seven Cowboys, a vague allusion

First, the brushroll - at what point do you notice or care a rat's ass that your vacuum cleaner is tearing your cheap carpet's weft & woof asunder?

The cut cylinder was around the center where the belt rides.

Bearings in like new free-wheeling condition.

 

[aeoliandave]

The Inside Story.

Here's the kicker.

As I said, the emptor was stuffed...with 5 bent hairpins trapping everything else. Wouldn't have mattered anyway since the up tube was full as well. Shows how good the outer bag is that it didn't leak a cloud of schmutz on startup with all that crap in there.

That is not a G series bag with the lock slots, may be generic for the earlier models but there is no 'Kirby' stamped on it anywhere. After filling the bag with junk & Kitty Litter powder the back pressure blew the bag off and the outer bag got filled up too. Thanks the vacuum Gods she was done with the Kitty Litter disaster and just vacuuming up carpet remnants and Christmas Tinsel and hairstyle affixin' devices and some bra straps and rocks and stones and beer bottle caps and pull tabs...Smite Her, Jesus, Please.

She just kept vacuuming 'til it sucked no more. Must be broken. LOL

Contrarily, it doesn't look like she rammed it into baseboards, walls or furniture.

Proper bag and now humming along like brand new. Yeah, I got a platinum horseshoe up my butt - maybe that's why I have to pee so much.

Dave

 

[methodistbill]

Looks Toxic!

I think you have a Toxic Waste Dump on your hands! Better call out the Canadian version of the Environmental Protection Agency!

 

[animasinsulin]

That is....

Dave, That is just too damn gross for words and for my pottie mouth especially. Some people have NO reason to be alive!!!!.....Bill in Az.....

 

[crevicetool]

I am just amazed. I guess people just don't understand how a vacuum cleaner works. I mean all that crap has to go somewhere! No doubt the cheap plastic replacement will go on for ever. It's probably bag-less! Stupid Kirby!

Rick

 

[xraytech]

Well, it looks to me that the prior owner of this Kirby just forgot how it operated, since they apparently have had it for some time since it is by no means a current model. They must have known what to do before and then became stupid and forgot how a vacuum operates or it would have been at the curbside years ago.

Just remember everyone, Stupidity is contagious