Kirby Fan Durability

[kirbyrama]

Recently ,I took my 519-model Kirby in for servicing to replace the fan after it shattered into several pieces after vacuuming a small fragment of plastic using the hose and crevice tool. I am shocked that this happened -- as I am always cautious about what I pick up-- and the fan was metal! Besides coins, pebbles, or marbles; what else could cause a metal fan to shatter? I am quite sure that the replacement will be the lexan plastic fan. From many sources, I have read that these are very strong and durable. It is not rocket-science to me as to what could obviously destroy it. Are there any other sources that I am not aware of that could also damage the lexan replacement fan? I hope I will never have to spend any more money to replace it again.

 

[kirbykid]

After time the fan will break. It just wears out and small cracks form

 

[vacman1961]

After Kirby came out with the Lexan fan, you could no longer use the Crystalator attachment with moth flakes in it. There is something in the Paradychlorobenzine that reacts with plastic and will melt it. When I had my store we got a service pointer in 1979 when the lexan fan came out, that is why some Kirby Traditon 's came with instructions for the Crystalator and some just called it an air intake tool.

 

[kirbyultimateg]

Kirby introduced the Kevlar fan on the G5 back in 1997. Kevlar is much stronger than Lexan.

 

[tolivac]

Was something hard picked up by the vacuum previously and weakened the fan?Was a lot of sand or other abrasive type stuff picked up-these can erode any fan.Not only the mothball weakening fans-but the toxicity of the moth balls being vaporized by the fan another concern.You know them safety guys.Vacuum fans that are old are weakened by erosion or previous collisions with hard items.Plastic fans suffer age cracking from loss of plasticizers.That will make them break easily.