Kirby Filtration

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Yes the Kirby is more versatile. But it looks like less can go wrong with the Royal being all metal and a simpler design.
 
There are a few differences I can think of Why Kirby Gets Gold and Royal gets silver. Some of these may not apply to overall CRI rating. 


 


1) Kirby has a more efficient airpath than Royal. Also, Kirby has a 7 amp motor, Royal needs 9 amps to achieve the same airflow.


 


2) Royal has standard F&G paper bag, while Kirby has cloth HEPA bag = better filtration. 


 


3) Royal commercial has 10 amp motor instead of 9 amp and may also have cloth HEPA bag as standard giving it a Gold rating.)


 


4) Kirby has easy to operate Toe Touch height control, Royal has Adjust O Rite height control knob which requires you to bend down to adjust height.


 


5) Kirby has easy to use Belt Lifter which aids in belt and brushroll maintenance. Royal requires you to use separate belt removal tool or use your finger (not easy to do) to remove belt.


 


 
 
I am not a fan of CRI though, Marcus - as I have stated in other threads from before, there are clear discrepancies when the SEBO X was tested against the Windsor Sensor test findings. They don't add up given that the machines are the same.
 
Yes could be the paper bags don't filter as well as Kirby cloth bags. And maybe the aggressive agitation of the royal wears carpet more than the Kirby.

Not sure if the commercial royals are less aggressive? But anyway they are both very good cleaners.:-)
 
I'm surprised some of the clean air Riccars get the same gold award as Kirby and a higher award than royal. That doesn't make sense to me.

That's why I think there's favouritism going on.
 
I'm quite sure the Tandem Riccars are the only clean air vacuums that have equal cleaning performance as the Kirby and Royal and also has HEPA filtration so they should also deserve a Gold rating.


 


My only problem with the Riccars is longevity since they are still mostly plastic despite some metal parts like soleplate and brushroll. I'm not sure that a Riccar will still be running 30 to 50 years from now.
 
Side by side I have a Kirby Avalir and a new Royal Pro Elite-In terms of use at my home-not much diffrence.Of course the Kirby has many things over the Royal-Easier for attachments-and the Floor-carpet cleaner attachment that the Royal doesn't have.They sell a seperate machine for that.Royal now has Filtrete type bags similar to the Kirby now.One came in the Royal that I just obtained.The airflow in the Royal is now much improved over the old paper bags they used to use.They no longer use the Royal "A" bag-or the F&G bag.Royal now uses "B" bags only at this stage.And their HEPA Filtrete bags are under two brands Hoover "B" and Royal "B"They are packaged in the B HEPA two pack.Since these bags are large like the Kirby-they will take a long time to fill.-And you can fill them more than the paper bags.The Royal Pro Eleite I have has the 9A motor-its a little quieter than the 10A ones-There is NO diffrence in performance.Were only talking about 1A or 120W here.Its like the 65W amp vs the 70W one.The Royal machines are built in China.Still its to be determined how long these will last.Despite being built in China-someone has at least supervised the Chinese factory workers-its a nicely built machine.Kirbys of course are still built in the US.Their bags are built in--China.
 
Rex, Thanks for filling us in on the latest Royal metal upright specs.


As far as cleaning goes, Royal and Kirby are about equal.


 
 
My Anniversary Edition Royal Outcleans any Kirby I've se

At least in my view, the Royal has more airflow and has MUCH stiffer bristles. I compared it to my Ultimate G, which had a new belt and a newer brushroll. With a new belt, the Royal pulls itself across my low piled carpet like it's self-propelled. It is also much lighter. For the Royals that have the F&G style bags, Koblenz makes HEPA cloth bags which will make them filter just fine.
 
Marcus, you're right, I do have something to say.


I have a Kirby sentria with the new extra stiff brushroll in it and it is a BEAST. I also have a Royal 2025 which is fully restored and it has a new brushroll with stiffeners so I know how each machine performs. The Sentria still out performs it. How do I know this?


 


About 6 months ago I did a test on my own medium height plush carpet with a cup of dry coffee grounds that I rubbed into the carpet with my hands for this test of the Sentria and Royal. I ran one pass forward and one pass back for each machine. To the naked eye it appears that both machines picked up just about all of the coffee. Then I got out my Kirby G3 and installed my Dirtmeter on it. I used white pads in the dirtmeter. I ran the G3 10 passes back and forth with the dirtmeter on it after the Royal. I then changed pads in the dirtmeter and ran another 10 passes after the Sentria test. The Royal had about 100 grains of coffee on it's pad. The Sentria had about 20 grains of coffee. This proves that both machines are about equal in performance with the Sentria maintaining a slight edge. If the Sentria had the standard soft brushroll installed, then the Royal would have probably won on this test. I didn't re-run the test with the soft brushroll in the Sentria.


 


It's nice to know that Kirby gives you a choice of brushrolls to use in your G5 thru Sentria II depending your type of carpet.


 


 
 

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