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"lower the head to the proper height, put the transmission in gear, hit the power and go...."
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Not to be nit-picky, but isn't it meant to be the other way around? Ie. hit the power, lower the head, put the transmission in gear and go?
I like the Kirby controls being all in one place. It makes so much sense, like with the Miele S7 with all the controls on the handle. It's tidy and efficient.
Plus, as others have mentioned, if the switch was in the handle, there would have to be wires with connection points to the base (like how a PN connects to a wand on a cylinder/canister) which would have to disconnect in order to convert the machine to a handheld or cylinder set up. But then once you remove the handle, you wouldn't be able to turn the machine on, so you'd have to include a remote hose and a handheld attachment with controls on it. This is all adding extra weight and cost to an already heavy and expensive machine, whilst also creating more things to potentially go wrong with it.